Before beginning to negotiate pay and benefits with a prospective employer, you need to find out how much you are worth and how much the job is worth. To do this you are advised to research comparative salaries which will enable you to attain a realistic and reasonable job offer.
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Negotiating Salary For the employer it is all about ROI(return on investment). Once you have substantiated what you should be earning, how do you go about getting it? Patience is always advisable. If you are asked what your salary requirements are, say you are open. Another way of responding to this question is to say that the salary depends on the responsibilities and challenges of the job and you would like to learn as much as you can about this first, before discussing salary. Once you have received an offer, ask the company to confirm it in writing in order to make a decision. This will allow you to think about it. If you think it is not the right job for you, always say you need to consider it first. Occasionally the employer will raise the offer and you may change your mind.
Salary Negotiation Tips
Be prepared. Create a commercial business case for the employer. Detail the value add that you present to the prospective company, you will need to support this with objective and tangible information such as cost/time savings you have made in previous or current roles. Provide them with market information as outlined above to identify and support your market value.
Remember to tell a story when talking about your “value add” proposition:
•What you did you do to save cost/time or create value
•Describe how you did it
•Provide them with the outcome and value add together with a measure such as dollar value or time
Be patient. The deeper you get in the process, the more committed the company is to hiring you. Do not mention your current income or your salary expectation – not even on the job application. If you do, you provide an anchor for the negotiation. Wait for the employer to make the first mention of money.
Let the employer do the talking. During salary negotiations, it’s often best to let the other side do the talking. When you receive an offer, no matter what it is, follow the offer with a period of silence (use discretion on length of silence). This provides the opportunity for the employer to increase the amount and sometimes they will straight away!
•When the company verbally asks how much you’ll take, you say, “I’m much more interested in doing [type of work] here at [name of company] than I am in the size of the initial offer.” this will suffice about 40% of the time.
•If the company asks a second time, your answer is: “I will consider any reasonable offer.” This is a polite stalling tactic, this will work another 30% of the time.
•Finally if they are persistent then advise the client what you feel you are worth based on your research and what salary you would be happy with for that position
Be persistent but not rigid. In many cases, the employer will reject your first request for a higher offer. Don’t let this deter you completely. Push back gently, justifying your proposed salary. Explain how the company will benefit from the investment.
Be flexible. If the company is not flexible on salary, negotiate other compensation. An extra week of holiday, a private office, or a flexible schedule. (Maybe you can work four ten-hour days instead of driving to the office five days a week!) Other possible perks include a company car, educational reimbursement, better health insurance or performance bonuses.
Conclusion. Use your discretion. If you are not happy with the final offer and can afford to walk away then do so and you can afford to be more elaborate with your sentiments through the process. If you feel the opportunity itself is too good to miss out on regardless of salary then make sure you know where you sit in the process and do not put yourself in a situation where the employer rules you out based on your expectations being too high.
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