Salary Renegotiation 101

You’re not alone in thinking that you are worth more than the salary you get every month. You’re also not alone in doing nothing about it. There are but a handful of assertive executives who stand up and renegotiate their salaries. They are the ones who are successful in their careers and happy with how much they’re getting.

Are you ready to renegotiate? Here are some tips:

Know your worth. Sure, you want to enjoy a higher salary. But do you have an idea about your real value? Will you be able to quantify your skills and accomplishments? List them all down so that you have basis for renegotiating your salary. If you can come up with substantial figures, such as how much money the company saved because of the process you introduced to streamline operations, then you will be able to better support your case.

No begging. You’re not a beggar; you’re an executive. Don’t come into your boss’s office with a sad face and a “pity party” waiting to happen. Your boss will not see it the way you want him to see it. Many employees think that having worked in a company for many years will automatically entitle them to a salary increase. You should remember that your work performance, accomplishments, and contributions to the company will weigh more than the length of time you clocked in and out of the office.

Don’t sound so entitled. This is the opposite of begging. Don’t go complaining to your boss about how you haven’t had any salary increase in a long time, while you worked as hard as everybody in your team and also contributed to the company’s growth. When renegotiating your salary, you should talk about your value and contributions to the company instead of questioning why you haven’t received any increment at all.

Present options to your boss. You might want to present options just to show that more than the salary, you care for the company and you want your career to grow. You may choose to volunteer for some extra work, or you can ask your boss to allocate the increase to your skills training instead. This will send a good message to your boss and can help build your reputation in the office. It can also be a good time to ask not just for a raise, but also for that promotion to a manager’s job which you’ve been eyeing on for months.

Negotiate at the right time. When is the right time? There are a lot of factors to consider. For instance, you should pay attention to the company’s current situation. Is it going through a crisis? Has the management just announced its efforts to restructure the business in order to cut operational costs? Or maybe everybody is busy because it’s that time of the year when customers are streaming in? If that’s the case, then you should consider postponing your renegotiation for another month or two. In the meantime, focus on becoming ready for that director job you’ve been eyeing.

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