How to Conduct Salary Negotiations

Performing salary negotiations can be one of the hardest things about accepting a new job. Maybe you landed your dream job, and you don’t want to complicate things with negotiations. While that might be the case, your starting salary is a significant number because every bonus or pay raise you make after the fact will be based on that starting salary number. Therefore, making a case for a higher starting rate can be crucial in getting better pay raises in the future:

Push the Boundaries Based on Situation

Your ability to negotiate well is often dependent on your overall job situation. If you need the job you received an agreement letter for, you have less wiggle room to negotiate since losing the job position is more important than making some extra cash per year. However, if you have received job offers from competing jobs, you now have the freedom to ask your second choice how much they are willing to pay you when you start. The idea behind this conversation is that you have a preferred working environment already secured, and so you now have the ability to ask your second best option what they are willing to increase your salary to. The worst case scenario is that they get offended and rescind your offer, which doesn’t matter because you have another offer on the table that you are happy with. The best case scenario is that they offer you a better starting salary than your other offer, which now makes this your best offer. The cool thing about this kind of negotiation tactic is that you can then use this salary offer to ask your first choice if they are willing to increase their offer to match the now better second offer.

Research Job Salaries for a Specific Job in that Area

Knowing what a standard salary for a job in a specific area is before you go into negotiations is super important. While you may think that the job offer is small for the work you will be doing, comparing this salary offer with similar positions online lets you know the truth about the health of your offer. Maybe your offer is better than you thought, or perhaps your proposal is worse than you could have imagined. Either way, knowing how your offer compares to similar job titles gives you the knowledge you need to make wise negotiation tactics.

Although salary negotiations are necessary, how you invest the money you make is often more crucial than any bonus you will get. Therefore, make sure you have the investment help you need by reaching out to American Investment Planners!