Salary Negotiation for Designers

Negotiating salary for creative jobs. One of the major pain points where a design community faces and also people who are coming from a different background into design do not know the strategy and that is why they go into a low salaries. That is why they are not able to pitch themselves to be worth of whatever they value for. And lot of confusion have happened and once a salary is being fixed, it's not able to change. It is coming from that base level to the next salary. So all these things are myth, let me tell you guys, all these things are definitely learned and it can be overcome when you know the right strategy of how you can do the salary negotiation properly, when you're jumping from a different field or when you are transitioning into a senior level designers or even a fresher to a starting designer. So all these categories will be applicable for the information, whatever I'm giving you. Okay, so I'm going to be giving you 13 different steps of how you can do an effective salary negotiation being in a creative design jobs. Okay, so take a lot of notes. Now let's start into the topic. Welcome guys, welcome, welcome. Thank you for staying tuning in with me in Design for Change podcast. So this is a little different topic. It's not about a technical design, it is about how you can negotiate your salary. When it comes to creative design jobs, every designer needs to really understand this. A lot of people are not not taught properly. A lot of people are not having awareness about this topic. That is why this podcast I've been recording. Okay, it is a very important aspect being a designer to know this. So Here is the 13 strategies. The first strategy is do your research properly. It's not a product design research, okay, even you need to do research in all the aspect when you wanted to get a perfect output. That is where research is inevitable. So before the negotiation research about the salary standards of that company. Check out the best average package, what a similar role offers. Like let's say if you are working in Chennai, if you're working in Delhi, if you're working in Bombay, there is a cost of living associated and there is an average pay which is being paid for that designers. So make sure you check with many websites also of your companies and also you can check in some of the job portals like let's say Glassdoor, PayScale, LinkedIn salary insights. So these can provide you some valuable research inputs for you. Once you have that clarity then it will be an input for you to start negotiating which is a very important thing. People don't do it. The second important aspect in salary negotiation is please know your worth. See, understanding your own value, your skill set, your expertise, and how much value you can contribute to the organization. It's much more important when it comes to salary negotiation. And absolutely people have zero knowledge about it. They have their strength, but they don't know how to utilize it when it comes to salary negotiation, how to pitch the value properly in order to get that particular salary compensated for that. That is why you need to be very confident when you're bringing out on the table for the discussion. That is why you need to write about yourself. You need to write about your strength, weakness and skills and expertise, what you have and the unique contributions, what you had given to the earlier organization and how you wanted to give for the new organization. Knowing your worth and pitching right is an important aspect. The third important thing is consider the full package. See, remember that compensation includes not only the base salary, but also the benefits, bonuses and the perks and all other everything's included. So evaluate your entire package to ensure it aligns with your goal. Whatever you're setting, your needs or whatever is your financial requirement you're getting, make sure you consider this full package and then go for the negotiation. Do not have a half breakage and then you go for only base salary negotiation and then you have extra benefits negotiation. Don't do that. So research it out properly and then clearly write it down what is the full package and the split components of a salary and then go for negotiation for that. And then the fourth important thing is wait for the right moment. See, timing is an important factor here. Avoid salary discussion in the starting phase of the interview process. So wait until you have the job offer, you have the clear indication of the interest from the employer and then you are very absolutely sure, yes, I'm going to be getting into this job. Then having that negotiation will have a lot of clarity. People will listen to you, people will respond to you. Before that, if you do lot of hrs, they are not very much mature. Lot of HRS are really good, but they expect this kind of a discussion to happen little later. A lot of people reject you because of this reason. That is why you need to make your strategy aligning to both different levels of hrs. Because you can't expect all the HRS to be highly qualified, highly experienced to whomever you're speaking to. So you need to find that right moment. And the right moment is ideally having the interview cleared and then talking about it. Okay, you can have a broad range of salary package initially during the discussion before you attend Any interviews. But the negotiation part comes little later. Okay, this is the fourth important part. The fifth important strategy is practice effective communication. So you need to be very clear and concise. You need to know what is the conversation which you're making. You need to be professional. You should not do a bargain. See there is a huge difference between negotiation and bargain. When you go for a shop, like let's say vegetable shop or something, we ask no. Hey, hey bhaiya, can you give me just for 10 rupees? No, no, no, no. Outside people are giving for only 10 rupees but you're charging 20 rupees. That's called bargain. There is no baseline when you have a bargain. There is no standard reference research and there is no big compensation. Whatever you are thinking about when you are doing a bargain. But when you're doing a negotiation there is a strategy for that. You need to have a very clear strategy. Then and only your communication will be very clear and precise so that it becomes more professional. So focus on your skills and accomplishments and the value you bring to the company. And then you pitch for the salary what you want. Don't just bargain blindly. This is the fifth strategy. The sixth strategy is express your enthusiasm. See guys, this is most, most important when it comes to negotiation. Convey your enthusiasm for that particular role and the company. This demonstrates your genuine interest for that role. See. See guys, when you wanted to win a sales negotiation or a salary negotiation or something like that, it's always about the exchange of enthusiasm. The more enthusiasm you talk to the person, the better you will be able to negotiate a salary and better deal you'll be able to close. How I've learned it when a sales webinar happened, I've learned it from the best sales masters. While I'm reading through that materials and listening to them, it's all about your enthusiasm. When you wanted to close a high deal for a sale, right? Normally sales people do the closing kind of a deal with the high value for the product or service. So you need to use that strategy here. So they are very highly enthusiastic people and you need to be more enthusiastic. And then you need to show that. Then what will happen is people will be like oh yeah, this person seems to be more interested like a very fit under apt candidate. Okay, Giving a little bit extra salary is not a big deal. We can do it. So 90% of the time this will work guys. Okay? Trust me. And the seventh important strategy is be open and flexible. See, approach the negotiation with the open mindset. Be willing to listen to the Employer's real pain point. They may have a budget constraint. They may have a team restriction contain. They may have a different compensation structure which is like fix it. Like be open to be understanding their real pain point. Also on top of it, if you find any gap, you can negotiate it and also be flexible. So do not turn up the discussion saying, no, I'm not interested because your salary is low. That's not the professional way to do it. You need to just accept it. If they have a proper, what you call reason for that and then you can able to tell, okay, thank you Mr. HR and I really appreciate you. No problem. It's, it's. It. It needs to be both mutual benefit for you and me. So I believe this offer is something like this. Thank you so much for having the conversation. Let me think over it and give a response back. You can politely close like that and then you can tell honestly like, hey, I'm little bit disappointed in this, but I believe you also have a constraint in your organization for the salary package. So I understand you are not able to help me. Thank you so much. No problem. We'll be staying connected and I can able to approach you for any further roles. Is it? Okay? So you need to build that relationship. When you close that call, you should be more flexible towards that. Okay, this is the seventh strategy. The eight important strategies. Prepare counteroffers. See, when you're doing a research, you should be able to have an anticipation of what is the counter offer? Because HR will normally ask, okay, what is your expectation? That's the second question they'll be answering. They'll be asking you. So you need to have a proper response. What is the initial offer? What are the lower that you can expect and what are the counter which you can have a reasonable figure based on your research, what you did. See, this is very, very important. When people ask, okay, what is your. So if you're saying the salary is low, what's your expectation? People will be like damn silent, right? You need to have a counteroffer properly or else simply it means that you are negotiating something. See, we are negotiating salary package because to prove our worth of the value what you add organization, that particular value of whatever skill set we have to the exact salary compensation, what we are getting. So it is a fair deal. There is no need of a shy, there is no need of a embarrassment. There is no need of emotional things involved here. It needs to be very clear. Because you are exchanging a value, they are also giving you a value simple. When it comes to money, it's just an exchange of value, guys. If you have that clarity, you will be detached to that money outcome and you will have a better negotiation done. And let me tell you guys, if you are detached from the salary component, you will have a better deal closed. But when you are too much obsessed with salary, what will happen is you will end up with low salaries. This is what I've observed with many students. This is what I've learned from my mentors also. It just. It doesn't work at all. And I've also made that mistake during the start of my career. So you should be more careful when it comes to detaching from that money counterpart. Because it is very clear that when you add a value, you will be getting a value. If you're able to project it rightly, you will have a clear deal closed. And if you're able to showcase the what you call expected salary also with the proper research saying, hey, this design organizations or medium scale industries, which is average package is 9.5 lpa, but what you're offering is 5 lpa, it's way far closer, way far lesser. Can you just come at least to a 7 or 8 LPA which is good for me? So that you can close like that with the value. So that people will also be able to help you discussing with their organization and their senior management and coming back with your value. Instead of just saying it's a low salary, low salary, it's never ending loop. You will be getting rejected only. Okay, this is the eighth strategy. And the ninth strategy is maintaining professionalism. So regardless of the negotiation outcome, you need to maintain that attitude. You need to be calm, cheerful and you need to have a mutual benefit for the both agreement. That is what I've been telling you again and again. The tenth important factor is patience. You need to practice a lot. See, when it comes to negotiation, one or two discussions will happen. Two round or three rounds of discussion can also happen. So you need to be very calm. You need to take some time also to come back and tell people, hey, I need little time. Can I come back after her hard? Can I come back after a day? If they ask you the same thing, they have to talk to the management and come back. You should do that same. You should not rush the process. You need to avoid that. And you need to be more patient. And lot of good things will happen when you have patience. The 11th important factor is considering non salary benefits. See, if an employer is unable to meet your salary expectation, explore the other benefits, their training program, their employee improvement, their engagement and their working hours and their additional vacation days or professional development opportunities. If that is also compensated, you should be able to happily accept that offer. What happens is people don't understand this. People just expect this salary numbers to be high, numbers to be high. No. End of the day, your work life balance is very important. If you're able to get that compensation, you should be more happy for that. And also the 12th important thing is get it in writing. See, once you and your employer has an agreement, make sure you get an offer compensation in email or a writing or or a proper proof. So this helps avoid misunderstanding later. This is a very important pain point. Normally students don't do it even HRS take advantage of it. So you need to be more professional when you're doing it. Okay, so the 13th important factor is seek advice. Very, very, very, very important guys. See, when it comes to salary negotiation, if you have a good mentor or if you have a good senior or if you have a good financial consultant. Normally in my case I used to ask my uncle, he used to help me a lot when it comes to salary negotiation. So he used to tell me a strategy how I can negotiate with that because he's been working in finance and he knows how things work. So you need to have a good expert of people whom you can seek advice for if it is. If you are very unsure about the process, please consider asking them. Your peers or your career advisors who have that industry experience. And you know what guys, if you do all these 13 steps, you will have an excellent salary package and you will have a fair compensation which will reflect in your career success. Okay, let me recap you quickly guys. So first is do your research. Second is know your worth. Third is considering a full package. Fourth is wait for the right moment. 5th is practice effective communication. 6th is express your enthusiasm clearly. 7th is be open and flexible. 8th is prepare that counter offers. 9th is maintaining professionalism. 10th is practice patience. And 11th is consider the non salary benefits. 12th is get it in email and confirm. 13th is just talking to the people with a great expertise. If you're able to do it, there is no doubt you will not have any problem in negotiating salary and you will not do a bargain. You will do a proper, strategic, effective negotiation using these techniques. Okay, thank you so much guys. Let me tell you the last golden tip for this negotiation strategy. Okay, out of all these 13 points, let me tell you the golden tip is you need to be more empathetic listener if you are able to listen to the other person very carefully and understanding what they are trying to say based on the counter what you are making, it will itself automatically give you an intuition what strategy you can use to win that negotiation. If you are able to tune into that listening mode very carefully and empathetically understanding that person, definitely chances are that you will win a great negotiation. With that you will be getting a great career success ahead in financial terms as well. Okay, thank you so much guys. I hope you love this podcast, so stay tuned with me for more episodes like this and you can hit that star rating if you feel this podcast has added value. You can give me best rating in Spotify, Apple. And if you feel like having a mentorship with me to learn lot many things like this for your career and make a very good successful career in design as well as the financial things sorted in your creative jobs, please feel free to take a help with me and I'll be happy to happily help you out. Because when you have a mentor and an accountability system which can be guided properly, you will be able to navigate this process effectively so that later you can do it on your own. Okay, thank you so much guys. Take care. All the best. Bye bye. It.