Using my HR background to handle lowball offers and difficult buyers
I spent a decade in HR before shifting to run our ecom brand with my husband and that experience shaped how I deal with weird buyer interactions on eBay and Mercari. When someone sends an aggressive lowball or picks apart a listing, I treat it like a mediation conversation. Acknowledge the frustration, restate what they actually need, then pivot to a solution. It sounds basic but the number of people who back down and just pay full price when you don't get defensive is pretty surprising.
My husband thinks I'm wasting energy on this and should just decline and block. Maybe he's right for the truly hostile ones. But I've turned a few complainers into repeat buyers just by responding like a human instead of a robot.
The flip side is I catch myself overthinking interactions that probably just need a firm no. Working from home all day means I can spiral on one weird message for hours.
Anyone else here lean into soft skills for buyer negotiations or do you just treat it as a volume game where the difficult ones aren't worth the effort? Curious how other flippers handle that balance between protecting your margins and not burning bridges with potential repeat customers.