20 Salary Counter Proposal Techniques
1. Don’t begin negotiating until the process is almost complete. Wait for the employer to fully commit to you, giving you more leverage to offer a counter proposal.
2. Don’t sign the original acceptance offer. Once you do sign it, you’re pretty much committed. The best time to start negotiating is once you’ve been presented the offer letter.
3. Upon receiving the initial offer letter, thank the employer and ask for time to consider the package. Being put on the spot will decrease your ability to negotiate (just think about being stuck on a car lot with them beating you down to sign).
4. Do your research. Know how much this job pays, based on your skill set, geographic region, economy (now may be a bad time to ask for that private jet), and other various factors that may affect your ability to get the compensation you deserve.
5. Just do it. While you should be prepared for the employer to potentially walk away from the offer, as long as you are fair in your proposal and justify it with research, you will most likely receive a positive response. One study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management) are willing to negotiate compensation, only a small percentage of job-seekers actually do so.
6. Negotiate to your strengths. If you’re better on the phone, call the employer on the phone. Better in person, schedule a face to face, and don’t be afraid to write your proposal in an email, this way you can outline all of your thoughts much better.
7. Always ask for a higher salary within reason, than you are willing to accept so when you get your counter proposal, your goal salary will be the ‘compromise’. And when possible, try and demonstrate how your increased salary will recoup itself through additional sales, cost savings, etc. for the company.
8. If the salary offered to you is on the low end — and the employer said there’s no negotiation in the salary (perhaps due to corporate policy), consider negotiating expediting your review period for a raise, a signing bonus. Always negotiate your salary first, if you can, and then move on to other items of compensation.
9. When preparing your counter offer, include the benefits you don’t really want. Use these extra benefits as concessions so you can get the higher salary but don’t need the extra 5 sick days, etc.
10. Even if the salary is non-negotiable, you can still negotiate other items. You can ask for moving expenses, additional paid or personal days, professional training, MBA paid assistance, and more.
11. Never stop selling yourself. You need to make your employer believe that they are hiring the right person, and that this negotiation is only going t increase your level of commitment and value to the company.
12. If you don’t plan to work for the company, don’t negotiate. Don’t waste your time and the company’s time negotiating for a position you don’t plan to take. You’ll soon realize what a small world it is if you start burning bridges with people in your industry.
13. If you have multiple offers, don’t start a bidding war. Putting companies against one another and asking for increasingly higher amounts from both sides rarely works out. What is does is frustrate the companies with you and makes you less desirable to a company. You should have backup plans when negotiating so if one proposal doesn’t go through, you have other desirable options available.
14. Don’t enter negotiations with the wrong attitude. Always have in the back of your mind your goal you want to accomplish with your negotiations. This should be a win-win scenario. You want to get a better deal which will in turn help the company in the long run based on your happiness with the position.
15. Some employers will just not negotiate. Based on economic factors, corporate policy, job supply, etc. will give the employers a considerable amount of leverage and will simply not negotiate and may deny your original job offer. Unless your skill set is highly valuable and you present a unique opportunity to the employer, be sure not to lose a job over it.
16. Never make demands. You may be working for the person you’re negotiating with directly, and you don’t want to start the relationship off on this note. Instead, raise questions and make requests. How much does a typical person with my qualifications earn in this position? Do you ever award signing bonuses? Moving expenses? Additional time off?
17. Be prepared for any possible reactions to your counter proposal. They could completely deny you the job or could offer you everything you’ve asked for in the position.
18. You have to be wiling to walk away. Just like at the car lot, when you decide to leave, they start beginning to walk to finally deal. You don’t want to show that you really want the job to the point it compromises your ability to negotiate effectively.
19. Once the employer agrees to your requests, stop negotiation. Once you get what you requested, you can’t start asking for more and more and more.
20. Always be sure to get your final offer in writing. Verbal agreements aren’t worth much these days, so after the negotiating is complete, be sure to have your final offer delivered to you in writing, and make sure to review everything before finally signing it.
Do you have any tips to share from your past negotiations with employers? Leave a comment below so we can add it to the list.
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