Hey everybody. Don Georgevich here with Job Interview Tools. And today, I want to talk about salary negotiation and how you can get more money from your job offers. If that’s a topic that you want to know more about, go ahead and hit the “Like” button on this video and we’ll dive right in.
Now, there are three times when you can negotiate a job offer. And the first one is before the job offer is even a job offer. It’s at a time, what I like to call “first contact.” This is when an employer first reaches out to you to gauge your interest level on a job.
And during this first initial phone conversation, salary should come up. If they don’t bring it up, you should bring it up. And if they don’t bring it up just simply say, “Excuse me Mr. Employer, has a salary range been determined for this position?”
Now, that should either qualify you or disqualify you right there. I mean, if this job only pays $50 thousand and you’re looking to make 90, you might just want to end it right there because there’s no reason to continue on in the process.
Now, if they say, “The job pays between 90 and 120 thousand” and that’s within your range, then great; you just passed step one.
Step two is going to come a little bit later in the process. After you’ve had three or four rounds of interviews, the employer’s going to do– well at least a smart employer’s going to do, what I’d like to call a “Trial Close.”
And what they’re going to do is they’re going to say, “Hey, we really like all the things that you’ve done, we like your past experience, we like what we think you can do for us here. If we were to extend an offer to you in the range of 110 and $120 thousand, would you be interested in accepting that?”
Now, this is a verbal “Trial Close.” They’re testing the waters; they’re fishing you. They want to see how interested you really are and if you’re willing to accept it within a range that they’ve offered.
So, let’s just say they verbally offer you the job and say, “Hey, Don. If we were to offer you a position between 90 and $112 thousand, is that something you’d be willing to take?”
Now, at that point I can say, “Yes” or “No.” I can say, “Yes, that’s within my range and I would be willing to accept something like that.” Great, that’s a green light to move on. Now, I might say, “You know what? No, I wouldn’t be able to accept that. I need something in $120 thousand range.
Now, that’s either going to get the employer to come back and say, “Okay, we can do that” or “No, we can’t.” So, either you’re going to have to make a concession or they’re going to have to make a concession. So, that’s the second time you can negotiate. Right there is during the trial close.
Now, the third time you can negotiate an offer is after they have given it to you in writing. But you have to be careful with this; because remember, they just offered you a trial close.
So, they offered you, let’s say I don’t remember what they said. But let’s just say they gave you a trial closed offer of between 90 thousand and 105 thousand and you said yes to that.
Now, if they come back and offer you $95 thousand dollars, they’re expecting you to say, “Yes.” If you say, “No, I can’t do that. I need 120.” they’ll be like, “Well, wait a minute. We just talked to you yesterday and you said you were willing to accept that.”
So, what you need to do is you need to be within your range that you told them was okay. So, if they offered you at the lower end of the range, let’s say the range was 90 to 105 thousand and let’s say they offered you a $90 thousand. You could come back and ask them for more money; that’s the time to negotiate.
But you only want to do that if you really feel that you’re worth more money than what they’re offering. If you feel the offer is fair, then there’s even no reason to negotiate; just go ahead and accept what they’ve given you because that’s probably a fair market value for what your skills are worth on the open market.
Now, if you really feel that you’re worth more or let’s say you have another offer out there that’s maybe that other offer is offering you a $100 thousand. You could come back and say, “You know what? I really like your offer, but I have an offer over here from your competitor for 100 thousand. Is there any way that you can come a little bit closer to that. Can you get me at 100 thousand or maybe 102 because I really want to work here?” That’s how you can play one offer off on the other offer.
Now, maybe you don’t have another offer. So, in that case, don’t lie about it because they might say, “You know what? No, we can’t do that.” and then you’re just basically going to lose that offer.
Now, what you really want to be doing, while this is happening, is negotiating on the phone or in-person; don’t negotiate through email. So, if they offer you a position for $90 thousand, don’t type back or text back to them and say, “No, I can’t really do that. Can you get a little bit closer to 100 thousand?” You never want to negotiate an email because it’s so easy for that employer to say, “No, we can’t do that.”
You see, the reason you don’t want to negotiate an email is because it strips out all the verbal and nonverbal communication. It’s just straight text; there’s no meaning in it, there’s no feeling in it.
You want to be on the phone and negotiating so you can hear what they sound like, so you can hear how definite or indefinite or insecure they are about their offer and they need to hear it from you too.
I mean, if they hear it from you and you’re very clear and succinct and you’re very direct in saying, “You know what? I really need to be at 102 thousand (or whatever the number is) and I really can’t go any less.” That is so much stronger, so much more impactful than you just sitting on a keyboard and typing, “No, I can’t do that.” “Yes, I can do this.” And it’s so weak; it’s the worst way to negotiate.
Now, and I know what you’re saying. You’re like, “I don’t really negotiate very often and negotiation makes me nervous, so it’s easy to hide behind my keyboard.” I understand; I know exactly what you mean, but you’re going to lose. If you are negotiating an email, you’re more likely to lose more money and you’re going to just leave it on the table for them.
Just like I said, it’s super easy for them. See, they have they have all the cards, they have all the money. If you come back and say, “Is there any way you can do more?” they’ll just type back, “No, I’m sorry. That’s the best we can do.” And then where are you at? You’re nowhere.
But if you get them on the phone, you can talk to them, you can work them over, you can express all the extra value that you have. Because that’s why they’re hiring you. They’re hiring you for the skills, the experience and the value that you have.
So, you can just start saying, “You know what? I’m really excited about this position. I want to do it, but I need a little bit more money.” And then you go into some of the value and the benefits that you bring; kind of leverage them. That’s the key to negotiating. But you have to do it in-person or on the phone or you’re going to lose. It’s as simple as that.
So, remember there’s three times to negotiate. First is the “First Contact.” The second time is during the “Trial Close” and the third time is after you get the offer letter.
But remember, only negotiate if you feel that you need to. I mean, I was just working with a client the other day and they offered her exactly what she was looking for. And she came back to me and she’s like, “Hey, Don. Should I negotiate this?” I’m like, “I don’t know why. It’s exactly what you were looking for; right?” She’s like, “Yeah, it’s exactly what I wanted.” “Then just take it. There’s no point. It just it really just makes you look bad.” I mean, there’s no point in asking for more money if they’re only getting you what you asked for.
If you’re not getting what you asked for, you’re getting less than you need, then it’s up to you. Then you have to decide whether you want to go in and ask for more or not.
And a lot of times, people are so uncomfortable with the negotiation process that they just take whatever they get. And then after they take it and they sign it and they accept the $90 thousand, they’re thinking to themselves, “Man, I wish I would’ve just pushed a little bit. I wish I would’ve just asked for five more thousand.” But it’s too late; it’s done.
And the only reason people are generally afraid to ask for more money is because they feel that the employer is going to withdraw that offer. But that’s not really the case. It’s really not going to happen. It’s very rare that an employer is going to take back an offer.
Now, they might, let’s say, for example, that you told them you’d be willing to accept a position for $95 thousand and they gave you an offer for 95 thousand, they’re expecting you to take it. If you come back and say, “No, I really need 110”, then that’s a valid reason for them to just withdraw the offer and probably just label you as a little bit greedy or something like that.
So, I encourage you don’t be afraid to negotiate. It’s okay, but do it on the phone or in-person so you can get the most value and it’s the best way to express what you were looking for in a new salary and benefits in a new position and everything else that goes with that.
All right my friend, I hope this helps you get a little bit more money on your next job offer and I hope it helps prepare you for that negotiation process and kind of demystifies it a little bit so that it’s not so mysterious.
So, go out there and negotiate and get what you’re worth; not more than you’re worth, but maybe a little bit more than your worth. But go out there and get something that’s going to make you happy so that you’re going to want to stay there.
An employer is going to want to offer you something that you want; that you’re attracted to so that you’ll stick around. They know that if you accept something for less than you’re looking for, that you’re not going to last there very long. And they want you to stay and they want you to work and they want you to be happy.
Now, if you would like to go deeper into negotiating salary, let’s say you have a job offer and you’re not sure how to handle it and just want some help; you want someone to walk you through it. I am doing special job interviews salary negotiation coaching sessions right now.
And if you head on over to a jobinterviewtools.com/hpc (that stands for High Performance Coaching). I’ll put a link below here in this video as well. But go to jobinterviewtools.com/hpc and sign up for a 60-minutes session with me over Skype and you and I will just jump on a call and we’ll talk about your job offer.
We’ll talk about what you can do and how to leverage them to give you more money. Or maybe you have two job offers and you want to play them off on each other, but you’re not sure the best way to do that. Like I said, just sign up for a session with me on Skype and we’ll hash it out; we’ll figure out the best way to help you get the job offer that you want that pays the most money. Sounds good?
All right my friend that’s all I have for you. And if you’d like this video and you like the things that we’re doing here, go ahead and “Like” it. Subscribe to my channel and we’ll see you the next video. Bye now.
