Know Your Worth: Salary Negotiation

Let’s assume you’ve gone through the whole process. You’ve created your LinkedIn profile, you’ve gotten noticed, you’ve submitted your resume. That is just awesome! You’ve had the interview, you did an excellent job, and now they want to extend the offer to you.

You need to know what you’re worth.

For some reason, job seekers often think there’s no negotiating and that companies offer you only what they can. They think companies usually offer you the maximum amount or it’s not in their budget to offer you more money. Or maybe you already work somewhere at a particular salary level and you don’t think it’s possible to receive an increase in your income.

You’ll never know if you don’t ask.

Don’t be afraid to ask for an increase in salary. 

The most important thing to remember is what you are bringing to that organization. If you can paint a clear picture of your value to your manager, or your soon-to-be manager, they’ll go to bat for you. They’ll look and see where they can get the money to pay you what you’re worth.

When it comes right down to it, the worst that could happen is the employer tells you “No, it’s not in our budget.” They’re not able to increase the offer amount. In most cases, they’re not going to rescind an offer because you’ve asked to increase it. They expect the salary is going to be negotiated. 

When I’ve talked to candidates, I always try to request salary expectations in the beginning. This is because I want to avoid trying to negotiate salary in the end. I would like to extend offers to my candidates and have them say “Yes” and accept my offer without going through a bidding war. I like to try to handle that in the beginning. However, sometimes, depending on how long the interview process is, they may have received a raise at their current place of employment since our interview took place and think it’s appropriate to ask for more. That is understandable.

In most cases, if you come to me and say, “I was really thinking about $95,000 instead of $90,000,” I’m fine with going back to the manager and talking about it further. I’ll ask them if they can meet the request or go halfway. If we’re not able to meet their request, I’ll say, “Unfortunately, we’re not able to do this.” But I wouldn’t rescind the offer. 

The only times I would rescind an offer is if the candidate was not returning my phone calls in regards to our salary negotiations or if the candidate keeps pushing me on the salary amount.

If you’re asking for more money than you’ve been offered from a new employer or re-negotiating your salary with a current employer, it’s not going to get you fired. Nor will that cause an offer to be rescinded. The worst thing that’s going to happen is you’ll be told, “No, unfortunately, it’s not in our budget. We can’t do that right now.” 

A higher amount is something to think about for the future. It’s good to put that bug in their ear. They might be able to work your increase request into the budget next year, especially if you’re someone they really want to keep around.

When thinking about negotiating your career, my biggest advice is this—have no fear. 

There should be no reason why you’re scared to ask for a pay increase if it’s something that you’re certain you deserve and if you feel that you’ve brought value to the team and the organization. 

I encourage you to make sure that you’re keeping track of your accomplishments, awards, and recognition. Keep track of that throughout the year. Then, whenever you’re meeting with your manager, one-on-one, you can bring those things up and further prove your worth. That makes it hard for the manager to say no. It also shows them why they need to give you a raise in order to keep you within the organization and not lose you.

When you’re able to show the value that you bring, it’s going to help with getting the raise that you deserve.

Just think, with an increase in pay, a promotion or maybe even switching jobs you could receive more money for what you’re doing. That can lead to greater happiness and financial freedom. 

It will also help with your confidence at work. You’ll know that you’re doing your job right and you’re doing it very well because they value you enough to pay you what you’re worth. 

This could lead to more opportunities in the future, from promotions to desirable leadership positions.

Asking for that promotion and getting paid what you are worth is very, very important to achieving the career success you truly want.