Are you considering moving job? Is your current job at risk? I can share with you Six Expert Tips for negotiating your salary, should you need them. But once you have read them, can you do any better? Then let us know.
1. Fully grasp what you want, and what you don’t want. Make sure you’re very clear about the package you want. Don’t just consider the salary, look at the other benefits to. The worst negotiator is one that doesn’t know what he wants.
2. Research. Research the current market value of your role and use it in negotiation. You’ll need to know the upper and lower brackets of pay and cross-match it with the right location and industry. This information will put you in a strong position in the negotiation.
3. Ask questions. Don’t be shy in asking questions about all the benefits. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask until you’re told No. No is the answer you want to hear as you’ll know you’ve hit an upper limit.
4. Negotiate yourself. Don’t go through an intermediary or agent when completing the negotiation. These guys will stiff you. If you don’t, the process will be punctuated with delay. You need to be in total control.
5. Don’t accept a deferred rise. Dismiss any conversation that tempts you to defer an additional rise after a review or probation period. It’s rare that this works out in the way you expect. Your boss could move on and your organization can easily ‘forget’.
6. Practice. Learn answers to salary questions of your desired salary. It’s very good to speak clearly and confidently.
7. Be flexible. You should always be flexible within the band of pay you are satisfied with. It’s so easy to lose a top job over a few bucks.
I agree with this list. When I switched jobs two years ago I negotiated a pay increase. Without researching at all, I did some of these naturally. I knew what I wanted (#1). I researched my current job and what I was going into (#2). I asked everyone at the new job what benefits they had (#3). I negotiated myself, one on one, with the person responsible for hiring me (#4).
However, I didn’t do (#6) or (#7), and I actually went contrary to (#5). I accepted an equal wage at my new employer. However, I knew it was at written in their wage contracts to give substantial raises at four months and one year. And that’s exactly what they did.
If I were going to add a (#8), I would say, “Be ready to walk away from any job interview without remorse.” I wanted that new job and I made that apparent. But I also really knew that if it didn’t work out, I was willing to walk away without issues and continue looking.
Salary negotiation is limited work for lifetime benefit.
@Samuel – It’s good to hear success stories using these tactics. I don’t think we need to necessarily apply *all* of them, just a few can be helpful. I like your number 8 – that is a good point as it means we remain objective and keep ourselves honest.
Your closing statement is profound!!!
I’ve chatted to folks where deferred rises were a common tactic after tech team leaders were (internally) promoted into a management role with increased direct report numbers and responsibility.
I guess the theory is to first blood them with additional line mgt pressure while holding out the “exceptional salary rise” carrot and then assess if they survived the hot coals.
Since salary negotiations were secret I don’t know if anyone bucked that trend and got the rise at same time as the promotion.
@Mark – so many times I’ve seen tis tactic used as a probationary, but then the expectations of a rise are dashed…. ‘What Salary Rise was this?’
We might have to accept deferred rises in the end, but I wouldn’t without putting up a fight!