The question we get from candidates quite a bit is what’s the best way for me to negotiate
my salary and some very basic negotiation techniques apply whether you’re negotiating
your salary or anything else. The challenge is when I’m negotiation my salary it’s
very personal to me and therefore it’s much harder and much more likely to make a mistake
then if I’m negotiating for a car or a refrigerator which is much less personal, right, when I
get into my salary myself worth and all those things are tied up in that but the answer
is very simple actually, in any negotiation the person that first puts forth the number
usually loses so you don’t want to be the first person to put forth the number. Now
if the employer or potential employer asks you what you were making, what are you making
or what did you make at any point in time in your history, share it with them. Be accurate,
do not exaggerate it by 10% hoping that you can get a bump from there it is far too easy
in this day and age to check and verify exactly what you are making. And most employers do
now ask for compensation verification so what you want to do when they ask is what is it
you’re looking for for this opportunity, what are your salary expectations for your
next step, what does a good offer look like for you any of those questions. The answers
really simple, I’m only looking for what’s fair based on my experience and background
and the challenges of the role and then don’t say a word.
Should I Ask for More Money When you’re looking to take your next step,
right, and I don’t care if you’re at a manager level looking to go to Director or
at an AVP level looking to go to CMO. The reality is you’re going to get up every
day and go work in this environment and the most important thing is that you’re excited
about doing that. Now most people don’t want to go do that for free so there is an
expectation of compensation but even the most well paid job if you don’t really love what
your doing is going to get old really quickly. So now as we say make sure that whoever is
offered the opportunity expresses that offer first as far as what the next step is then
you have the opportunity to go back and if it’s not something that meets your expectation
and ask for more, right, so typically what we find is that if you are a local candidate,
a candidate that is not going to require relocation the bump you’re going to receive from company
A to company B is typically around 10% it might be a little more if you can get a 15%
you’re doing great. If they are asking for you to relocate that’s additional complication
for you, additional complication for your family, you have to go through a lot of pain
to do that and in that case we are seeing more of a 15% increase from where you were
to where you’re going to be. Should I Trust Salary Guides?
So there is a lot of information out on the internet about what salaries should be, right,
and what salary guides are or what salary is for this industry or for this organization.
And the reality is we have found them to be unreliable and the other reality is it doesn’t
matter all that much because the only thing that matters is your career and how to move
yourself forward as much as possible and you want to take a step forward both from an experience
perspective and a step forward from a compensation perspective every time you make a move. What
you don’t want to do is worry about how does that compare to who else is in this role
or how does that compare to anything else because you’re coming at it from your unique
perspective and as long as your growing that’s the most important part.
What else Should I Negotiate Outside of the main factors of compensation,
the main factors of compensation, what’s my base salary, what’s my bonus, and what’s
my stock or long term incentive if there is any offered with this position. Then you get
into the smaller kind of pieces of the puzzle like paid time off, signing bonus things that
are important but probably not make or break to you taking a job or not taking a job, right,
and certain things you can’t negotiate, you can’t negotiate healthcare, you’re
not going to get a better package then the person coming in next to you. You really can’t
negotiate for the match on the 401K, that’s set across the organization, it is what it
is. The things you can negotiate that are smaller items are paid time off; typically
there is some flexibility and some wiggle room on that. If their offering you two weeks,
you’re not going to get five but you might get three and most organization have some
flexibility for a sign on bonus and really the amount of that sign on bonus varies a
lot based on your level in the organization but it’s always okay to ask.
Should I Take a Counteroffer The other thing you run across from time to
time is we have a candidate get a counteroffer and this is very simple, don’t take it.
There was a reason why you were looking to leave in the first place. There was a reason
why you chose to go specifically to the employer you accepted an opportunity with and you need
to go ahead and follow through on that commitment that you made. Counteroffers are made as a
reaction to you leaving and a fear about what’s not getting done because you’re not there.
It’s not a proactive step to help you grow your career. It’s not something that they
thought was the right thing to do for you until you said you were going to leave. And
if you except the counter offer there will always be that question of is this individual
looking, are they someone who can stay with this organization and it really negatively
impacts your ability to get promoted going forward. The other thing we find and there’s
plenty of research out there on this is that well over ninety percent of candidates who
accept a counter offer, well over ninety percent of people who accept a counter offer are not
with the firm they took the counteroffer from within twelve to eighteen months and that’s
because your loyalty is in question and your never looked at the same way again. You’re
actually better off leaving the organization and coming back years later, in which case
no one will ever question anything then you are staying there through a counteroffer.