If you have followed the steps we’ve written about so far – outlining your accomplishments and value to the company,  figuring out exactly what you want, and lining up your allies, then it’s time to negotiate for your salary increase.

 To land a significant raise, and our clients do, we strongly believe in three things:  Preparation, Presence, and Practice.

Preparation

If you can anticipate the ways in which your argument for a raise will be challenged, then you can be prepared with answers.

Here are three typical challenges that you may face during a salary negotiation:

Challenge 1 – “We don’t have it in the budget.” Often that is a sentence to stop you in your tracks. So you need to continue the conversation by  saying, “Here is what I am looking for, what is the best that you can do?”  Ask them to make you a counter offer and Never bid against yourself. That means if you have asked for $10,000, and they say no, don’t come back and ask for $8,000.  Insist that they make you an offer.  If they dig their heels and tell you that nobody is getting raises this year, then be prepared with the other things that you are looking for.

Challenge 2 – “I want you to have this but I’ll never get it through HR”. The person you are negotiating with may not have the authority.   Ask them, “I know that this is challenging, what do you think we can do about this?” Your strategy is to get your boss aligned with you and to advocate on your behalf.  Make this a problem to be solved rather than a roadblock.

Challenge 3 – “I can’t give you this because I can’t give it to the others.”  The strategy here is to use evidence (spreadsheets, charts, powerpoint)  to make a case for your value that goes above and beyond your current compensation level.  Perhaps you should be slotted into a new compensation level and there may be an opportunity for a bonus at the time of your promotion.  And if you cannot be compensated in money, suggest other ways that you can be compensated. 

Presence –

Work on cultivating a self-confident presence.  Not feeling so confident?  Here is our advice. Review the evidence – why do you deserve this salary increase? List all all the reasons that you deserve this raise and notice how you mindset begins to shift. 

Next? Review your skills and strengths – What unique skills and strengths do you bring to the table that are invaluable to your organization’s goals?  One great tip to increase your confidence is to work with someone to help you to uncover more of your skills and strengths.  This is a critical step during our executive coaching process but you can also do this with a close friend as well. 

And one final bit of advice on presence.  Sometimes pretending you have confidence, can lead you to feeling confident.  This trick of “Fake it till you make it”  is a good one because it works.  You might surprise yourself with a feeling of confidence that you didn’t realize you had.

Practice –

There is no substitution for this step.  When we work with our clients, we spend a lot of time thinking through challenges, coming up with responses that feel authentic, then practicing those responses over and over.  Just like learning to play an instrument or a sport, negotiating is skill that has to be practiced to be learned.  And this skill that can be developed and strengthened with practice. Practice alone.  Practice with a friend. Practice until you are confident that you have done all you possibly can to prepare for this salary negotiation.

 We’ve given you our best advice, now go for it!  We think you will be pleased with the results.

The post Time to Walk in the Door For Your Salary Negotiation appeared first on DKS Consulting Group.

You’ve figured out specifically what you want – more money, a new title, a flexible schedule. You know what your company truly cares about (hint – it’s money). You’ve done your research and even crafted a convincing argument that demonstrates your value to the company and how you have contributed to the bottom line.  

Are you ready to walk into your salary negotiation? 

Not yet.

The next step in landing a raise is to look for allies in your company, and line them up. Your goal is to have allies on the inside championing your cause with the financial decision makers. This is a critical, yet often over looked step when negotiating your next salary increase. We all understand the need to reach out to our network and nurture relationships when we are looking for a new job or developing a new business or product. The same skill is used when you are getting ready to negotiate for more money.

Many of our clients say, “But I don’t want to play office politics.” or  “I feel funny asking people to do this for me” or “I should just be getting a raise based on my hard work and accomplishments, not on who I’m aligned with” . 

And we say to that, “You cannot get a raise for your hard work if the decision makers are not AWARE of your contribution and if you do not advocate for what you deserve.”  

Look  for ways that your allies in the organization are connected to  the financial decision makers. Your allies can communicate your value to the company and strengthen your argument for more money.   This is simply called advocacy or sales, and you are product. 

Kathy is a senior VP at a mid-sized institutional investment banking firm.  Even though she worked a four-day work week, her accounts were some of the highest performing in the firm which she had quantified and put in a spreadsheet.  She felt that she couldn’t ask for more money because other colleagues at the same level were working five days.  Kathy was worried that the firm would make her give up her flexible work schedule if she asked for more money.  

We asked Kathy about her network in the firm. Who was her mentor or on her team? Did she have lunch with people, work on committees, buy girl scout cookies, or support their charities? Think about these folks and whether they are connected to decision makers. We suggested to Kathy that she reach out to any of these people in the firm and ask them to advocate on her behalf to the compensation committee members. Together we crafted a script that did not feel too aggressive.  Kathy was able to take the script and run with it. 

One last bit of advice on aligning your allies that may seem obvious, but worth mentioning.  Understand that all healthy working relationships are reciprocal.  If you want your allies to continue  go to bat for you, its important to think of ways that you can also help them. 

Look for our next blog where we tackle the face -to-face negotiation and help you anticipate their arguments and prepare your responses.

The post The Secret Ingredient To A Successful Salary Negotiation appeared first on DKS Consulting Group.

In our last salary blog, we shared why it is so important to understand what your company really cares about  (hint – it’s money) before walking into a salary negotiation. But before you start the negotiation, it is just as important to know EXACTLY what you want.

What do I want?

This seems like such a simple question.  What do I want?  “Well, I want more money” is usually the answer that people give us when we are helping them strategize a salary negotiation.  Well, how much more money and why ?

If you spend some time really thinking about this question, you can usually get much more specific about the amount of money you want and other benefits or perks too.

Ask yourself the following . . . How much more money do I want and would that amount allow me to feel fairly compensated?

The question of fairness is a really important one.  When we feel fairly compensated, we are happier at work.  And savvy managers know that when we feel that the hard work we put in matches what we get back, we perform better.  And we perform better in measurable, concrete ways. The research is clear. Employees who feel fairly compensated have less turnover, are more engaged, are psychologically and physically healthier so they take less time off, and have a higher satisfaction with life in general. 

Fair compensation is not only good for you, it’s also good for  business. So figure out what amount would feel fair and why.  Think about your job responsibilities, what you have accomplished and the impact it has had on your company.  You may also want to think about your salary in relation to your colleagues.  Some of our clients have been able to uncover salary information from other employees, so you may need to do some digging. You can also research salaries in your industry at Payscale.com

It is also essential for your negotiation to know what else is important to you. In addition to money, what other things do you want?  

Do you want more time off? How much more time?

Do you want more control over your work product? In which ways specifically?

Maybe you want more training or professional development? Why? What training or courses specifically?  How will you use these new skills to benefit the company?

A better title? What do you suggest?

A seat on a coveted committee in the firm? Explain why you can contribute to that group.

An expanded role? What new roles and responsibilities are you looking to take on? How does this help you?  How does this help your manager and the organization?

These questions are designed to help you become very specific so that you can clearly ask for what you want. They also provide you with something to negotiate. If they will not give you the amount of money you were hoping for, ask for paid professional development, a better title, or a day to work remotely etc.   We believe that when you can specifically identify what you want, and why, you can ask for it more clearly and engage more assertively in your salary negotiation. 

In our next blog, we will share our best strategies for using your network to help you score the raise that you deserve.

The post How To Negotiate A Salary Increase To Get MORE Of What You Want appeared first on DKS Consulting Group.

You’ve worked hard. You’ve done everything that has been asked of you and more.  And now it’s time to negotiate for your next salary bump. However,  if you are like most people who come to us for executive coaching, this gives you a pit in your stomach.  Salary negotiation can feel like you are going into a battle where the chances are high that “they” will win and you will lose.

It doesn’t need to be this way but you need to be prepared.

The very first step, if you want to negotiate for more money, is to understand what your company cares about.  Really cares about. 

What does your company REALLY care about?

Susan, a Vice President of Design Engineering at a large computer manufacturing company came to us to help her negotiate for more money  She was frustrated because she saw other people getting raises when she was working more hours and doing more work. We asked her to tell us about her last salary negotiation.

“During my salary meeting I told my boss that on top of managing a team of designers, meeting product deadlines, going on business development calls with Sales, and the endless meetings, I also spend hours each month mentoring women engineers and chairing a “Women in Engineering” support group in our company.  My boss tells me what a great job I am doing  and how valuable my work is, but it just hasn’t translated into money. I don’t think I can possibly work any harder.  I’m working 80 hours a week as it is”

Susan shouldn’t work any harder, but she should change the way she presents her value to the company in a salary negotiation. 

This can be confusing because often times in companies, the words and the music do not match.  The corporate party line may be that “We are a company that supports social justice, environmental sustainability, mentoring, pro-bono work” but if they are a for-profit enterprise, what they care about first and foremost is the bottom-line.  No matter how enlightened and wonderful the company may be, those other wonderful initiatives are secondary to making a profit.  We cannot tell you how many highly talented and brilliant executives we work with who are surprised to hear this. In a salary negotiation, it is crucial to speak to what the company truly cares about, and what the company cares about is money and how you bring it in.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

How have you saved the company money and how much was it? 

How much new business did you bring in?  

How did you make your department run smoother with less inefficiencies and how does that translates into dollars? 

How did you use technology to streamline processes and make more money? 

How did your work help someone else close a sale and how much was that sale worth? Did you develop or improve a product that is now going to market and will bring in $$$? 

Make a spread sheet.  Use a chart.  Hand it out. Quantify EVERYTHING.

Doing service or committee work is truly wonderful and important but in a salary negotiation, it is a secondary concern. Try to frame your reasoning for a higher salary in terms of what your company cares about, which is usually making or saving the company money. This will help them see your value in a context that is important to them and persuade them that you should be paid more.  

Bottom-line, next time you ask for a raise, make sure that you show your value in a way that aligns with what your company really cares about.

The post Before You Negotiate Your Next Salary Increase appeared first on DKS Consulting Group.