Feature: Speak Up! Negotiating to Get Your Worth

By Hildegard Dodd

What you get, how much you get, and when you get it is often based on how well you can negotiate. People are often intimidated by negotiation for two reasons:  they don’t want to seem pushy or ungrateful, or they come into it with a competitive spirit that requires they “win.” If approaching a negotiation as a conversation where the outcome is for both sides to benefit, this can take some of the fear and predetermined outcomes out of the process.

Throughout your career, you need to be an advocate for yourself. Always. Having the self-awareness to understand what you deserve, having the research to back it up, and possessing the confidence to articulate it are exactly the skills you need to have when negotiating.

In business, people shouldn’t have to switch jobs to have more career growth, increase salary or benefits, or if there is a lack of work/life balance. Alas, people jump before they’ve even tried to have a conversation about what would need to happen for them to stay.

Some people use their negotiation skills when an offer for a new position is presented, and often they just focus on the final salary number. A mistake many people make is trying to negotiate before there’s an offer on the table. It’s best to wait for the company to make the first offer and begin negotiating from there. It can be challenging to hold your tongue, but you will always benefit from using their baseline offer as a starting point to your negotiation. Once there is an offer on the table, there are many other items that can be negotiated in addition to yearly salary that get overlooked. These include: time off / PTO, work schedule, location flexibility, healthcare benefits, educational reimbursement, 401K contributions, and title, just to name a few.

On the other hand, if you’re already in a position with a firm, negotiation skills often only come into play during review time, and, again, they are salary-focused. If you go into a review and walk out with only your basic 3% raise, you’ve missed an opportunity to negotiate for more. Research shows that if you’ve been with your firm for more than five years, there's a good chance you’re being underpaid.

In both instances, you should be receiving what the market offers as compensation to someone with your years of experience and skills in the industry. One might do a quick online salary survey search and find a salary range, but if you’re only doing the free search, those numbers often don’t consider factors such as a firm’s size and financial stability, and whether the titles match the actual work you currently do or will do in a future position.

So, what do you need to do to start preparing to negotiate for getting what you’re worth (knowing your worth at your current employer may or may not be a good indicator of your worth out in the marketplace)? Here are some steps to get you started:

• Do Your Research: Do extensive online research on what others in similar positions are being paid. Speak directly with headhunters, recruiters, and your trusted colleagues in the industry. This will give you valuable information for future use and form the foundation of your worth in the current marketplace. Keep an eye out for the SMPS SFBAC Salary Survey Report being released soon.
  
  
• Walk the Walk: In your current position, make sure you’re doing all you can to add value to your company (without sacrificing your personal life) and be a vocal advocate for how you save your company money, time, and/or resources. Show extra initiative, take on new projects, learn a new skill, and make sure people are taking notice when you do. If you are not presented with the opportunities that you need internally to build your work and/or leadership skills, getting actively involved with a professional industry organization can fill some gaps. If you’re searching for a new position, make sure you create a value proposition for what you can bring to a new firm that cites how a company can benefit from having you on their team. List all your past achievements, no matter how small they may seem to you. Focus on metrics and write examples that tell the story of how a situation or project was positively affected by your involvement.
  
  
• Set a Date: Don’t hope you will start a negotiation process “someday.” Work deadlines will make sure it never happens. Work with your team or department lead (someone who knows the specifics of the work you do, which probably isn’t HR) to get a future date on the calendar with the subject “to discuss my role and future compensation within the firm” and make sure you’re prepared to show internal and external examples of why you deserve more. Viewing it as a salary review rather than just “asking for a raise” will help assure the meeting is a conversation. And keep in mind that you may not walk out of the first meeting with a “done deal.” That’s usually not how negotiations work. There may be an ongoing discussion with next steps, success tracking, and follow-up meetings. Just make sure they aren’t too far down the road, as that might be a way for your employer to delay the conversation and hope you lose interest.
  
  
• Rehearse: Using a friend or mentor, role play various conversations, blockades, and questions that may arise during your discussion. This will also help build the confidence you need and quell some fears you might have in getting caught off guard during the conversation.
  
  

Speaking up for your worth can be challenging, but holding yourself back may keep you a few steps in compensation behind your colleagues throughout your career. If you’re prepared and believe that what you’re asking for is realistic and in line with the marketplace, then you’ve created the best foundation for future negotiation success.

Hildegard Dodd leads the Business Development & Marketing efforts of Wilson Ihrig, an Acoustics, Noise, and Vibration consulting firm. She has over 25 years of A/E/C industry experience, has been an SMPS member since 1998, and currently serves on the SMPS SFBAC Board of Directors.