15 surprising negotiating tricks to boost your salary

Throwing out your target salary as $103,500 seems a little bit silly — doesn't $100,000 tell pretty much the same story? — but research from Columbia Business School suggests that using precise numbers makes a more powerful anchor in negotiations.

According to Malia Mason, the author of the study, kicking off a negotiation with exact-sounding numbers leads the other party to think that you've done research to arrive at those particular digits — and that, in turn, makes them think you're likely correct.

But...

Using precise numbers doesn't mean using single precise numbers. In a separate study, Mason and her Columbia Business School colleague Daniel Ames found that presenting a salary range — including and above your desired target — is the best way to get results.

In the past, organizational psychologists thought a range would work against you — wouldn't people just fixate on the lower number? — but Ames and Mason found that's not the case.

Presenting a range works for two reasons, they say: It gives your boss information about what you're actually asking for, and it makes you seem polite and reasonable — which means you're less likely to get hit with a hard-line counteroffer.

In an experiment where Kellogg and Stanford students negotiated by email, those who shared unrelated personal details over the course of the negotiation — hobbies, hometowns, etc. — ended up getting significantly better results than those who kept things to name, email, and the dry monetary details.

Opening up a bit sends a signal that you're trustworthy, according to Wharton professor Adam Grant in a LinkedIn post, and makes it more likely that they'll reciprocate.

In most salary negotiations, you're going after something that the other party doesn't particularly want to give you. That makes it a competition, and viewing it such leads to better results, according to research from George Mason Professor Michelle Marks and Temple Professor Crystal Harold.

The team looked at five different negotiation strategies: accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising. And — spoiler alert — compromising was not the best strategy.

Instead, Marks and Harold found that people who use competitive or collaborative strategies — employing "open discussion of issues and perspectives" — ended up with higher salaries than those who were "accommodating" or "compromising."

According to a study from Berkeley professor Laura Kray, using "feminine charm" — a balance of friendly and flirtatious behavior — can substantially increase gains from a negotiation. It's a "strategic behavior aimed at making the person you are negotiating with feel good in order to get them to agree to your goals," she told The Independent.

It's an adaptive strategy that helps our general cultural discomfort with aggressive women. But — as there always is — there's a caveat: a little bit of feminine charm can work for you, but if you're seen as too overtly flirtatious, you're less likely to be trusted by your coworkers, the study suggested.

Generally, if you're the one asking for a higher salary, you are not the one in the position of power — the person who is hiring you or determining your raise is in control. They have to agree to the number in the end, and they usually have more power over your career and work environment at the organization.

In face-to-face negotiations, a study out of Imperial College London research finds that the more powerful person will usually win out. People think differently when they're apart, and power hierarchies matter less from a distance. If you're negotiating with your boss, you have a better chance when negotiations are conducted by email.

Not every negotiator resorts to deception. But it's often in their interest to hide how excited they about a candidate — and how willing they might actually be to bump up their offer.

According to a study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the most effective ways to keep people honest is to make steady eye contact.

When getting an offer, many people want to seem happy, and avoid looking too needy or disappointed. They might bring up a concern or two, but gloss over other issues that — inevitably — end up coming up later.

That drives hiring managers crazy, according to Harvard professor Deepak Malhotra. The best strategy is to reveal all of your concerns at once, and note which ones are most important, so you can work through them together.

Conventional wisdom is that you should wait for the other party to make the initial offer in order to get more information to act on. The problem with that thinking, though, says Wharton professor Adam Grant in a LinkedIn post, is that it's wrong.

In reality, it's much better to make the first offer because you get to set the "anchor," the figure that affects the trajectory of the negotiation. People who make very high first offers end up with a much better result.

The first offer pulls the other person in its direction, and it's difficult to adjust the other way.

While you clearly want to make an assertive case for your position, it might be wiser to open negotiations with a little chit-chat — especially if you can get your negotiating partner to talk about themselves.

According to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir, the author of a recent study on the neurological effects of talking about yourself, it can trigger the same sensations of pleasure as food or money.

But...

Unfortunately for female negotiators, another study — this one by led by researcher Brooke Ann Shaughnessy, of Technische U. München, in Germany — opening with small talk only works if you're a man.

The researchers found that chatting before diving in leads men to get "more favorable final offers." But the study found that small talk didn't do anything for women (though it also didn't do any harm, and it's possible that women could also get results if they were really, really, really good small talkers, the researchers say).

That's likely because of long-standing gender stereotypes: Going into a negotiation, men are traditionally seen as aggressive, and friendly small talk can be disarming — and get you what you want.

"In a job offer negotiation, for example, you might say that salary is most important to you, followed by location, and then vacation time and signing bonus," Wharton Professor Adam Grant writes in a LinkedIn post. "Research shows that rank-ordering is a powerful way to help your counterparts understand your interests without giving away too much information."

Then follow up by asking them for their priorities, and look for mutually beneficial trade offs on the most important issues.

Which brings us to...

According to research from Harvard Business School Professor Amy Cuddy, adopting a "power pose" with legs widely spaced and hands on hips (channel Wonder Woman) can actually alter body chemistry, making you feel measurably more powerful and willing to take (and stick to) risks.

It boosts testosterone, which increases confidence, and it also reduces the stress hormone cortisol. Just what you need before a negotiation.

The default for negotiations is a relatively level and less emotional approach, an attempt to be as rational as possible. But injecting some passion and unpredictability can create an advantage.

A study from Columbia Business School professor Adam Galinsky found that emotional inconsistency from negotiators leads to greater concessions from the other party because they feel less in control of the situation.

Expressing anger, alternating between anger and happiness, and alternating between anger and disappointment all yielded bigger concessions.

Going into a high-pressure negotiating situation, it makes sense to try to stay on an even keel: you're controlled, you're balanced, you're in charge of your emotions.

But a recent study from ESSEC, the University of Michigan, the University of Paris, and EMLYON, found that in certain situations, expressing sadness — and even tears — can apparently make you more likely to get what you want from the negotiation.

If your negotiating partner sees you as "low power," if they anticipate continued interactions with you, and if they see your relationship as collaborative, then it's possible that what Science Alert calls a "warranted display of pathos" could — maybe — get you what you your raise.

But even if it's true, it's very very very risky (do you really want to be seen as low power forever?). In the long run, it seems likely you'd be better off with a power pose, a well-chosen salary range, and a competitive spirit.