Negotiation

Closing the door behind me, I spun around to be face to face with Gigi from Human Resources. She was quite the character. An older no-nonsense kind of women, raspy voice from years of smoking, a loud cackling laugh. Tightly wound short curly hair all wrapped up in a power suit and skirt combo. A fashion choice that came straight out of her heyday. The irony of her title was that she was not an easy person to approach. Sure, she was friendly, but she gave off the demeanor of a stubborn grandmother (in my opinion).

The reason for voluntarily subjecting myself to a meeting with her was on the topic of raises. This felt more like a hostage negotiation than a request for increased compensation. In another instance, I might have had stage fright as I forget my lines and stumble through the motions, but for today’s conversation, I came prepared.

What is your objective? This is an important question to consider before going into a negotiation, but did you think of it in the perspective of yourself or the person that’s talking to you? This is where the good versus the great negotiators have separation. A great negotiator aims to collaborate, to use their skills to reveal the surprises they are certain exist and remains open-minded and questions any assumptions. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible. Being right isn’t the key to a successful negotiation - having the right mindset is.

After two years of working for this company, I had not received a single raise. I was emotionally invested in my work and felt that the company did not reflect recognition for my efforts. At that point, for me to say I felt frustrated and undervalued was an understatement. My goal was to come up at a minimum of 10% from where I had been, which I was convinced was a charitable donation at this point.

What is particularly important to note was the Gigi was a shrewd negotiator. I experienced this when originally being hired in the beginning. I was at a disadvantage, being that I was desperately in need of work and because of that, accepted a much lower salary than I probably should have, but fear of not getting hired was a greater influence in that moment.

Now with some tenure, work validation and self-confidence, I was ready to discuss my terms. Is it important to know your worth in a honest and realistic understanding. So, to properly reach your goal knowing the opposition will push back, the anchor needs to be set quickly and to a degree just outside their comfort zone. There is a strategy that states, whatever you need should be 65% of your total initial asking price.

What this means is that you set your anchor at 100% based on that 65%. That 65% should be your line in the sand number where you feel adequately satisfied and they feel like they walked away with a steal (comparably to the 100% you started from). That is only one method to structure your terms, but its a generally decent one if you don’t have a lot of experience in this kind of situation.

Once you state your case, present your number, you sit at the edge of your chair staying calm and confident signaling with your body language that you mean what you say and are waiting for an answer. When they push back, it may likely be an insultingly low number. Don’t react, instead, deflect the punch in a way that opens up your counterpart. Repeat the number back to them and reply, “I’m sorry, how am I supposed to accept that offer?” If they push back harder, deflect the issue with, “What are we trying to accomplish here?” Responses like these are great ways to refocus your counterparts when you feel you’re being pulled into a trap.

Worse case, they really are not prepared or are willing to have this discussion, in an encouraging tone of voice, you could say, “Let’s put price off to the side for a moment and talk about what would make this a good situation.” You are demonstrating control and maturity without force. No matter what happens, the point here is to sponge up information from your counterpart.

-Busy Brain

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