Say hallelujah! You made it through the first 3 stages of the job-hunting process and you’ve been offered the job. 
Yessssss! Only problem is, the salary isn’t quite as high as you would like. Or the benefits are non-existent. Or the hours are too long and you’ll be expected to be on call 24/7, and you’ll lose a good two hours of your life every work day during your commute.
At this point, you’ve got 3 choices:
- Decline the job
- Take the job, hate yourself for settling and turning in crappy work.
- Negotiate for what you want.
You say you’re afraid to negotiate? That you’ve never done it and are afraid you’ll fail?
Horse pucky.
You negotiate way more than you think. With your kids, when you and they want different things. With your boss, when you ask for a raise. With a vendor whose price increase is just waaay out of line. With your spouse, when want to see a shoot-’em up movie and you want a film with subtitles. With the car sales person whose “great deal” is way more than you want to spend.
Know what you want before you start negotiations
You should have a fairly clear idea even before you start applying for jobs what you need and want in terms of pay and benefits. This is based not just on what you want, are qualified for and supported by a strong resume. You also need to know what the market will bear.
Then those expectations need to be modified — much like each resumé and cover letter you craft — to fit each job application.
If you think your negotiation skills need some love, coaching can help. Some of the points covered in negotiation coaching include:
- Your four options
- How to structure the conversation
- What not to say
- How to handle “no”
- Closing the deal
- What to say when you’re deadlocked
We’ll also talk about how best to prepare for the negotiations so you can come out a big winner. And I have some special tips and tricks specifically for women.
Is this something you’d like to explore? Shoot an email to jackie@key-dynamics.com and we’ll set up a free call to see if we would be a good fit for each other.
P.S. If you don’t have an updated resume, I can help you with that, too.