Negotiation skills - The Salami technique

Some negotiators just love to play tactical games. In this article we will see one of their favorite tactics of negotiation - the Salami technique - and think about how to reject it.

Sausages are great things (often spicy) that you eat a slice at a time. Would be indigestible if taken in a single large piece. This aspect has led negotiators to use the name of a negotiating technique that attempts to do just that: to win concessions in small doses (slices) when the other party may reject them if they were put on the table all at once. The technique is often used against a party that focuses on limiting the damage.

Consider a combination of difficult negotiations with management. Management would really just wants to maintain the status quo (damage limitation), but the union negotiators want all sorts of goodies to take back to their members. These could include a pay raise, more vacation, flexible working hours, private health membership, better pension arrangements, improved canteen, the biggest shares and so on. It is difficult for the union to make a case for each of them and can probably add to the list.

If the union negotiators use the salami tactic will return only one of their requests for discussion and push hard to reach an agreement. Let's say you focus on a salary increase of 6% and after a long discussion and a little bargaining agree 4%. Deal, if there is more to come. This is only the first slice of salami and there is a whole sausage closet.

The next section may be the mode of vacation. The current 23 days is past. Employers of others have agreed to 25 days longer holidays. Let's say you eventually reach an agreement within 24 days of this year and 25 days next year. Good! Managers may now be congratulating themselves their negotiating skills were rusty, and their damage limitation, but the union representatives were busy polishing their negotiation skills.

'We would now like to discuss something that is very dear to the hearts of our members, the need for flexible working hours.' Cut the sausage continues: private health, pension, canteen, allowances, and so on. By the end of negotiations, when the management team are staggered to add everything that has been granted, slice after slice. None of the individual items seemed all that great right now, but - add them all together and the cumulative effect is astonishing.

What went wrong?

The management negotiators have been scammed by one of the standard tactics used by skilled negotiators. Of course, presented in this way, the salami technique looks so obvious that one would think that any management team can be so stupid as to be caught by it. However, just as a simple magic trick can seem incredible when performed by an expert magician, negotiation skills so even simple, like the salami technique can produce amazing results when used by experts and experienced negotiators.

The salami is not limited to the management of labor negotiations. Each negotiator has a list of things they want to reach an agreement you can use it. Try it the next time you buy a car. You're buying one item, the machine? Or are you gaining agreement on several things: buying the car, filling the gas tank, replacing worn tires if it's a used car, a free service next year, alloy wheels ... and anything else you can think of. Will they lose the sale in a tank of gasoline or a new tire?

So, what to do if you're on the receiving side and the other party tries to salami you?

Of course, your first line of defense is to recognize what they are doing and the second is to put an end to it. You will need to be assertive about this but the answer is very simple. The salami tactic works because the person being sliced ​​does not recognize what is happening. Once done, you can fight.

How? Simply refuse agreement on any one slice until it was all on the table. 'Is there anything else you want to discuss in the context of these negotiations?' Do not discuss details until you have formally accepted that all is in the sunlight. He then presented a proposal for a collective agreement - bundle the lot together.

The discussion can now begin in earnest and you can use your negotiating skills. It could exchange a slice of salami against the other, providing a degree of flexibility in, say, a point, provided that they fall, for example, the articles two and three. Continue this until you are satisfied with the transaction, then close.

Good luck! And note that spicy sausage!

Author: Tony Atherton
Atherton 2005)...