Salami

When you’re negotiating a contract, it’s easy to get salami’ed.

You get salami’ed when you agree to concede a point to the other side: you think that’s just about it, but they come back with another point. You think that conceding that second point will get you over the line, but they come back with a third point. And again. And again.

The way to not get salami’ed is to get the other side to give you a list of all the changes they want to see in the contract. Then get them to confirm that there are no other changes they are looking for.

You then produce a list of all the changes that you want to see in the contract or, at least, all the changes that you want to see in return for agreeing to their list.

And then you trade the points on their list for the points on your list.

As a result, you will get a better deal and you will close the contract faster.

14th October 2025