A lowball is rarely a budget; it's a test of your number's confidence. Drop fast and you've confirmed the price was padded, and the real negotiation now starts from their floor instead of your list.

The anchor works because the silence after it is uncomfortable and making them justify it feels rude. Both instincts serve them. The discipline is treating their number as the thing that owes the room an explanation.

Ask the question and then let it work. A researched number has a story behind it and an invented one doesn't, and listening to someone improvise the story tells you how much conviction the anchor carries.

Their answer sorts the negotiation: a comparable they found means a differentiation conversation, a genuine budget reality means the budget play, and an admission that they always open low means hold still and let the anchor age.

If you move at all, move with a trade and a reason: scope, term, timing. Movement that costs them something reads as structure; movement that's free reads as the first of several.

“That's our final number too.” A number doesn't become final by being said first. Stay on structure and let the close date test it.

“Another vendor quoted half.” Ask what's in the quote. Half the price usually buys half the thing, and now you get to show which half.

“We just don't value it at that.” Honest, and useful: that's a value objection now. Rebuild the worth case before touching the number.