How do I negotiate salary?
Whether you are in a longstanding job or just about to sign an employee contract, discussing that weekly or monthly paycheck can be an important topic of conversation. But most of us feel nervous about discussing salary.
Conversations about pay don't have to be complicated or scary. As you read on, I hope that the following tips will help boost your confidence in talking with your employer about the pay you deserve.
Before the conversation
In just about any part of career planning, you will research. In salary planning, you will want to research information like the average pay for the position, the typical responsibilities for your starting position, and how your experience compares to others.
Research is the starting ground for building your confidence when you approach the negotiation stage. When you’ve done your research, you can feel confident that you aren’t just asking for a number that you’d like to make but that you’re asking to be compensated fairly for the work you provide.
Know your worth.
I don't mean your self-worth, but your worth to the company. Everything within a job can be considered a product that the company gains returns on. So if you are providing your time and energy, consider the returns the company gains from your involvement.
To put it another way, if you left, and no one else filled your position for a year, how would it impact the company financially?
Know what others in your field are paid.
Sometimes, to learn more about the value of your work, you can look up average pay for people within your field. CareerOneStop is one of my favorite resources to share with clients because it will give you all sorts of information including average salary ranges, job descriptions, potential job growth, and much more. You can even narrow down the data by state if you'd like.
Another option is to look at a website like Glassdoor where you can compare salaries for positions listed and reviewed on their website. Sometimes negotiating salary is as simple as seeking out the places that pay you fairly from the get-go. Being able to compare pay across the US with a variety of companies can help you know if you are being paid fairly for your services.
Know your potential worth
As you grow within a company, your experience and skills grow. You may become more efficient at the work you provide. You may find you even provide more gains to your current employer. When you know how that worth has grown over time, you can then use this information to discuss how your salary can grow with this.
Knowing your potential worth may take some projection, but start with looking at how you have already grown as a way to project how you will continue to grow (yes, this means math).
For example, if you are in sales and you see that your sales have doubled since you started working with the company 2 years ago, then you can assume that if your work continues in the same form, you will see continued growth in sales in the following 2 years. That is potential growth, and you can use these numbers to discuss how the company can "pay you back" for the added value by increasing your pay.
Having the conversation
Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to actually talk about salary with your employer. Whether this is after a job offer or you are asking for a raise, you will follow a few rules.
Try not to give your number first
I know you will hear different opinions about this particular rule. But here’s the thing: Employers know what they CAN pay you. So when discussing salary, try to get a number out of them first. Sometimes this may include some tactful back and forth about your expectations and what they believe your role is worth.
In a conversation, you might say something like: “I know this company prides themselves on providing generous compensation for their employees and I would love to hear first what you consider a good starting salary.”
Give a range instead of a number
If you do need to start with your number, give a range. When we give a starting number, it locks us down. We don’t have the same room to negotiate because they are likely to offer lower than your number instead of within your range.
When given a range, many employers will work within the range and look at the lower end. What this means is that your “low” number on the range should actually be where you want your salary to start.
Another note on making a range is that you want to use the research that you’ve done thus far to express what you consider the standard range.
You might say something like, “Top performers at X Company have reported a range from $125,000 to $140,000.” Even if the employer chooses a number within this range, it means that you are getting at or above what you were expecting.
When you are ready to give a number, make it unique
Unique numbers rather than round numbers tend to spike our interest more. We make an assumption that the person giving such a specific number must have come to that number after some serious reflection. Because of this, they’re more likely to agree to a unique number like $126,800 than if you ask for $125,000.
Make it about more than the money
Even though you are talking numbers. The process of negotiating salary is about coming to an agreement with another person. And while negotiating salary is a numbers game, when your employer feels connected to and invested in you, they are more likely to lean toward those higher offers.
This last one can take some practice and it goes beyond simply talking about the numbers. It includes talks on expectations, what you have brought and will bring to the company, reflections on success, and the like. You also may spend time talking about non-monetary benefits that the company does or can offer besides salary.
One last note…
There may be additional skills for negotiating pay such as dealing with any anxiety you may feel, approaching the conversation professionally, or exploring other negotiable parts of the job, to name a few. If you would like help discussing pay and negotiating salaries, reach out to me.
You deserve to be compensated fairly for your contributions to your company, and I would love to help you receive that.
