There are a few things you should avoid saying when you’re asking for a raise or negotiating a starting salary. In particular, Negotiation expert and attorney Victoria Pynchon says you should be mindful of when you say “yes” or “no” to any offer.
Photo by rossbreadmore
In an interview with LinkedIn, Pynchon advises you don’t say yes to the first offer presented to you:
Your employer expects you to negotiate and has more authority than the first offer made. Say “I appreciate your proposal. I did a little research on my current market value [handing the proposal over] and it’s 10 per cent (or 20 or 30) more than that.”
(Do your research and come in with exact numbers to possibly earn more cash.)
Likewise, if you think you’ve come to an impasse during the negotiation, avoid saying “no”. Instead try to find ways to keep the conversation moving forward:
The point of a negotiation is to drive the conversation to an agreement. Saying “no” closes off the conversation and makes it difficult to start back up. If your hourly fee is $350 but a potential client tells you he can only pay $200 per hour, instead of saying no, ask “What stands in the way of paying my fee?” Feel free to offer accommodations like payment over time or consider bartering services if that’s possible. Always be moving toward getting the deal you want.
Few of us enjoy negotiating, but when it comes to salary, a few more thousand dollars can turn into hundreds of thousands over your lifetime of work.
Hit up the link below for other salary negotiation tips.
What Not to Say When Negotiating Your Salary [LinkedIn]
Comments
4 responses to “Be Careful Before You Say ‘Yes’ Or ‘No’ During A Salary Negotiation”
Nice idea – but every negotiation I’ve been to with businesses has been accept the offer or walk. This is after I could prove I was being paid less than junior members of the team – or worse – in one case some of the members of the team I was managing.
I think avoiding yes and no is good advise – but also be prepared to walk if a business is ripping you off.
That’s not a negotiation. A negotiation involves two parties coming to an agreement.
In that case, depending on your circumstances, the best option for may be to walk.. It’s a tough gig, but if it is known that you have poor negotiating skills or are prepared to work for less than you are worth people will take advantage of you.
Sounds like you did you homework, i hope you told them to stick it.
Resigned immediately with the first business. They were the ones paying less for me than memebers of my team.
Gave the second one 3 days to come up with an alternative – they did. It wasn’t perfect and there was still no negotiation but I got it sorted. Though the HR team refused to speak to me for months after.
Edit: To clarify, the post below is about the author of the source link, not Melanie, who clearly avoided doing so. Kudos to her!
… I have no idea why things like this are somehow feminist pieces.. Seems applicable to anyone/everyone, but somehow reading the source it was more like “Women in X and Y conditionals tend to do Z”..
I find it ironic that women like this seem to find it necessary to segregate themselves, and indeed spring an entire industry out of it (she manages/works the Professional Women” section), then claim that the issue is equality.. “We need to all be equal, and the sexes are just as capable as each other.. But here’s an article only for women where we attribute many basic human flaws everyone shares to being a woman”.
Jeepers.