A busy professional asks a question regarding negotiating for a better salary.

I need some tactics to negotiating for a better salary.

Whether you are negotiating in a hiring interview OR negotiating for a raise, there are several things you can do to put yourself in the winning position.

Here are a few:

1. Make sure you are worth the salary you are requesting
   • Make sure you have or are increasing the company’s bottom line enough to sustain your salary request
   • Make sure you have either increased revenue, reduce costs or increase client retainer, satisfaction and referral numbers to assure your salary request
   • Make sure you have positioned yourself as the leader or authority in the company’s industry or field
   • Continue to improve and develop your professional training and edge, so that you can easily advance to a higher-salary level
   • Make sure you are already working at the higher-salary level
2. Know the average starting salary for the position
   • Make sure your salary requests are within the norm or regional salary requests
   • If you are already at the high-end of the national or regional pay scale, look at advancement opportunities to a higher salary scale
3. Understand exactly why that average salary is normally given and align your talent, skills, and results to those attributes
   • Understand what the most valued asset or attribute of this role is, and demonstrate your results in those areas
   • Speak in tangible results (i.e. How much money you saved, brought in; XX% Client Satisfaction; XX% Client Retention; X% employee turnover; xx% reduction of lead-to-sale conversion rates, etc)
4. Focus on what you bring to the job
   • Companies are in the business to make money.
   • Show your ability to make the company money (increase revenue, reduce costs, retain clients, etc)
   • Validate the salary request with the numbers you bring to the table
5. Prepare your pitch for the salary negotiation
   • Practice your pitch with family and friends
   • Practice and visualize the entire salary discussion
   • Practice not only makes perfect – but you will have a calmer persona during the interview
6. Be ready to make a counteroffer
   • The initial salary offer will always be lower than you want. So be prepared for that.
   • Have your “goal salary” number in mind as well as “what you are willing to accept”.
   • Introduce the idea of a probation period, in which if you are all that you say you are – they will revisit the salary discussion in 6 months
7. Consider the starting salary as just one part of the compensation package
   • Understand what is important to you.
   • Close review they education benefits, health benefits, and other employee benefits. Actually, take full advantage of everything they offer.
   • If having more time with the family is important, negotiate more vacation time, flex time or working from home part-time
   • If staying healthy is on your priority list, discuss the ability to workout during the day or reimbursement for gym fees
   • If you like to travel, discuss the opportunity to travel for business, trade shows, etc
   • If one of your goals is to become an authority in your industry, discuss the opportunity to write, speak and travel to various technical conference, seminars and trade shows
   • Put all agreements in writing
8. Discuss opportunities for growth as well as subsequent raises and bonuses
   • Understand the various advancement opportunities in this organization
   • Make sure there is room to grow in this company
   • Understand the bonus and raise policies (when was the last time employees received a raise of bonus)
9. Agree to the starting salary with the written stipulation that it will be revisited in 6 months.
   • This allows the employer time to better understand what you bring to the table
   • This gives you time to better understand the company values, mission and issues/problems
   • Once you understand their problems, you can be the solution to many of their costly issues
10. Be flexible
    • Recognize there are many ways to get what you want
    • List the things you were going to use the additional salary fund and negotiate those items
      • If you were going to use the extra funds for Continuing Education, a professional-relevant Certification, technical journal or professional associations, etc – negotiate reimbursement for those items
      • If you were going to use the extra funds to pursue a patent or side project, see if the company is interested in investing in that endeavor

Bottom line:  Your company is in the business to make money.  Therefore, the best way to reduce friction during salary discussions is to bring in enough company money to cover your salary request.

Want A 1-page Cheat Sheet on “10 Tips to a Better Salary”?  Download here.