Is it time to renegotiate your salary? – But how?

Do you know you should be asking for a raise or renegotiating your compensation package, but you dissuade yourself with thoughts like:

·        “It’s just not the right time: I know I negotiated poorly when I took this job, but I just haven’t been with the organization long enough.”

·        “At my firm, now they hire junior people with higher salaries, but I don’t know how to ask for mine to be adjusted. I’ve been here over 15 years and my job hasn’t changed in five years…”

·        “It’s not that time of the year.”

·        “I got a raise last year…Ok, it wasn’t the raise I expected…”

·        “I just suck at negotiating for myself. I can negotiate for others, but… not for myself.”

·        “At our company, we don’t negotiate.” (Never true! Maybe you don’t, but others do.)

I think it’s pretty fascinating what excuses people come up with to NOT negotiate their salaries, to NOT receive the money their work is worth. They put up with 2 or 3% annual increases even in these times of rampant inflation.

And they think they can only ask for a raise when they get permission, like during that one annual review process, forgetting that budgets (including compensation budgets) in many organizations are submitted before they even have that conversation, meaning it’s harder for a manager to adjust their budget once it’s approved.

Whatever your excuse is: If you want to be recognized for all the great work you do, then ask to be! Asking will not cost you your job… unless it’s shaky already.

Over the past few years, I’ve had the gratifying experience of helping my clients get $20k, $30k, and $50k raises. Raises some of them would never have considered asking for if we hadn’t discussed it. Even though they may have hired me to get a raise, they often would low-ball. We changed that, though.

But I wasn’t always able to do that for myself!

In fact, over 20 years ago, I accepted a salary for a new job without negotiating at all, and that was what I pretty much had done all my life until that moment… trusting that my employer would be “fair” with me. Just to find out that my counterpart in a different city (with lower cost of living) was taking home a paycheck that was 150% of mine, although she was more junior, had less relevant experience, and was in charge of a considerably smaller team and office.

This experience contributed to my motivation and commitment when it comes to helping my clients get paid what they deserve and not unnecessarily leave money on the table because they either don’t negotiate at all or they negotiate poorly.

I have found that most of my clients who were challenged with compensation either had some irrational subconscious fear of asking, a limiting income mindset, a lack of negotiation and positioning skills, or a combination of the above. There is a solution for all of it.

In my understanding, there are four phases:

1.      Mindset shift (addressing limiting beliefs, upgrading income mindset, confidence, etc.)

2.      Negotiation preparation (due diligence, value proposition/positioning, refining negotiation skills, conversational intelligence, etc.)

3.      Negotiation meeting (presence, language, etc.)

4.      Follow-up

And that’s how some of my clients renegotiated their salaries for their existing jobs, got promotions, or decided it was time to leave and ask for a higher salary elsewhere. Whether you are planning to leave or stay, if you are frustrated with your current compensation (and for good reasons), then it’s time to ask for what you want and deserve.

If this is your case, then I’d be more than happy to assist you so you can have an effective and successful negotiation meeting.  

Email me and let’s discuss options to work together.