Tweet

Salary Negotiation Techniques That Will Turn Your Employer Into An ATM

Guest post by: Ken Sundheim

Article Overview: Although I have a very keen eye for spotting a fair amount of negotiation tactics, I find negotiation, in most circumstances, to simply be a hindrance to the normal flow of business....

Salary Negotiation Techniques That Will Turn Your Employer Into An ATM

Although I have a very keen eye for spotting a fair amount of negotiation tactics, I find negotiation, in most circumstances, to simply be a hindrance to the normal flow of business.

For a moment, tally up the opportunity cost that you have seen wasted by others who want to negotiate arbitrary, meaningless things like the cost of pens at Staples. You would probably have a good chunk of change if you summed up all that wasted time and energy.

Among many professionals, salary negotiation is a topic of inflated importance and is often written about in a very reckless, inaccurate manner by people who are off base to an extent that piques a tremendous amount of curiosity for me, both personally and as a sales recruiter.

It took me years to come up with these salary negotiation "rules" I recommend most job seekers follow. They are broad, but since I started KAS, I find them to be the most reliable, in the widest variety of job offer situations.

- Unless you need the money, don't negotiate for a few thousand dollars.

With a grin, I once saw a VP go back and forth with a 20 year old over $3,000. How this VP is still gainfully employed, I don't know. When two people who don't know how to negotiate get together, they get a perception that each does. Both sides of the table appear to pretend that the boardroom table is a stand at some country bazaar.

Therefore, before you go on the job search, make rules for yourself. Don't get caught up in situations like the aforementioned. At best, you will waste time or leave a bad taste in the hiring manager's mouth. At worst, you will lose what should have been a sure thing or a job you really wanted.

Tell yourself what you're going to graciously walk away from, what you're going to sit on and what you're going to sign the next day. Keep in mind that this number should shift in conjunction with how much you like the job, and its perceived strengths in terms of furthering your career progression.

If you love the job, remember that you only live once and weigh what luxuries you must give up and do your best to make a decision.

- You don't know the employment market well enough to negotiate

There are too many complicated variables that go into compensation.

When trying to gauge their worth on the market, job seekers tend to reference friends and old colleagues. What they don't understand is that their friend could have been at the right place at the right time.

For example, maybe the owner of the firm that hired your friend needed to hire someone and was very desperate to get a body in the organization. In this circumstance, about 20%+ compensation leverage went to the friend.

This is just one of 20 different variables that throw people off when asking for any given compensation package.

In any salary discussion, whether for a new job or a raise, citing an acquaintance's or colleague's compensation package is a weak argument. It's the equivalent of saying, "Bobby got chocolate milk, so I shouldn't have plain."

When it comes to numbers, the employer doesn't know Bobby; all they know is their budget and their company goals.

- Don't fall into the benefits trap

I always say to my corporate friends that if they get hit by a tank, they are sure as heck lucky not to have to pay the ambulance bill. If you're younger, odds are you don't require extensive health insurance coverage, beyond annual check-ups and some prescription coverage. For the majority of job seekers - especially those who don't yet have families to insure - keep benefits out of the salary negotiation equation, all other things being equal.

If you want to cut negotiations off and get a higher salary...

Be candid about the fact that you don't negotiate salaries. Now, the employer can trap you and ask for a specific number, but be vague and give a range. Let them come with the offer. If they come in way too low, walk away: undervaluing you is unprofessional on the employer's part.

Remember the emotions that go into negotiation

Before you go into heated salary negotiations for weeks on end over $12,000, remember that you're going to have to work with these individuals. The last thing you want to do is go into a new office with strange faces and feel uncomfortable.

People make snap judgments on others, mostly in the time frame of four to seven seconds. Strangers know when you are upset or disgruntled more than your own family does, often because they haven't become inured to your behavioral tics. This is not to mention that 80% of all communication is nonverbal. First impressions don't last a lifetime, but they do last and are hard to change.

The last first impression you want at your new job is a reputation as the new person who strained the budget unnecessarily.

Related Articles
  The Salary Negotiation Dance During a Job Interview
  NEGOTIATING YOUR PACKAGE
  Importance of Salary Survey for the Employee and Employer
  Top Ten Tips for Negotiating a Job Offer
  Beware the salary sacrifice trap
  Negotiation Success Step Two Do Your Homework
  Why an Outstanding Resume is Not Enough to Get an Interview: Reason 1
  Getting Re-Hired By The Company That Laid You Off
  The First Step to a Great Negotiation
  The "Daily Negotiator" Mindset
  Powerful Negotiation: The 'Daily Negotiator' Mindset
  Do You Deserve a Salary Increase?
  Negotiation- fundamentals!
  ESCALATION AS A NEGOTIATION STRATEGY
  Why Companies Should Use Configurable Resource Planning Software Vs Traditional Scheduling
  Eliminate Ranges From Your Negotiating Vocabulary
  Not Getting Enough Profitable Business?
  15 Techniques for Winning Negotiations
  Negotiating Your Severance Package - Should You?
  Job Advice: How to Handle the Exit Interview

Article Tags: salary negotiation, salary raises



Related Forum Posts
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash
Re: Ways to Boost Productivity - 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck 2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service 3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning. 4. Outsource as much as possible 5. . Turn off the TV.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1jr37kqx]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1jr37kqx] Hi Jeff, Thanks for adding to the list. I have one question, though. How would one implement Session IDs for a URL, and what benefit would come from doing so?
On Escalade - I've seen the ad for "Turn you on" on TV here in Toronto but not the others. Yeah my girlfriend liked that ad too and started telling me wouldn't it be great to have one, I had to quickly remind her that one of the reasons we moved downtown was so that we could get rid of the car and plus we don't have a parking space for it. Honestly, I was seriously considering it.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1a8vvwse]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1a8vvwse] I wouldn't think of "relying on keyword metatags", "using lots of javascript", and "implementing your site in Flash" as bad/black hat...just ineffective. The search engines don't pay much attention to keyword metatags, and using javascript/flash just means the search engines can't "read" it (so if your menu is javascript, for instance, the search engine won't see any keywords you might have in there.)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Severance and Separation Agreements

Are You My Mentor

Five Ways to Show Honest Appreciation

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.