Negotiate Your Salary

Negotiating is a skill that completes your professional package. Being able to convey your thoughts to another and generate a successful outcome demonstrates many benefits to an employer. Learn more about the specifics required to be a success.

Once you have your job offer then it’s important to move forward into the phase of negotiating and claiming your compensation packet. I want to remind us that there are many ways how to define your value and build a win/win expectation. In negotiating the first step is to gain career advise from others about the industry standard for your position. You need a realistic and present time value statement for the position you are aiming for. Once this is established you can move forward with exploring your bottom line negotiating points and your career needs.

Negotiating is a conversation of asking for what is needed, listening to what the other person has to offer, and seeing how things can fit for each party. Both people want to feel like they got a good deal and the long end of the stick. In allowing for this it is important to initiate a discussion on behalf of your career goals by taking into account your compensation packet as one venue for establishing value. In this global age there are many aspects to being competitive and beneficial to an employer. One important key is in the value that you bring to them not only in your cost savings in relation to salary but also based on return on investment. As you establish the dollar value of what you bring to the table and the benefit you provide they can more easily pay you what you request. This is accomplished by speaking and demonstrating your past successes and by mentioning your ideas for their business goals. To be engaged in an effective negotiating conversation requires establishing up front the value of what you offer and what they need and confirming that there is a strong match.

Negotiating is a process of dialoguing with another person by selling in what you have to offer and placing a financial dollar amount attached to it. In negotiating it’s important to begin with what your key points are and what you are willing to move on and change and what are your basic bottom line non-negotiable items. By having both in mind you know where you begin and where to end. As you engage with the person you are drawing them into a conversation with you that is rich with needs, requests, and bottom lines. How you negotiate will also demonstrate the type of professional you are and set the tone and foundation for your work. Do it with respect, intention, and partnership. This provides getting your needs met and developing a foundation of colleague to colleague offering.

Negotiation is both a mind-set and a skill. Both of which are career requirements to move you and your goals forward. It is a way to contextualize what you are doing and to interact with another person to produce a successful result. It also takes skill and tact to bring various requests together and to keep the conversation moving forward. At the end of the day, negotiating is about building rapport and generating a working relationship that brings lasting results.