What does lowballing mean?
Lowballing means making a deliberately low offer, bid, salary proposal, or estimate, usually to gain leverage in a negotiation or discourage the other party from asking for more. In business discussions, it may refer to an employer offering less than a candidate is likely to receive elsewhere, a buyer intentionally starting below the seller's expected price, or a company understating a valuation to obtain favorable terms. Lowballing can also mean treating someone's chances of success as lower than they reasonably are. The word is informal and usually negative: it suggests that the low figure is strategic rather than genuinely based on the available information. Although it sounds like simple bargaining, lowballing can undermine trust, create an unnecessary gulf between the parties, or cause an otherwise promising offer to be dismissed. It is useful for describing a negotiating tactic in which the proposer deliberately starts well below what they are prepared to accept.
To make a deliberately low offer, bid, or estimate, or to understate the value or prospects of something.
"The buyer kept lowballing the seller in an attempt to force a lower price."
Usually informal and commonly negative, especially when the low figure is made without a sound basis.
The practice of making a deliberately low offer or of understating the value or prospects of something.
"The hiring manager's offer was dismissed as lowballing."
Normally uncountable; it most often refers to a negotiating or business practice.
The noun sense is generally used as an uncountable mass noun, though pluralized uses are occasionally found.
"The report documented years of systematic lowballing by the agency."
Lowballing may win the opening argument, but it can also lose the customer.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of lowballing
Lowballing is an American English formation built from the compound lowball, combining low with ball. Lowball is associated with poker, where low hands are valued in a particular way, and the word developed a broader sense of a low or deliberately reduced bid. Modern commercial and negotiating senses developed from that idea of making a low opening offer.
Related word forms
How lowballing is actually used
An informal word used especially in business, sales, sports, and negotiation contexts. It commonly carries a negative implication of making an intentionally too-low offer or understating someone's prospects.
Easily confused with lowballing
Lowball is the base verb or noun, while lowballing is its present-participle and gerund form or an uncountable noun referring to the practice.