That’s why it pays to be more subtle in your requests. This post is about a negotiating technique that can help you get free things, without being too obvious to the other side.

How much is it for one cookie?

Before I explain the tactic, I want to explain it through an example.

One day my friend entered a bakery and was interested in getting gourmet cookies. Here is how he negotiated his way through:

Friend: Excuse me, I would like a macaroon. How much are they?

Worker: No problem. They are $24.99 per pound.

Friend: Um, I don’t want a pound, I only want one.

Worker: Okay.

Friend: How much is it for just one?

Worker: I don’t know exactly. It’s $24.99 a pound.

Friend: Hmm, I really just want one.

Worker: Well, if you just want one, then I can give you a free sample. [handing him a coconut macaroon]

Friend: Um, actually I wanted one macaroon of each flavor.[such as peanut butter, chocolate, etc]

Worker: Oh, I see [a bit impatient as a line was forming in the store]. Here you go, just take them.

Friends: Thanks, you don’t have to do that, are you sure you don’t want me to pay?

Worker: It’s okay, you can have them.

Friends: Thanks very much.

Part of the reason my friend asked all these questions is he was deciding how many flavors to buy. In the end, he was able to get a bunch of cookies for absolutely free.

His strategy did require patience, and the other person was probably annoyed at him, but that is how negotiations can go sometimes.

The reason my friend succeeded is that he was using a negotiation technique known as salami tactics.

Salami tactics

image by Andrew Malone

The principle of this tactic is to divide a big goal by “slicing” it into smaller goals.

The name perhaps comes from an exchange that might happen at a deli.

If you ask a deli to give you a free salami, you will most likely be rejected.

But let’s say you instead ask them for a free slice of salami. Now they will probably think a free slice is no big deal, so they will hand it to you. Then you ask them for another slice, and another slice. Each time they will remember that offering a free slice is not a big deal. Eventually they will say no, but by then you have already gotten a chunk of free salami–more than if you asked for it all outright.

Salami tactics work by getting the other side to agree to small, trivial requests with the hidden agenda of getting them to agree to a much larger goal.

Example 1: hotel room late check-outs

Most hotels have a check-out time of 12pm noon. But let’s say you had a late flight and wanted to stay in your room until 4pm.

If you ask for a late check-out, you’ll probably be rejected and told it costs money.

Instead, you should consider using salami tactics. In this book, the author explains his strategy.

In the morning, he will call the front desk and ask if he can check out at 2pm. Almost all of the time the person is happy to oblige, because a couple of hours is really not a problem.

Then, one hour later, he makes another phone call. “Is it okay if I stay until 2pm?” Again, the person at the front desk sees no problem. Even if the hotel is booked up, there are always people who check-in late, meaning it’s okay if a few rooms have a late check-out.

This continues for a few more calls, each time the hotel saying, “It’s our pleasure, sir.”

Example 2: negotiating a salary

Salami tactics can be used when asking for more compensation or when signing a job offer.

Rather than asking for a high salary, good retirement package, and fringe benefits all at once, the tactic is to divide the negotiation into smaller slices to achieve your entire goal.

Tony Atherton’s consulting website explains salami tactics in terms of union versus management negotiations:

If the union negotiators (or the sales team) 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. …

Whatever happens to the timing of the pay deal they have yet another slice of salami waiting – the holiday arrangements [in which they get 2 extra holidays successfully. Then they move on to the next area]

…

“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.

Note the union was careful in its order of negotiations. It first got the management to agree to a pay raise which centered around available money. Then it went on to an issue of flexible hours that wouldn’t cost them money. As management already won something in the pay raise (they agreed to some price point)–it’s hard for them not to continue negotiating. They can either keep committing to the process, or they’ll have to start all over.

To apply salami tactics, it would seem best to work on the hardest part (salary), then move on to smaller areas like retirement benefits, and then finally move to areas without direct cost like flex hours.

Get slicing!

Salami tactics are an amazingly effective way to get what you want. Because you move in small steps, the other party often never sees the entire picture, and is afraid to walk away as they feel committed to reaching an agreement.

Of course, for this very reason, you must be on guard when others try to use salami tactics. If the other side tries to work in small steps, that could be a time for you to ask what their final goal is, or for you to simply offer a reasonable final package as a take-it or leave-it offer.

But there are flaws to goal-setting, which are explored in the amusingly titled study Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal-Setting (pdf).

The paper identifies several reasons that goals can backfire. Here are three examples.

1. Goals that are too specific

There is a famous awareness test, in which two teams are dressed in white and black shirts. You are asked to identify how many times the white team passes the basketball.

At the end, you realize your concentration on answering the question made you overlook something big. If you’ve taken the test, you know what I’m talking about. Otherwise, give it a try now: video awareness test.

The lesson is that if you have too narrow of a goal, you can miss out on opportunities and surrounding changes due to tunnel-vision.

2. Goals with bad time horizons

Are you planning to get rich in a few months, a few years, or in a decade? If you frame your goal with too short a time frame, you might take too many risks to reach your goal. Too long a time frame and you might fall into complacency.

A vivid example of having a bad time frame is the phenomenon of why it is so hard to find a cab on a rainy day. A study cited in the paper (pdf here) determined why this tends to happen. Many cab drivers set daily goals for themselves, like to earn a specific amount each day. On a rainy day, more people want to take cabs, and so cab drivers reach their goal quicker and go home!

Surely some drivers stay longer on rainy days and earn more money, but this was the pattern found on average. If the cab drivers looked at weekly or monthly fares, they would probably be less sensitive to weather affecting their shifts.

3. Goals that encourage unethical behavior

Let’s say your boss sends you to India to close a deal. During negotiations, you meet resistance and the client is hinted that a small bribe would move things along. If your job were on the line, what would you do?

Pressure in the corporate world to meet deadlines or sales targets are all to common. If I write the words “corporate fraud,” you can immediately think of a handful of examples…probably even in the past year. Goals are not the reason people act unethically, but they often create incentives that make bad behavior desirable.

If not goals, then what?

As I understand it, the authors are not totally against goals. They are simply pointing out the obvious: goals are often made poorly and used too frequently as a management tool.

It’s best to motivate people internally and make them feel their work is meaningful. For example, the best doctors are ones that seek to help patients make good decisions, and they criticize the overly goal-oriented nature of insurance reimbursement.

Goals are definitely useful, but one should use them carefully and watch out for harfmul side effects.

Paper: Ordonez, Lisa D, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky, and Max H. Bazerman. Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2009. (pdf)

I had been looking for a decent set of earplugs, and I ended up getting Etymotic earplugs a while ago after a friend recommended them. I was won over by the good reviews and the fact they are reusable instead of one-time use.

They run about $13 and they work great. The earplugs block out ambient noise but I can still hear people when they want to talk to me.

I stash these ear plugs in my jacket or travel bag so I remember to bring them with me when I go out.

Hearing loss can be avoided

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), hearing loss from loud noises is completely preventable. Still, the NIH estimates nearly 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 to 69 have noise induced hearing loss.

My opinion: avoid loud places. But if you regularly go to loud bars/clubs/concerts, buy good earplugs and wear them. It’s well worth the few dollars you’ll spend to have hearing protection. Your future self will definitely thank you.

More about noise-induced hearing loss: article from NIH about hearing loss

Do you or your friends wear earplugs? What brands do you recommend?

About a year ago, I transitioned from writing as a side activity into a full-time pursuit. I knew from the start it would be hard to do the work, but I was ready for this challenge.

What took me completely by surprise, however, have been the social challenges. While I have full confidence in what I am doing, I can tell people do not understand what the freelance lifestyle entails.

If I had to pinpoint it, I get the sense that people in office jobs generally do not respect independent workers. It did not bother me when I got that attitude from strangers I met at weddings. But one day I realized that the same contempt and disregard was coming from friends and family, with some notable exceptions who have been very supportive (you know who you are, and thank you).

Even for someone as independently minded as me, it was a bit much.

I was looking for some reassurance, and I happpened to come across a nice passage in a book I started reading. The book is called The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed. It is written by two freelancers, Joseph D’agnese and Denise Kiernan.

There’s a passage that I felt captured the negative attitudes people have towards freelancers:

“Freelance” is not a word that usually conjures up images of hard work, security, and financial success…In fact, the freelance lifestyle is often viewed by those in the nine-to-five world as–let’s be honest–kind of slack and self-indulgent. Any independent worker knows this is far from true. But this doens’t stop friends from the office calling in the middle of the day to ask, innocently, “What are you doing?”

Who, me? Oh, I’m just lying here, stretched out on the old sofa [watching TV]…

What do you think we’re doing. We’re working, you nit!

…

Contrary to popular belief, anyone who is supporting himself as a freelancer or self-employed anything is working. A lot. Not only that, but independent workers must toil harder than salaried employees managing their money, because no one else is doing it for them.

Over the last year, I have a newfound respect for freelancers, bloggers, and anyone who is doing independent work.

And for those of you in office jobs, perhaps go a bit easier on your freelancer friends. A small compliment and a little bit of support will go a long way and make their day.

Then there are the abysmal incentives that are dreamt up by sadistic bosses. This week there were news reports of a boss who made a contest where employees should guess which person is fired next.

William Ernst, owner of the Iowa convenience stores QC Mart, found a way to earn the title “the boss from hell.” (H/T: Ethics Alarm)

Here is an excerpt of the actual memo he Ernst sent to workers in March:

New Contest – Guess The Next Cashier Who Will Be Fired!!!

To win our game, write on a piece of paper the name of the next cashier you believe will be fired. Write their name [the person who will be fired], today’s date, today’s time, and your name. Seal it in an envelope and give it to the manager to put in my envelope.

…

If the name in your envelope has the right answer, you will win $10 CASH.

…

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

quoted in the Des Moines Register

To add insult to injury, the game was to be enforced by a set of secret shoppers who were to monitor behavior. You would get fired for infractions like wearing a hat, talking on a cell phone, not wearing the store uniform, or parking your car by the store pumps after hours.

And Big Brother doesn’t stop once they fire someone. After the first contest round, the game starts all over again.

It definitely sounds like William Ernst learned about motivating employees from Glengarry Glen Ross

We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.

The backlash from the game

Naturally people were upset about the game and fought back. Several employees expressed their criticism and a few left their jobs. They were not going to put up with a degrading and humiliating game.

The interesting part is the employees then filed for unemployment (story here). William Ernst appealed, saying the workers left voluntarily and were not entitled to the benefits. As I understand it, Ernst was worried because the extra claims count against his record as an employer, so he would have to pay more towards unemployment taxes.

Thankfully for the workers, there are exceptions to the rule. Workers can get unemployment benefits if an employer causes a worker to leave through discrimination or harassment.

This week a judge ruled the workers were entitled for unemployment. The judge called Ernst’s game as “deplorable” as it created a “hostile work environment.”

Ernst lost out big on this game. But hey, maybe he can win the $10 if he guesses that he’s the next one fired.

Extension: the game was a poor motivating tool

Ernst could have greatly benefited by understanding some economics and game theory.

Of course the game is humiliating. But even if you remove that, the rules do not create the proper incentives.

Ranking employees sounds like a good way to motivate people, but in reality, the competitiveness works in unintended ways.

A recent study looked at how “social tournaments” affect employee motivation. Here is what Iwan Barankay, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton, says about employee ranking:

Many managers think that giving workers feedback about their performance relative to their peers inspires them to become more competitive — to work harder to catch up, or excel even more. But in fact, the opposite happens. Workers can become complacent and de-motivated. People who rank highly think, ‘I am already number one, so why try harder?’ And people who are far behind can become depressed about their work and give up.

Ernst’s game was a race to the bottom. If he had wanted to remind employees about the rules, he picked one of the worst ways to communicate that.

A simple nudge like having posters with eyes or giving a random reward is a much more effective and more fun way to use a game to encourage employees to follow the rules.