Ramit Sethi tells Lisa B. that "can't pay more" is negotiable. Bring salary data from Payscale, a 30/60/90-day plan, testimonies from people inside the company, and other offers. Use silence after you object to their low number. Make them come back to you.
Yes, I like this question. This question is from Lisa B. Lisa says, I'm close to getting an offer for my dream job, but they already hinted in pre negotiations that it will be hard to pay me what I'm getting now. Let's just say between 150k and 200k. I think that's kind of a BS statement and I think I can use the briefcase method. It's called the briefcase technique now, not the briefcase method, to show them that I will earn them lots of money, etc. I also know that I can negotiate for non cash benefits. That said, what's the best way to stand strong on the cash salary without blowing my chances for an awesome job? I'm already working on other offers with other companies as well. Okay, I love this question because there's a lot of subtle things going on. As a hiring manager, if I'm very skilled, what I want to do is hint during the process that, you know, I'm not so sure that we could afford to pay top salary. But people don't usually come here exclusively for the salary. They come here for the meaning. You see what I'm doing there? What I'm doing there is I'm putting this little hint in your mind that, look, you're not going to get paid top dollar here. As a candidate, you want to do precisely the opposite. It's a dance. You want to say something like, you know, in the past when I was pretty young and frankly a little inexperienced, I was more than happy to work for free and just to really soak up that experience. Now that I have, you know, more marketable skills and I know the value that I bring, well, now, you know, obviously I want to be compensated at the top of my range, but I'm also looking. It's not just about compensation for me. I'm looking for meaningful work. Okay, do you see what I just did there? As a hiring manager, I'm hinting to you that, you know, we're not going to be able to pay top dollar. But I'm just hinting as a candidate, I'm hinting like, look, I used to be able to work for peanuts and now of course I want to be paid at the top of my range because I'm quite good. But you're also giving. Each side is giving the other person an out. Right? It's like a classic flirt. So how do you handle this now? You need to be aware that what has happened in the past will directly influence your negotiation. A lot of people get this wrong. They think walking into a negotiation that it's a clean slate. Wrong. What you've said back here directly influences the outcome of your negotiation. So if you've said something like, you know, in terms of compensation, I'm sure we can come to an agreement that's fair for both of us. Obviously, I'm looking to be compensated at the top of the range for this position, but that's something we can discuss. That little phrase, that mindset is going to give you significant rewards during the negotiation. Now, how do you get it back on track if you weren't savvy enough to do that back then? What you can do is simply go back to the classic dream job negotiation techniques. And what that involves is, you know, you do your homework, make sure you bring in your salary.com, your payscale.com numbers, and there's going to be a range, let's say you said between 150 to 200k. You want to show why your experience is directly relevant to being paid at the top of that range. How do you do that? First of all, bring the data, show, look, I'm a senior application developer or whatever it is you are. Next, you can stack the odds in your favor. And this is what most people never do. Love this. You come in, you bring in your 30, 60, 90 day plan. You bring in your briefcase technique. You bring in perhaps testimonials of people who are already at the company, who you've spoken to. And you, you know, I've spoken to Charles and we're really excited about what we would do in 60 days on this project. So now you are decommoditizing yourself. Other people are simply coming in there and they're treated as headcount. You are totally separate. You've got a 30, 60, 90 day plan. You got your briefcase technique, you've got relationships that you've built with people at the company before you ever negotiated your salary. You are decommoditized and you are considered a totally different specimen than all the other people. So again, how do you do this? How do you go from a company that's hinting about low balling you to getting what you're worth? You do all those things I mentioned, and if it comes down to hardball, there's two other things you can do. I'm just going to give you all this stuff today so you can have a good outcome. Number one, make sure you get other offers. That's the single best way that you can use leverage to improve the salary. So you say, look, I appreciate that. But frankly, I have another company that's offered me significantly more. So we're going to need to meet, we're going to need to do something about that. Silence. The second thing you can do if really, if they offer you something insultingly low. For someone who's able to command a salary of 150 to 200k, you're obviously very skilled. If they're just way off and really low balling you, here's the phrase you use. You want to say something like this, you know, first of all, thank you so much. I am really excited to get started working here and I really appreciate the offer. So I first of all want to thank you for that. Now, in terms of this salary, I'm going to be pretty open with you. Based on the research I've done for the responsibilities and the experience of this position, I have to be pretty open that this, this number is quite far off from what the data suggests. So I hope we can come to an agreement, but right now we're pretty far off. Silence. If you are good, ideally, if you have multiple offers and even more if you have done your 30, 60, 90 plan, if you've done your briefcase technique, if you've built those relationships, that number can quickly be ratcheted up. Alright, let me put it this way. I have paid tens of thousands of dollars more to candidates when I really wanted them, when I really wanted them and they were decommoditized. Then to people who just come in, I treat them as headcount or a hiring manager treats them as headcount. That's not where you want to be. Use these techniques, use these phrases, that is how you get paid, what you're worth. Great question.
