The one way to get what you deserve

Have you ever had a gut feeling about something but you had no way of proving it?  I've had one of those feelings for years and I finally was able to find some proof this week.  

It started years ago, when I was getting ready to leave the Big 4.  I had decided that this time I was going to negotiate what I was worth.  Every single job I've accepted before that instance I had just said "yes" to whatever compensation they set before me.  Although it didn't make me angry, it did bother me to find out that my peers were making a little more than I was for the same level of work.  Why were they earning more?  Because they asked.  

Maybe I should start asking.

So with that in mind, I soon found myself sitting across  from two hiring managers.  One was an old school Cuban CPA and the other an uptight micromanager.  

The micromanager (aka MM) spoke first:

"We'd like you to join our firm and we're prepared to offer you $59k.  It's a very generous offer"

Me: "That sounds great.  How about $62?"

MM: "But that's already 28% salary increase.."

Cuban CPA (with a dismissive hand wave motion to the MM): "That's ok.  We can do the $62k"

And with that, I had done my first salary negotiation for 34% more than my previous salary.  Seriously, it took me longer to write it out than how it happened in real life.  

Two things stuck out from that interaction:

1. A negotiation is not hard if you prepare for it.
2. It didn't seem like they had put much thought to what my salary should be.  Just from hearing the MM know that their original offer was 28% more than my current salary, led me to believe they had just taken my old salary and added whatever they thought I would be happy with.  

Every since then I've had this feeling that HR and hiring managers just took salary numbers out of a hat and threw them out there.  I've seen it over and over again either through my own personal salary negotiations or when my salary negotiation clients tell me how easy it was to get a better salary.

This week I finally found the proof I needed through this article from the Wall Street Journal . According to the article, 62% of companies have no formal pay structure guiding their compensation packages.  That means that more than half of all compensation packages presented as part of a new job, were basically just a number they slapped on there.  

Odds are, you're not getting paid what you're worth but rather getting paid a random number that looked like "enough" to get you to accept the offer.  

Which brings me to this quote I read this past week that fits in perfectly:

You don't get what you deserve.  You get what you negotiate.

Now that you know their dirty little secret, use that information to your advantage.  The first step, of course, is to overcome the 3 main fears in negotiating.  There is an excellent article about that here: How To Increase Your Salary without Negotiating

Next step, reach out to someone who can guide you through the process.  I got this awesome email from someone whom I helped prepare for their salary negotiation this past week.  We talked on the phone afterwards and he told me the call didn't take more than 5-10 mins.  

I love this email because it shows you how being prepared changes "bad problems" like not having an interview, not sure if you're getting paid enough into "good problems" (I have so many job offers I don't know how to decline them!".

How about you? What do you think about salary negotiation?  Do you have trouble doing them?  How does it make  you feel?  Let me know in the comments.  I'm curious to know how you're thinking.

Be Bold!

Ramon
PS:I'll be teaching a class on negotiation for freelancers on Aug. 26th.  Click here to see the details.