Salary Negotiations Are Annoying But Necessary – Here’s How To Do It
Is there anything more frustrating than having to negotiate your salary when starting a new job or moving up into a promotion? In an ideal world, you would say: “Please pay me as much as possible with all the benefits.” But of course, that’s not how it works. Salary discussions are one of those parts of working or corporate life where you have to dress up what you really mean in professionalism, just to be taken seriously – something you’re probably well used to by now.
Regardless, there are certainly better and worse ways to claim the compensation you deserve. It just takes a little time to get there. But if you employ some good techniques, you may walk away with much more than you were experiencing.
Remember that a workplace would like to pay you the least they have to in order to secure the most amount of effort possible. It’s just good business sense. As such, you don’t always have to be extremely honest with them, nor should you avoid employing the following tricks:
Know Your Worth Before You Start
You can’t negotiate effectively if you don’t know what you’re worth in the current market. You have to have done your homework before you sit down at that table. Look up salary ranges for your role, your experience level, and your geographic area, and you can use sites like Glassdoor, PayScale, or industry reports to do that, and get a realistic picture of what people in similar positions are earning.
Don’t just look at the base salary, though; consider any bonuses, stock options, healthcare contributions, vacation time, and other perks. Sometimes a lower salary with better benefits can work out to be more valuable overall, especially healthcare if you live in the USA, for instance. If you have some concrete numbers to back up your requests, so you’re not just throwing out random figures and hoping something sticks, then that’s helpful too.
Practise Confidence In Your Delivery
Negotiating salary isn’t the time to be modest or apologetic, despite how awkward it can feel being a firm advocate for yourself. Ultimately, you need to present your case with conviction, which means practising what you’re going to say beforehand, perhaps taking time to stand in front of a mirror, record yourself on your phone, or run through your pitch with a friend.
Your tone should be professional but assertive, and you shouldn’t necessarily agree with everything said. If you can, try to avoid phrases like “I was hoping” or “Maybe we could consider” and go with statements like “Based on my research and experience, I’m looking for compensation in the range of X.” The difference in language really does show a higher confidence and shows you’ve done your homework.
Be Ready to Walk Away
This might be the most important negotiation tactic, and the one most people struggle with. If you’re not genuinely prepared to decline an offer that doesn’t meet your minimum requirements, you don’t have any real leverage, and they can offer you anything. The employer needs to believe you have other options, which means you should actually have other options. Or at least say you do.
Having a backup plan does give you the freedom to negotiate, though, and it’ll limit the desperation creeping into your voice. It also helps you set certain boundaries about what you will and won’t accept. It’s not uncommon for the best negotiation move is being willing to say no and mean it.
Use Silence to Your Advantage
After you make your salary request, stop talking and trying to justify with a bunch of caveats. This is where most people mess up the negotiation because silence feels uncomfortable, so they start backtracking or offering to accept less before the other person has even responded. Don’t do this.
If you practice silence, it puts the pressure back on the employer to respond to your request. They might come back with a counteroffer, ask questions about your reasoning, or need time to think about it. Any of these responses gives you more information to work with than if you’d kept talking and potentially undermined your own position.
Be Confident in the Value You Bring
Your negotiation shouldn’t only be about what you want; it should be about what you offer in return. Come prepared with specific examples of how you’ve added value in previous roles, including talking about certain projects you’ve completed, problems you’ve solved, or revenue you’ve generated. If you’ve already passed the interview, that’s fine, but you can point to this as why you’re worth the extra money.
This helps you better quantify your contributions wherever possible. “I increased sales by 15%” sounds much more impressive than “I was good at sales.” If you’re negotiating for a promotion, focus on the new responsibilities you’ll be taking on and how that benefits the company. Make it clear that paying you more is an investment that will pay dividends, because it’s true.
Negotiate Benefits Like a Company Car
Salary isn’t the only thing on the table, as we alluded to above here. Benefits can sometimes be easier for companies to approve than just cash increases, and they can add decent value to your overall compensation package if you get it right. For instance, a company car is often a great boon, especially if it takes care of all the maintenance and you get a weekly fuel stipend.
Many employers can also offer salary sacrifice car deals as part of their benefits package, which can save you money on taxes while giving you access to a newer, more reliable vehicle, or you can even suggest that arrangement. Some other benefits worth negotiating include vacation days, flexible working, higher development budgets, or, again, better healthcare coverage. Sometimes these perks can be worth thousands if done right.
Get Everything in Writing
If you do manage to reach an agreement there and then, make sure every detail gets documented in writing before you accept the offer. This includes your base salary, bonus structure, benefits, start date, and any other terms you’ve negotiated and the timings of it all, even the conditions that come. It’s no use negotiating for a bonus if it’s only tied to performance rate; for instance, you want it to be your stock package, and never rely on verbal promises or handshake deals.
With this advice, we hope you can feel more confident in your salary negotiations and always get the better end of the deal.
This is a collaborative post.
