Tips for Negotiating Your Salary
Negotiations ... It is not a game -- and it is not war. In successful negotiations, everybody wins. Therefore, think of negotiations as a cooperative enterprise. One of the best ways to find this cooperative enterprise involves the use of questions. To know what a company is thinking and striving for, you must turn detective. You must apply various methods and techniques to your primary objective of recognizing the needs of the company, while building your own value into salary negotiations.
The problem involves communication -- how to get through to people. The seasoned negotiator is ever on the alert for tip-offs on the mental processes of the interviewer, for clues that will reveal motivations. He or she pays careful attention to the interviewer's words and actions, mannerisms and gestures, recurrent phrases and modes of expression. All are clues to his or her thinking, desires and hidden needs.
The usual way to get information, of course, is to ask a question. Questions are windows to the mind. In an appropriate situation, I have often asked my company representatives questions such as: What do you expect from this individual? What would you like this individual to accomplish during their first six months of employment? Besides education, skill sets and experience, what type of attitude or personality does this person need to fit in? Through such straightforward probes, in addition to other information, I often succeed in finding out my interviewer's needs and aims, and then guide my future negotiations accordingly.
The use of questions is a powerful negotiating tool and must be employed with discretion and judgment. The question determines the direction in which the conversation will move. The question you ask also controls the amount of information that is likely to be given back to you, much as turning the water faucet controls the flow of water.
By the judicious use of questions, you can easily secure immediate attention, maintain interest in the item under discussion, and direct the course that you want the conversation to take. Very often, by questions, the interviewer can be led toward the outcome you desire.
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