Indeed, this very strategy is recommended right up front in Secrets of Power Negotiating, where it is called the Higher Authority gambit.
"You should always have a higher authority with whom you have to check before you can change your proposal or make a decision. A negotiator who presents himself as the decision-maker has put himself at a severe bargaining disadvantage. You have to put your ego on the back burner to do this, but you'll find it very effective.
"...When the other person knows that you have the final authority to make a deal, he knows that he only has to convince you... Not so if you are telling him that you have to answer to a higher authority. Whether you have to get approval from a region, head office, management, partners, or board of directors, the other person has to do more to convince you... He knows that he must completely win you to his side so that you want to persuade your higher authority to agree to his proposal."
You also buy time to review any proposal that is made, or look for counteroffers, because that proposal has to be taken away behind the scenes and shown to the higher authority for approval.
Note, however, that your family isn't the best choice for this: "be sure that your authority is a vague entity, such as a pricing committee, the people back at corporate, or the marketing committee. If you tell the other person that your manager would have to approve it, what's the first thought that they are going to have? Right: 'Then why am I wasting time talking to you?'..."
Of course, the flip side of that is that a company might find it exceedingly awkward to demand that your wife come in to work and participate in the negotiations. Such things are just not done. So the "wife" version of the gambit does work better than the "manager" version, though nowhere near as well as the "ambiguous corporate overlords" version.
People often allege -- correctly, I fear -- that some companies prefer to hire single people rather than people with families. And here we have the reason: Having a family automatically, perhaps even unconsciously, puts you in a stronger negotiating position with your employer, not just at the beginning of the job but day-to-day. "Oh, how I would love to spend the entire weekend fixing my co-worker's bugs, but my child needs me." If you are a single person and your employer knows it I encourage you to invent some fictional relatives. For an astonishingly relevant guide to this, see Wilde, Oscar: The Importance of Being Earnest.
I don't know if I want to get caught inventing fictional relatives, but your general observation about higher authority is dead on.
Negotiation tactics exist in order for both parties to be able to pressure the other ones and find out more about their true position without the use of force. It's a dance -- sometimes a complicated dance, but a dance. You resort to higher authority, I pull a previously-made concession, you ask for a price, I give you one, you flinch, etc.
There are lots more tactics than just higher authority, although that is a good one.
BTW, great book and set of tapes Secrets of Power Negotiating. I used to read/listen to a lot of business books and tapes, and it was one of the few that really made a difference in my work.
"You should always have a higher authority with whom you have to check before you can change your proposal or make a decision. A negotiator who presents himself as the decision-maker has put himself at a severe bargaining disadvantage. You have to put your ego on the back burner to do this, but you'll find it very effective.
"...When the other person knows that you have the final authority to make a deal, he knows that he only has to convince you... Not so if you are telling him that you have to answer to a higher authority. Whether you have to get approval from a region, head office, management, partners, or board of directors, the other person has to do more to convince you... He knows that he must completely win you to his side so that you want to persuade your higher authority to agree to his proposal."
You also buy time to review any proposal that is made, or look for counteroffers, because that proposal has to be taken away behind the scenes and shown to the higher authority for approval.
Note, however, that your family isn't the best choice for this: "be sure that your authority is a vague entity, such as a pricing committee, the people back at corporate, or the marketing committee. If you tell the other person that your manager would have to approve it, what's the first thought that they are going to have? Right: 'Then why am I wasting time talking to you?'..."
Of course, the flip side of that is that a company might find it exceedingly awkward to demand that your wife come in to work and participate in the negotiations. Such things are just not done. So the "wife" version of the gambit does work better than the "manager" version, though nowhere near as well as the "ambiguous corporate overlords" version.
People often allege -- correctly, I fear -- that some companies prefer to hire single people rather than people with families. And here we have the reason: Having a family automatically, perhaps even unconsciously, puts you in a stronger negotiating position with your employer, not just at the beginning of the job but day-to-day. "Oh, how I would love to spend the entire weekend fixing my co-worker's bugs, but my child needs me." If you are a single person and your employer knows it I encourage you to invent some fictional relatives. For an astonishingly relevant guide to this, see Wilde, Oscar: The Importance of Being Earnest.