5 Indispensable Tips for Your Next Salary Negotiation
Written by Oanh Han, WIN Staff
Negotiation is not easy, especially when it comes to pay. But coming prepared with your outlined goals, and having done your research, will put you in a stronger position and help you feel more confident. Listed below are five tips to arm you for your next salary negotiation.
1. Establish goals
When you enter a negotiation without any goals you are by default letting someone else steer the ship, relinquishing the controls before you even walk into the room. But sometimes knowing what you are aiming for can be very difficult and so taking adequate time, before there is any pressure or nerves around a conversation is critical. Give yourself the mental space to tune in and identify your objectives. After all, you cannot expect to hit a bulls-eye if you don’t know where to point the arrow. Once you have a clear understanding of what goals you are trying to achieve, you can use them to guide you during the negotiation, no matter how stressful the situation.
Setting SMART goals -- specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, can provide the clarity you need. It will also enable you to objectively evaluate if you have reached your goals or not. We recommend writing them down as this helps concertize them and also gives you a point of reference to return to if you find yourself veering off track.
Another area of preparation involves contingency planning. Don’t just plan for your best-case scenario, but identify your outer rings in that bulls-eye as well - namely what is the furthest point of acceptable — and what can you do if the conversation goes awry to get it back to the range of acceptability. Know your BATNA — or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. This is crucial because you cannot make a wise decision about whether to accept a negotiated agreement unless you know what your alternatives are.
Discover how you can become a powerful negotiator with a FREE 10-Minute Consultation.
2. Research Your Counterparty
Brief yourself in the subject matter of the negotiation. Especially when you are negotiating for a higher salary, the more information you have, the more likely you’ll meet your expectations. Entering a negotiation prepared with statistics and facts can leverage your position and allow you to make more reasonable bargains. Know who you’ll be negotiating with. Will you be meeting with human resources, your boss, or the CEO? Study the negotiation styles and techniques the opposing side uses and the ones they prefer to implement. Check-in with past negotiators to gain information on how the other side thinks. Although it’s important to focus on your own goals, it's also beneficial to study those of the opposing side. Look into the SWOT analysis of the company to better understand its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Analyzing their goals will also allow you to get a better sense of how to position yourself as the candidate that can help them achieve their desired results.
3. Know Your Numbers
Make a summarized list of your accomplishments. Ask yourself these questions: What successes have you had in your previous positions? Did you raise sales by 15 percent? What is your work ethic? What is included in your skill set? It’s beneficial for you to calculate the market value of your position based on your geographic location, years of experience, and the position you want. Research the current market and job demand. Services such as PayScale and Glassdoor provides free salary reports or salary calculators and can give you some baseline information. Once you understand your market worth, you’ll be able to compare that with what the salary for the position you’re trying to earn. Knowing your numbers will keep you from aiming too low or high. While you don't want to sell yourself short, you also don't want to put out a number that is way above what the employer’s range and risk knocking yourself out of the running.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
Just like everything, nothing is easy the first time around. Practice makes perfect, or at least improvements. Whether it is with a friend or in front of a mirror, the more you negotiate, the more you will feel comfortable asking for what you want. This way, when you sit down at that table you'll feel more confident and more natural. Role-playing also leads to the development of effective negotiation strategies in any situation, whether it is face-to-face or virtually. It is an effective way to not only gain insight into the ways in which your negotiation strategy should be adjusted, but it also allows you to tackle common negotiation problems directly and enhance your skills in a low-risk setting. Practice omitting words such as “I think,” “maybe,” and “sorry.” You’d also want to steer clear of phrases such as '” bottom line,” and “This is my final/last offer.” Avoid words and phrases that are not only unnecessary but might hurt your chances of coming out ahead.
5. Embrace The No
Don’t let fear stop you! Getting over your fear of rejection and asking for what you want is half the battle. Even if you don't achieve what you set out to accomplish, focus on the progress you've made. Give yourself credit for the small steps along the way and be confident that they will lead you somewhere great!
Want to dive deeper into the critical steps you can take to better negotiate your salary?
Join our WIN Breakthrough Mastermind starting October 7th!