How to Negotiate
Effective negotiation blends hard data with situational awareness. Pin down the compensation band, gauge your leverage, and articulate the value you bring. This guide shows you how to craft a focused narrative, introduce strategic competitive pressure, and raise your offer without jeopardizing the deal.
Assess Your Position
Start by pinning down critical information like level and job type. This in turn will position you to be able to ask your recruiter about the salary and total compensation bands that correlate. Understanding the financial constraints that the compensation analysis team is working with will inform how hard you can push.
Exception offers can be possible in certain situations. These are offers that exceed given salary and total compensation bands. This can be achieved in scenarios where interview performance is particularly strong or a position is relatively hard for the company to fill. Don't be afraid to ask your recruiter if an exception offer is possible.
Introduce a Competitor
Competition sets your market value and creates urgency with finance. This can be an offer from another interview process, but it does not have to be. Your current company can act as a competitor. For instance, you can talk about what your position and salary will look like once you receive the promotion you've been working so hard for. You can also refer to the risk associated with changing from one position to another and this risk is worth a reasonable increase.
A company can ask for your compensation expectations, BUT in many states it is illegal for them to ask for your current compensation. A company can ask for specifics on competitive offers, BUT you are not required to show proof.
Tell a Consistent Story
Your recruiter is the individual that is going to advocate on your behalf to the compensation team. The recruiter will do a better job if they believe your story. If you change reasoning or are inconsistent with your compensation requirements, you will lose the faith or focus of your recruiter. If they consider you a lost cause, they will focus on their more likely to close cases.
The recruiter needs a story with numbers attached to present to finance. The story you tell needs to be a story the recruiter can sell.
Always remain kind and grateful for your recruiter's effort on your case. When push comes to shove it is you and them working together to craft a feasible story for the compensation team.