Negotiating Salary
Salary negotiation is always a fiddly affair and exceedingly crucial too, since it will determine if you manage to draw what you really deserve, or be settled for an undeserving amount. The sole objective for sure is to reach a mutually agreeable consensus where the bargain seems just evenhanded and fair for both the sides. Yet there are some common miscalculations and some preconceived standpoints that often wipe out the likelihood of a negotiation culminating into an accord.
Unless you abide by some basic guiding principles of a fruitful negotiation, your entire uphill struggle in reaching this far can also go down. And you'll never want this to happen, will you?
Since your motive in negotiating salary is to convince the recruiter that what you offer is worth what you are asking for in return, you must avoid a casual and a slack approach of bargaining. Bear in mind a word of advice before you set about minding this thorny business.
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Research to Decide an Apt Package
Don't jump to irrational conclusions about your salary. These presumptions can either be higher than your true worth or even less than what you actually deserve. One of the common slips, for an instance, is to add a certain figure to the previous or current salary- "I am currently drawing Rs. 12,000, so I must ask for Rs. 14,000." Visibly, no reason has gone into such a conjecture. The logical approach is to study the salary pattern across the companies and the industry, and then come to a conclusion based on factual substantiation. Besides, researching will also render you conviction while negotiating and you'll be having strong reason in support of your assertion.
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It's not a Shopping Bargain
Don't adopt a marketplace bargaining approach. What it means is that you might think, "To have them agree on Rs. 12,000, I must start from 15,000. Bit by bit, I'll recede to lesser and will settle on what I want by the conclusion." Recruiters are too busy to put up with such bargaining. What they expect from you is not some figures in a descending order; what they want is the substantiation of your claim. To put it the other way round, they just want you to recount your skills and abilities and prove that your demand is fair. So better focus on a logical approach towards convincing the recruiters rather than throwing away some absurd figures.
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Don't be Adamant
Being irrationally unyielding is yet another trap negotiators fall into. Sure, you'll be having a definite figure in mind having made an exhaustive study of the market; one you'd like to stick to, but be prepared to face and crack a bottleneck when the recruiter might think the other way. Don't be childishly dogged about your claim if the negotiation is heading nowhere. Keep your mind open and keep thinking up to leap over the hurdles. It doesn't mean that you should yield to an unprofitable offer; the implication is that you should keep thinking alternatives to push on. Negotiation is sort of a wordy duel, so being eloquent will help a lot. And finally when the push comes to shove, you can always decide if the offer is worth accepting or declining.
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Assume a Farsighted Approach
May be that you are denied the right salary at the outset, but getting generous increment regularly can just make up for a seemingly unprofitable deal. And to be sure that this will happen to you, you need awareness of the company's increment trend and a little bit of farsightedness. There are some companies, which are a little tightfisted to start with; they might be too circumspect about your potential initially, but later you might be bestowed with lavish pay raise once you prove to be the right guy. Besides, some other factors too need to be contemplated while accepting or turning a proposal down, like the size of the company, the growth prospect, employees welfare programs, and other amenities. It doesn't imply that you should always take up a too lowly package and hope for the best; the gist is that you ought to think out of the box before writing a proposal off.
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Remember Your True Worth
It might sound unpleasant but sometimes we put too high a price on ourselves. Miscalculations happen when we merely go by the salary pattern of the industry and ignore our own competence as a professional. Remember, researching should be done with the sole aim of coming to a rough estimation of the salaries across the companies, not for assuming a hard and fast stance regarding your salary. One common mistake that people make is that they weigh their salary against some other people they know and insist on getting the same salary. But rather than caring for the salaries alone, things like potentials, companies, qualifications etc. should also be put side by side.
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Don't make it a Drifting Discussion
Keep the discussion from being some sort of a political dialog that reaches nowhere at all at the end of the day. Reaching to a unanimous covenant should be the driving force behind whatever you speak, so don't just talk the time away. The discussion can go off at a tangent because of the recruiters as well, so make voluntary effort to bring the negotiation back to track, don't just wait for it to resume the right course. And don't make negotiation a matter of your ego; be considerate. Also, a salary negotiation is not all about what you expect, it's also about what the recruiters deem fit or can afford to pay. Try to discern what can sway the recruiters from their stance, since nobody enters a negotiation with too much of an inflexible preconception. Make the recruiters concede to your demand, but tactfully.
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End at a Positive Note
Incase things don't go your way and the negotiation ends up in a letdown despite all your efforts, don't say things like- "Your offer is too paltry to be accepted; I reject it outright." Be modest when declining the offer. Who knows you find yourself on the same table and up against the same folks somewhere down the line? In any case, it's always courteous and humane to be affable to people, whether or not you need their favor.
