Hi! I'm Kyle from The Distilled Man.
Up next I'm going to share ten critical tips
you need to know to successfully
negotiate a pay raise at work.
So, stick around.
Here's the deal.
Everybody wants to be paid more money for what they do.
Everybody wants to feel
valued at work, yet so many people
approach asking for more money the wrong way.
Most of the time it's because the discussion is long overdue.
They're overworked they feel underpaid.
They feel underappreciated in general.
Since their motivation is coming
from the wrong place usually it ends very badly.
Either they won't get the raise or
even worse, they get the raise, but their boss
and their company resent them for forcing their hands.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
If done well asking your
employer for money can actually be a
very positive experience.
You're essentially giving them an opportunity
to keep you happy.
Just like with personal relationships,
if you can learn to communicate your needs
in a non-threatening way you will reap the rewards.
So, up next I'm gonna share
ten critical tips you can use to
help improve that conversation of asking
for more money. Now these are the same
strategies that I used multiple times to
get significant raises back when I worked in advertising.
Number-one, deserve the raise.
This is the hardest part and that's
why I wanted to cover it first. You might
be kind of laughing to yourself.
But there's really no shortcut here, so that
means that, not only have you been
busting your butt working a lot.
But you've actually been creating value for
your company and for your customers whoever they may be.
Deep down you probably know
whether or not that's true, but sometimes
when you're working all the time and you
feel like you're just slogging
through crap every single day,
it's easy to get a distorted view and
not be objective about it.
Of course I deserve a raise.
I'm killing myself everyday for this job.
Step back and look at it objectively.
Are you really due for a bump?
Number two, do your research.
What are other people making? You can
usually find salary surveys for your industry,
in journals and online.
You can also find salary ranges on other job postings.
What are other companies offering
for comparable positions?
That's obviously highly relevant,
because if you're boss knows
that if every single job posting you see,
for a job like yours is ten thousand dollars more than you're making,
then it's not long before you're gonna head for greener pastures.
Number three, be specific about your ask.
Just going in with the message of I need more money,
somehow makes the request seem more aspirational.
It makes it a little easier for your boss to just brush aside.
It's way better to ask for a specific amount.
Like, can I please get a ten-thousand-dollar raise?
I'd really like to be making X
and that makes the ask that much more real and immediate.
By providing a specific amount
is also easier to tie it to a justification.
You could say something like,
boss you know I've done my
research and I found that market comp
for people in my position with about
five to seven years of experience are
making about x, so if there's any way you
can get me up to that level I would really appreciate it.
Number four, be unemotional about your argument.
Build a business case.
Paint a positive vision for why
giving you a raise is going to be good for the company.
It will allow your boss and
the company just to feel actually good
about giving you the money.
Rather than feeling like you pried it from their wallets.
Number five, avoid playing the martyr card.
You know, the last thing your boss
wants to hear is how beaten-down you are
and how overworked you are and how, you know,
you really deserve more money because of
how hard your life is.
When you use the martyr angle
you're basically putting a
negative halo around the entire conversation.
First of all, it makes you look bad
because it shows that you can't
communicate your needs like an adult.
You've basically waited until you reach the
breaking point before you brought this
to their attention.
It also makes your employer feel bad, because it's an
implicit indictment of their management abilities.
You are basically saying that, you know,
maybe they made a mistake or
they're not good at managing your
workflow or maybe maybe they made a
mistake about how much money you should be making.
Number six, ask, don't threaten.
When you're hanging out with your co-workers or
your friends it's easy to fantasize
about threatening to quit to get what you want.
Actually using this approach is
probably one of the douchiest things you can do.
Even if you feel like, even if you know
that you have legitimate leverage
because you're a critical part of the team.
You should really avoid utilizing it in that way.
Dude, I'm going to walk into Johnson's
office and bang my fist on the desk and tell him,
if I don't get a twenty percent bump, I'm gone.
Yeah, that'll go well.
Threatening to quit might work, but it puts a bad
taste in your boss' mouth.
They'll definitely resent you for it, but more
importantly you don't need to threaten
to quit because the threat is implicit.
When you ask nicely for what you want
your employer knows in the back of their
heads that they can only let you down
so many more times before you decide to
reconsider your options.
Number seven, anticipate objections.
Even if your boss agrees wholeheartedly
that you deserve a raise,
they're still going to challenge you a little bit on
the reasons why, because they're going to
have to justify it to other people in the
company anyway.
Also, I mean, if the conversation was going to
cost you ten thousand dollars
you'd probably milk it a little bit too.
Be prepared for the counter-arguments your
boss is gonna throw your way.
Most likely you'll be able to identify them ahead of
time and you'll be able to prepare,
a rebuttal for each one, and that
way you can diffuse each point as it
comes up in the actual conversation.
Number eight,
be prepared to get creative about compensation.
Maybe your company
won't give you a ten-thousand-dollar raise,
but maybe they'll
give you every friday off or they'll give you
some extra vacation or maybe they'll let
you telecommute a couple days a week or
give you a car allowance or, I even
had a company offer me travel vouchers
back when I worked in advertising.
I think there's really no limit in terms
of creative ways to be compensated.
Thinking like this can be a great
solution especially if the only reason they
can't give you a monetary bump is because they don't have the cash.
Or if you must have cold hard cash,
another creative approach is to propose
something is performance-based, based on
either your performance or your team's performance
and that way if you
can show that the company is actually
getting more money as a result of this,
then they'll have the money to be able
to pay you the more money that you want.
Number nine, choose the right time.
As with anything in life
timing plays a huge factor here.
So on a macro level you want to try to find
a time when your boss and your company
are in the right frame of mind.
Think about major events in the company lately.
Have you had some major wins?
How are things going financially for the company?
Obviously it's going to be
a hard sell the company is just, you know,
experience losses or just laid off staff,
on the other hand if the company's doing
well, it could be a very good time.
Or from an individual perspective, has
there been a time when you've really shown your value lately?
You know, if you've just
lost money for the company, by some,
dumb mistake that you made,
hey, guess what,
you're probably not going to get
that raise. But on the other hand, if you've
really been kicking ass lately, maybe now
is a good time ask for more money.
Timing is also important on a smaller,
more mundane level.
Choosing the right time of day and blocking out a time slot
is critical.
Ideally you want to choose a time when
you and your boss aren't going to be interrupted,
and usually that's probably going to be
early in the morning or late in the
afternoon or evening, because that's going
to give you time to state your case and
also allow the conversation to sort of
percolate naturally.
Hopefully for the positive.
Finally, number ten,
plan out the conversation and practice.
Outline your plan of attack including how you'll start
the conversation and what your specific
ask will be.
The more you practice, the smoother and more confident you'll be.
Now the last thing you want to do is go
in there without preparation,
and just say, hey boss, I really think I need more money,
because uh...
You look at your notebook.
Awkward silence and...You know, the last thing
you want it to seem like is it's just something
that occurred to you on your drive to work
or in the shower this morning.
The more prepared you are, the more genuine
it's going to come across that you really
believe that it should be that way.
Practice not only what you're going to say to your boss,
but practice how you're going
to listen to your boss's rebuttals and
counter-arguments. And also practice how
you're going to calmly take a breath and
be confident and non-threatening in your response.
You may even want to roleplay with a
friend and ask them to sort of throw
real-life objections at you,
because the more that you can sort of do
this , sort of think on your feet
during this conversation, the better.
Also, you don't want to memorize the
specific wording exactly.
You want to just keep these bullet points in your
head as just general ammunition,
because once you get hung up on memorizing,
you can easily get thrown off while you're
actually in the conversation.
So I would never say that
asking for raise is easy, but if you follow
the tips i just gave you, it will
drastically improve your chances of getting a yes,
while still preserving the relationship
with your boss.
Alright, well I hope you found it helpful.
If you have any questions or feedback,
please leave a note in the comments.
I definitely always love hearing from you.
And if you like this video please hit
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Alright, well thanks again for watching
and I'll see you soon.