NEGOTIATING SKILLS
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The Salami Tactic
Some negotiators just love to play tactical games.
In this article we will look at one of the most widely known negotiating
tactics and think about how to rebuff it. In our negotiating skills courses we
discuss this and other tactics in some detail and practice using them and
rebuffing them.
Salami sausages are big things (often spicy) that are
eaten a slice at a time, they would be indigestible if taken in a single large
piece. This aspect has led negotiators to use the name for a negotiating
technique that tries to do just that: to win concessions in small doses
(slices) when the other party would probably reject them if they were put on
the table all at once. It is often used on a party that is mainly concerned
with damage limitation.
Consider a tough union negotiating with
management. Management would really just like to keep the status quo (damage
limitation) but the union negotiators would like a whole host of goodies to
take back for their members. These could include a pay rise, more holidays,
flexible working hours, private health membership, better pension arrangements,
improved canteen, increased allowances (for overnight stays, meals when away on
business, mileage when using own car) and so on. It is not difficult for the
union to make a convincing case for each of these, and they can probably think
of a few more goodies to add to the list as well.
If the union
negotiators decide to use the salami tactic they will present just one of their
demands for discussion and push hard to reach agreement on it. Let’s say
they focus on a 6% pay rise and after a long discussion and some haggling they
agree on 4%. Deal done, except there is more to come. That’s just the
first slice of the salami and there is a whole sausage yet to come. The next
slice of salami might be to try to implement the pay deal earlier than usual,
like this month instead of waiting, as in previous years, until next April.
Whatever happens to the timing of the pay deal they have yet another slice
of salami waiting – the holiday arrangements. The current 23 days is from
a bygone age. ‘Other employers’ have agreed to 25 days plus public
holidays. Let’s say they eventually reach agreement at 24 days this year
and 25 days for everyone next year. Good! The managers might by now be
congratulating themselves on their rusty negotiation skills and their damage
limitation – and then along comes the next slice of salami. The union
representatives have been busy polishing their negotiating skills.
‘We would now like to discuss something that is very dear to the hearts of
our members, the need for flexible working hours. This, of course, will not
cost you the management anything at all as each employee will still work the
same number of hours as now but our members would appreciate it as a sign of
your modern approach to staff relations.’
And so the slicing of
the salami sausage continues: private health, pension, canteen, allowances, and
so on. By the end of the negotiations, when the management team add it all up
they are staggered at what they have conceded, slice by slice. None of the
individual items seemed all that great at the time but – add them all
together and the cumulative effect is astonishing.
What went wrong?
The management negotiators were beguiled by one of the standard
tactics used by skilled negotiators. Of course, presented like this, the salami
technique looks so obvious that you might think that no management team could
be so stupid as to be caught by it. However, just as a simple magic trick can
seem incredible when performed by a skilled magician, so even simple
negotiation skills like the salami technique and others can produce amazing
results when used by skilled and experienced negotiators.
The salami
is not restricted to management-union negotiations. Any negotiator who has a
list of things on which they want to gain agreement can use it. Try it when you
next buy a car. Are you buying just one item, the car? Or are you gaining
agreement on several things: buying the car, filling the petrol tank, replacing
worn tyres if it’s a used car, a free service next year, alloy
wheels… and whatever else you can think of. Will they lose the sale over a
tank of petrol? No! Will they risk losing the deal over one (two?) new tyre?
No! Will they risk losing the deal over…?
So, what do you do if
you are on the receiving end and the other party tries to salami you? Of
course, your first line of defence is to recognise what they are doing and your
second is to put a stop to it. You will need to be assertive about this but the
response is quite straightforward. The salami tactic works because the person
being sliced does not recognise what is happening. Once you do, you can fight
it.
How? Simply refuse agreement on any one slice until you have
everything out on the table. ‘Is there anything else you want to discuss
as part of these negotiations?’ ‘Do you want to include a discussion
on (something you want to raise anyway)?’ ‘Is that everything?’
Once everything is out in the open put forward a proposal on a
collective agreement – bundle the lot together. Then the discussion can
begin in earnest and you can now bring out your negotiating skills. If, like
the management team above, you are mainly concerned about damage limitation
then trade one slice of salami off against another by offering some flexibility
on, say, item one provided that they drop, say, item two. Continue like that
until you are happy with the deal, then close.
Good luck! And watch
out for that spicy sausage!
Author: Tony Atherton
© Tony Atherton 2005 (For permission to
reproduce this article please write to
Tony Atherton)
How to use and how to counter the salami tactic, the Russian Front, and a number of other tactics are discussed and practised on our negotiation skills courses. These courses take a process approach to negotiating because all negotiations tend to share common processes. Skilled negotiators understand these processes and how to use and respond to them.
About the author:
Tony Atherton is
a freelance trainer and writer with over 25 years' experience. He runs
in-company courses in Business Report Writing, Technical Report Writing, Better
Business Writing and Taking and Writing Minutes - as well as Negotiation Skills
and Time Management. For course details click
home.
Enquiries: E-mail direct to Tony Atherton or call 07976-390960
Based in Hampshire, England
Last updated 21 August 2009