Clegg shares three phrases to negotiate salary higher: ask the employer's range first, state your researched market range and ask if it matches theirs, and after an offer arrives, say "I'm targeting $Z. Is there a way to make up the difference?" Mona got a $42k raise and Kyle negotiated $15k above the posted range using these tactics.
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It is so common that you have to talk about salary in a job interview or at the offer stage and you panic. So here are 3 key phrases that if you remember these, you won't mess your negotiation up and you can actually get a lot more money. And you've come to the right place. Trust me, I've helped my clients collectively negotiate millions of dollars in salary negotiations, including Mona, who had been job searching for 3 years. And within 30 days, I helped her to land a job offer, get a $42,000 salary increase over her last job, and negotiate $25,000 above the stated range in the job description. And stay to the end because if you're negotiating for more money, people often say way too much. And I'll give you a simple one sentence that has gotten my clients tens of thousands of dollars of increase. On a single job offer. When asked for your compensation requirements in a job interview, the key phrase to use to fire right back is, what is your range? And most of the time they have one and will tell you. From there, you can just say, yes, that range works for me. Or if you're not likely to take that amount but still want to continue the process, you can say, it is on the lower end of what I've been seeing, but I'm open and looking for the best overall opportunity. And then mutter under your breath, cheapskates. Let me know in the comments, do most of the jobs you apply for show the salary ranges on the job description or not? Also let me know where is your location because it's interesting to hear how they do it in different places. Now, if the interviewer doesn't give you a salary range and insists on you saying a number, here comes the super important phrase. Phrase for you to remember. Say, the range I'm seeing in the market is blank dollar to blank dollar. Does that match what you're seeing? Pause here to observe the beauty of this phrasing. What is so magical about this is that you are not demanding a certain range, then you are then painting yourself into a corner where they will eliminate you from consideration. No, but by simply stating what you see in the market, that gives the company the opportunity to agree with you or counter and state what they are seeing if it's something lower, in which case you can then easily pivot and say, oh, got it, I'm flexible. And of course, only if you truly are. Here is the key though: when you say what you're seeing in the market, the lowest number you are going to say is going to be more at the 50th percentile or above. So you need to inflate the range to make it so that the bottom number is one that you would be excited to take. And not your actual bottom-of-the-barrel minimum. You can find salaries by looking at job descriptions for similar roles, and you can also look at websites like salary.com and Glassdoor, which can help you with your research. Also, I do think that the exact phrasing I share with you in this video is important, so I'll link a document below for free that you can grab that will have all of these phrases that you can download for your interviews so you don't mess up your negotiations. Okay, let's say you got the offer, you dazzling starfish. I knew you could do it. Here's what you do to maximize your salary in the job offer, to offer max, if you will. First step, you hear the offer, you pause. Silence. Even if you're really excited, give it a moment. Then show gratitude. Even if it's a low offer, express that you're grateful, because after all, they chose you out of everyone else. And having been on the other side of the hiring process for most my career, I know how excited employees get to extend the offer and welcome you onto the team. And it's an emotional experience for them too. So you can say something like, thank you so much for the offer. I'm excited about the possibility of working together. I really like this phrasing because you're not implicitly accepting the offer. You shouldn't say, I'm excited to work together, because then you're eroding your ability to negotiate by essentially admitting that you're going to accept. And so at this time, feel free to ask for any explanation about anything about the offer. So how is the leveling determined? How was the equity grant determined? How many days in office will this role be? But no matter what, I want you to remember that you don't have to actually respond In the moment with anything. So you can always simply say, great, I'd like to take some time to process this information. And any negotiation can happen once you've had a moment to think. And for my clients, they run on over to me and I help them negotiate the offer and help them with what to say. Such as my client Kyle, who was initially rejected for a role, and I worked with him to get reconsidered. And then after all that, he ended up getting a job offer that was below his target compensation. And so I told him exactly what to say to negotiate $15,000 above the stated salary range. And by golly, he got it. So that brings us to the key final phrase to help you get so much more money in a salary negotiation. And this is especially good if you often talk too much, which can really hurt hurt you in a negotiation. So let's say the salary in your job offer isn't as high as you'd like, or frankly, you'd just like to see if they'll go higher. Sure, there are times when you may rationalize the ask, explaining with your research and leveling guidelines and your expertise as to why you deserve more money. But often you don't need all that. Simply, you can say, and this is the important phrasing here, I'm targeting blank dollar amount. Is there a way to make up the difference? And a simple way you can come up with that number is you can look at what they're offering and you can think about what number you want and then ask for the number that makes what you actually want more like the middle of those. Such as in simple terms, let's say they offered you $240,000, you want $250,000, then you would tell them you're targeting $260,000. Bing, bang, boom, that makes $250,000 as the midpoint between the 2 numbers. And what I love about this phrasing is it still sounds collaborative and open. You're asking if there is a way to make up the difference, so let's work together, instead of something harsher, but is also strong in the expression of directly saying you are targeting a certain dollar amount. It's a great balance of being open while also being firm. So be sure to grab that free document below with all of the negotiation phrases you need. You've got this. Wi-Fi high five.
