The Proformative webinar “How to Win Your Compensation Negotiation” took place on December 21, 2012. Presenter Moshe Kravtiz, Certified Career Coach at the Five O’Clock Club gives a presentation to help you develop an understanding of the compensation negotiation process that may just help you get the salary you deserve.
Your Résumé Should Showcase Your Worth
Your salary negotiation starts with your résumé. When a hiring manager picks up a résumé, they’ll scan the candidates’ achievements and abilities and determine how much that candidate might be worth to them. That doesn’t mean you need to put a dollar amount on your résumé. But it means that your resume should showcase what you are worth and what you can do for the company.
Postpone the Mention of a Salary
The longer you can postpone talking about a salary, the higher your salary will be. Instead, it’s important to make them see the value you’ll be adding to the company. Now what can you do if you’re asked what your salary requirements are? That depends on who is asking.
If you’re asked to put in your salary expectations in an online form, then you could try leaving the space blank or using asterisks. It’s up to you whether you want to put in a number here, but the choice should be yours. Of course, you might run the risk of being eliminated as a candidate if you don’t fill out the field. However, if your qualifications speak for themselves, then you might not have anything to worry about there.
If you’re asked face-to-face, then it’s a good idea to state that salary will not be an issue. You might say: “You’re a fair company. I’m a fair person. I’m sure we can come to an agreement. Salary is not an issue.” Then you can proceed to discuss the position. You might also say “I’m sure you’ll make an offer that’s competitive, which is commensurate with the position. Salary is not an issue.”
It’s important to discuss the data with the right person at the right time. Instead of discussing salary, you should continue discussing the responsibilities of the position. The responsibilities of the new position may grow throughout the interview, and so will the unspoken numbers for the salary.
The 4 Steps of Salary Negotiation
There are four steps to negotiating your salary. First, you have to discuss the position. Next, you need to outshine and outlast the competition. Then it’s time to receive an offer. And last but not least, it’s time to negotiate the salary.
1. Discuss What You Can Do
As you’re discussing what the job entails, you will let your prospective employer know what you can do. For example, a person interviewing for a data entry position might increase their salary offer by mentioning that they can create and optimize spreadsheets in addition to entering data into them. The interviewee’s value just increased because of his unique skill set. During your interview, it’s important to discuss the position and what value you can bring to the company.
2. Outshine and Outlast the Competition
It’s important to understand what the ideal candidate for the position is and how you match up against that ideal candidate. These are certainly questions you can ask during the interview. It’s important to find out what exactly the company is looking for so that you can determine where you can outshine and outlast your competition.
It’s possible that the company was looking for specific skills they don’t believe you have. But maybe you just weren’t able to bring it across in your resume or in your interview that you do have what they’re looking for.
3. Get the Offer
The next step is getting the offer. When you get an offer for an amount that is less than what you are seeking, you can say “I would be happy to work for your company, but I cannot accept this offer.” At this point in the process, the company has invested a lot of time and money to find the right candidate. If possible, they will try to keep their preferred candidate, and that is why this is the best time to negotiate salary.
4. Negotiate Your Salary
When you start to negotiate your salary, it’s important to take into consideration how much you are worth, the value of your entire package and by maintaining a win-win attitude throughout the entire process.
It’s important to understand what you’re worth in this industry, in this region, by this company’s scale. Sites like salary.com can provide you with comparable figures. You can certainly get a sense of what’s possible, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for more.
The great part about salary negotiations is that you don’t have to stop at the base salary. It’s worth to discuss bonuses, stock options, insurance benefits, tuition reimbursement, retirement benefits, severance pay, and professional association membership fees.
You may be worried to discuss severance pay when you’re just starting to work for a company, but it can be done when you make it impersonal. After all, it’s possible that the company will go through some changes. These may include a change of management or change of ownership.
Maintain a Win-Win Attitude
You want to work for this employer, and they want you to work for them. Go through each item and negotiate one thing at a time. You and your employer are not opponents. You’re both on the same side. In the end, you want to leave as friends, since you just got hired to work at this company.