How to Negotiate Salary: 8 Key Tips You Need to Know Before Negotiating

Introduction

Salary Negotiation is one thing everyone goes through in their lifetime at least once. You have finally landed the desired job offer, and it is now time to talk numbers. This is when things start getting uncomfortable for many. Most candidates flinch at the idea of negotiating their salary. Some find it even more stressful than the interview stages, given that it can be an awkward conversation to have.

Most people don’t also bring it up and sign the dotted line hastily and hesitantly to avoid the discomfort. Did you know that an impressive salary negotiation email and some smart salary negotiation tips can strike the right chord with your employer? What’s more, you will be more motivated to take up the job if you get your worth.

Landing a job or sticking to one you already are on have one common thing. The salary and the perks involved are the factors that keep you on a job or let you bag one. Across industries in the current time, a weak market for labor has left some candidates with fewer options and attractive career opportunities. At the outset, it looks like the employers are the only ones happy. Candidates always seem to come across as disappointed with the extended offers.

How To Negotiate For Salary?

While the tables might seem turned in the employer’s favor, the employees can do much more than rant and grunt. Salary negotiation is just one of these steps an employee can take. Read up on how to negotiate for salary and follow the given salary negotiation tips.

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What do the stats say concerning salary negotiation? A recent survey of 1,000 employees between 18 and 34 revealed that 57.2% of them have never tried to negotiate their salaries. Furthermore, 8% refused that they would settle because they were content with their current compensation. Of the respondents, 6% refused because they did not know how to negotiate. 10.4% of the respondents said that they would avoid negotiating their salaries for fear of losing their job offers.

But why negotiate your salary in the first place? Not negotiating your salary can cost you dearly. This is because it is easier to get what you ask for when starting a job than while working in an organization. Further, settling for anything lower than your worth affects your future income and your self-esteem. It is also common knowledge that you get what you want only when you ask for it!

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Now that we have established how significant salary negotiation is to your overall growth, it is time to roll up your sleeves and talk. A useful salary negotiation tip is that these negotiations can likely work in your favor when conducted via email. This is because emails give you the time to put forth your thoughts politely. In a telephonic conversation, you may likely end up saying what you did not intend to. There may also be a chance that you miss out on giving some vital information to justify your ask. 

Thus, a salary negotiation email is a far safer way to present your counter offer. This communication medium allows the recruiter to consider your request at their comfort vs. having to answer immediately on call.

Is It Easy To Know How To Negotiate Salary?

Of course, this never means that salary negotiations are easy or guaranteed to lead to results.  Take it that you are in the last round of interviews and you are asked if you can take a cut in the salary if you receive a better position at work. This is where salary negotiation tips come to help.

Similarly, you might just have received a final offer for a job, but you are offered a slightly lower than expected or deserved salary. Then again, you might be well settled into a job, but a raise is long due. All of these scenarios have one solution to boot—that is, your skill for salary negotiation.

Read: Data Scientist Salary In India  

Here’s Few Salary Negotiation Tips

Here are some salary negotiation tips that you can incorporate in your salary negotiation email to sweeten the deal:

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1. Have Patience

Ensure that you do not jump into a conversation about compensation before the company does so. This is because you may end up asking less than what the company may plan to offer you. Second, when an organization makes you an offer, do not hurry to accept it.

Even if you are under the pressure of accepting the offer within a stipulated time, you can always ask for more time. Take a day or two, or even a week. Sleepover it, assess it, and gauge whether it meets your expectations. You will also need to exercise patience for hearing back from the potential employer after sending out your salary negotiation email.

2. Read Between the Lines

It is essential to read the fine print in the offer before you conclude. Sometimes, companies offer a lot more by way of perks. This may be in the form of allowances or health insurance. The bottom line is essential, but there are many hidden benefits you are likely to avail of. It is wise to consider the importance of these benefits before you negotiate your pay.

3. Research Extensively

Before you write your salary negotiation email, take your time to understand the industry’s current pay standards. Understand the prevailing salary trends corresponding to your job profile, qualifications, and years of experience. You may choose to ask people in your network and visit dedicated websites that showcase these trends.

Several websites, such as Glassdoor and Indeed, put up average pay scales for various job profiles and locations. This information is beneficial when justifying your ask.

Must Read: Highest Paying Jobs in India

4. Be specific

One of the essential salary negotiation tips you must know is to be precise. While giving a counteroffer to the hiring manager in your salary negotiation email, mention a particular number or range. This practice not only makes the hiring manager aware of your expectations, but it also assures them that you have done your research and realize your exact worth. 

Also, make sure that your email is crisp and concise, like any other business communication. A wordy salary negotiation email is often seen as the candidate trying to oversell himself/herself.

5. Explain why you Deserve More

The crux of a good salary negotiation email is a well-written explanation of why you are asking for more. Explain how you arrived at the figure you quoted. This is also an excellent chance to showcase your skills, experience, and potential for contributing positively to the firm. However, when you do so, remember to project yourselves humbly. 

Bringing up personal challenges such as student loans and the cost of living in your salary negotiation email is a strict no-no. Remember, the recruiter is hiring you for what you can bring to the table and not because they want to solve your problems. This way, you ensure that it is not just about you. It also shows the firm that it would do itself right by hiring you at your real value.

6. Take it as a Chance to Grow

As with all negotiations, there is always a chance of a fallout in the discussion. The hiring manager may not agree with you on your justification for asking for more. They may even flatly deny what you have requested. However, this is not really a loss if you take it as a learning experience in being assertive. At the same time, standing by your belief can help reinforce your self-confidence. This is one of the essential salary negotiation tips that need to be kept in mind.

7. Don’t be afraid to say no

The only thing standing between you and your job is your acceptance. Sometimes, accepting job offers that don’t pay you what you deserve can do more harm than good to your career. This is especially true when you begin seeking your next job. Most companies consider your previous organization’s salary to structure your new salary. Hence, accepting anything lower than your worth will dent future growth. It can also set your career back by a few years. 

8. Remember to be Courteous

Out of all the salary negotiation tips, this one takes the lead in presenting your recruiter’s personality. A handy salary negotiation tip is to be polite at all stages. After you first get the offer, express your appreciation to the concerned person for extending it. Make sure that you read the offer carefully. Understanding that the company has offered you much less than what you think you deserve can be exasperating, but you must keep calm.

Before you start to understand how to negotiate for salary, you have to understand that you need to have a personal level of commitment. To begin with, you must actually dedicate yourself to joining in the face of an offer. You have to convince your hiring manager that in the face of a salary negotiation that you initiate, you will offer a sure-shot commitment to joining. This is because unless a company trusts your skills and banks on your availability, a salary negotiation based on salary negotiation tips will never find fruition.

Whenever you want to negotiate a better package, you must express your seriousness about working for the employer. However, always be sure that you do not overvalue your skill sets. Sure, you could bring much more to the board than someone else, but you cannot oversell yourself. If you are serious about your commitment to an employer, then surely the negotiations will work in your favor. Answers on how to negotiate salary work best when there is a clear direction in the discussions. 

Gather your thoughts, do your research, and respond courteously. After all, you are not being forced to accept the offer at gunpoint! You will have your chance to make a counteroffer. Thanking the hiring manager first will set the right tone for your salary negotiation email.

Also Read: Highest Paying Jobs for Freshers

Conclusion

Negotiating your salary may not exactly be a fun experience; it is nevertheless an important skill you will need for a successful career. Following the salary mentioned above, negotiation tips can help you draft an impressive salary negotiation email that may change your fate. 

If you find that negotiating your salary directly highly unnerving, it may be wise to take the help of experts. Some universities and e-learning platforms teach some excellent salary negotiation tips as part of their placement support service. upGrad helps candidates identify appropriate career opportunities and serve as career coaches.

This includes hand holding the student until the final stage by preparing them for interviews, salary negotiations, etc. Applicants may also avail 1-on-1 career counseling sessions that provide personalized support. Having some excellent salary negotiation tips up your sleeve will help advance your career and land your dream job at the salary you deserve.

With the advanced times, skills have become an inevitable requirement that makes people suitable for any work. These career skills, job skills, and employability skills have a significant impact on a person’s workability and help an organization grow.

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