Why you should always negotiate your salary and how

Many years ago, when I worked for a global organization, I took a job at their San Francisco office. I was moving up from Argentina at the time, which was at the beginning of a financial crisis and where I was consulting for a start-up, so this job offer came at the right time. I was not used to San Francisco salaries, and I didn’t do my due diligence nor were there many comparable positions in that location. Also, the company had a reputation of paying their employees fairly, which I am not debating at all. Given these (not very convincing) reasons and my lack of negotiating confidence at the time, I accepted their first offer.

About a year later, I found out that my counterpart in Los Angeles, who managed a considerably smaller office and staff, and had less experience than I, was making 150% of my salary… just because she had negotiated. – Boom! This was a huge hit; needless to say, it dampened my enthusiasm, even if I had developed enough discipline to do excellent work anyway and I didn’t want to sacrifice my flawless professional image. Despite my determination to make the best of the situation, the shadow of this story was now hanging over my head for the rest of my time in this position.

I certainly learned my lesson, and in today’s networking circles for women, there’s so much talk about salary negotiations. (Back then, I didn’t even actively network.)

But I am always surprised at how many people, and especially women, still do not negotiate their salaries at all. They get an offer for a new job, and they immediately accept the salary that comes with the first offer. Or they have their annual salary conversation with their manager, and because they didn’t discuss the desired raise in advance, they feel like “it’s already decided anyway.” Some of my new clients have told me: “We do not negotiate salaries at our company,” just to find out later that other employees actually did, and they only assumed that others did not negotiate their salaries. When they become my clients, we quickly change that mindset, that’s for sure!

And in fact, I just hung up with a recent client who got a $50k pay bump! $50k! Wew!!!

$20k raises are no exception when you negotiate powerfully. $50 may be more rare, yet absolutely not impossible, especially when you switch roles or companies. But if you under-negotiate or don’t negotiate at all, you miss out for sure!

Think about this: What is it that might keep you from negotiating? Is it fear of rejection? Fear of getting a “no?” Fear of coming across as too demanding? Fear of not deserving the salary you want? Fear of being disappointed when you ask? Or even fear of risking your job or job offer? If you take the time to analyze the fear that underlies your hesitation to negotiate, and you are really honest with yourself, you will find that none of these fears make much sense. They are not rational.

So I’m asking you: Did you negotiate the salary for your current role? And if yes, did you do it successfully? Did you get what you wanted? If so, congratulations! And if not, read on!

In our example, let’s assume you are up a performance and salary review in three months. This means, it’s high time to strategize and have conversations now! You must gain clarity on what you want and then schedule a meeting with your manager.

This is how you strategize:

1. Do your research

What data can you find about comparable positions inside and outside your company? Talk to colleagues, your mentor or sponsor, or other trusted contacts in your organization. Admittedly, this can be a bit challenging, given that salaries are still such a taboo topic, but if you talk to the right people, you may get some valuable input.

Do your research online, look at job offers on LinkedIn, Indeed or other platforms. Not all job offers include compensation data, but many do.

Talk to a headhunter. It should be easy to find a headhunter on LinkedIn that specializes in your industry. Call them and ask. (You never know what other opportunities may show up for you through this - wink.)

2. Determine your numbers

Determine and write down at least two numbers:

• The ideal number you want to reach, based on your research and your aspirations. This is the raise you really want. My suggestion is to make it higher than what you were going to ask for before reading this article. It’s always easy to lower the number if it is not accepted.

• The minimum acceptable number that still values your work enough for you to be enthusiastic about your role at this organization. (If this number is not reached, you may want to look for new possibilities.)

 3. Position the raise

Why do you deserve a raise? Some examples are: change in responsibilities, promotions that came without a raise (or a low one), tenure, consistent high performance without monetary recognition, outstanding achievement, higher salaries for comparable positions in the market, etc.

So, the question is, what type of positioning does your specific scenario call for? - Write down all the reasons why you should get a raise and then place them into a coherent statement. Write it down and practice saying it.

Also consider how this raise may benefit your manager. What’s in it for them? This can be more challenging to phrase but isn’t it obvious that you will bring more enthusiasm to your job if you get decently remunerated for it? And are you not less likely to leave for a different opportunity if your current compensation package is enticing enough to stay? Managers know that compensation is an incentive, and especially for high performers. Needless to say, it requires a certain level of tact to communicate the latter reasons, but I know you can figure it out.

4. Anticipate objections

What potential objections could you be facing during your conversation with your manager? Make a list of any objections you can think of and define a way to respond to each of them. Now, responding to objections can take different forms.

For example, you could present data you found as a result of your research. Or you could reply with a question, such as: “Would you be able to expand on this? Why…?”

Or you could prompt them to provide more information like this: “Help me understand…”

Even if you get a “no” this time around, you want to pave the way for additional conversations in the future with questions like: “What would be a better time to pick this topic up again?” or “What are performance-related requirements that can take me to the salary I want?” The right question, as always, depends on the specific objection you are dealing with. 

Sometimes, it can be appropriate to schedule a follow-up meeting to continue the conversation. In any case, what’s important is that you make it clear that this is not the last conversation you want to have about this topic. Even if you don’t get the raise right away, planting the seeds now can bear fruits later in the process. 

DM me to get my free Salary Negotiation Preparation Checklist.

5. Schedule a meeting

This should be a dedicated meeting. Don’t make your salary discussion one of many agenda items. It deserves a separate meeting. If you have regular meetings with your manager, it’s ok to use one of those if that’s an option. But you want to make it clear that the meeting is to discuss your compensation.

6. Prepare for the meeting

I’ll keep this short as I just recently wrote an article on how to optimally prepare for meetings and negotiations, which you can find here.

One particular step I want to highlight again here is that it’s essential to prepare and practice the words with which you open the meeting. A strong start will help you navigate confidently through the rest of the conversation.

 7. Do your best without being attached to a specific result

My motto for all meetings and negotiations is to give my all without being attached to a specific result. There is always an outcome of value, and sometimes that’s just additional knowledge, practice, or experience. The only time you don’t get an outcome is when you don’t try. Not trying is therefore the only way to obtain real failure.

Of course, it’s more satisfying if you achieve the desired result. That’s what you’re working towards through this process. However, we cannot control all circumstances, and definitely not other people. That’s also not the goal here.

What we always can do, is work with the outcome we have obtained. We can build on it for future conversations, we can evaluate our options, and we can potentially move in a new direction.

On the other hand, if you’re attached to a specific result, you might end up disappointed and discouraged. That’s clearly not the objective here. No one said there was only one attempt or option. Your options are limitless… always remember this.

Several pieces of what you just read above can also be applied for salary negotiations during job interviews. Some details evidently change but positioning, meeting preparation, determining your numbers and anticipating objections are always essential for effective negotiations.

Simply click to download my free Salary Negotiation Preparation Checklist.