Job Offer: Your Most Powerful Weapon After You Get The Offer | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A lot of advice people get after receiving the offer is flat-out wrong. Here, I remind you about your most powerful weapon when negotiating after you get the offer. Several times in the video, I mention another video, The Easiest Way to Negotiate a Higher Salary for Yourself.
You may also enjoy, “Deciding Between Multiple Job Offers” too.
Someone sent me a couple of videos yesterday to look at about salary negotiation and asked me what I thought. These were videos about, “you’ve got the job offer, and now the offer came in low. What do you think? How do you respond?”
Now, I’ve covered this in a couple of different ways but one thing I haven’t expressly stated is what the most powerful weapon is you have when you get the job offer. ndA I just want to review some of the nonsense that has been said after the offer. You do market research.
No! You should have done this before you got the offer so you can set the price expectations.
You talk about your value. You should have been doing that all the way through your interviews.
You have to figure out what your ideal salary is versus your “I’ll be okay settling for this” salary. Yeah, that one I agree with. That should have been done way before you try to get leverage in the negotiation.
If you’re not trying to get multiple offers, you’re making a mistake. All the way through the process, you’re not interviewing at one company. You’re interviewing at more so that, in this way, you can counterbalance one option with another and behaviorally you act humble. Oh, God, what a load of crap.
You know, I just don’t have words to express how stupid this recommendation is because, the fact of the matter is, you join an organization, whether you’re a junior staff, individual or substantial, individual within the firm, and the nature being humble, polite, contained and behaved is the way I refer to it, is nonsense. This is the point in the process, where you have this demonstrate that you’ve got a weapon, too.
The Second Easiest Way to Negotiate a Higher Salary
So, let’s say they’ve come in a little bit low. Now I’ve got a couple of different ways of approaching this. You can look at the playlist for my videos at JobSearchTV. com;that’ll take you to my YouTube channel. You can watch the playlist that deals with salary negotiation. here areT lots of different options, including the easiest way to negotiate a higher salary for yourself. The Second Easiest Way, some ball breaker ways to do it. There’s lots of different information.
I want to remind you of something and that is if you go into negotiation needy–
“I need this. I deserve this.”
You lose, because they smell it and then know they gotcha.
Your job is to go into a negotiation, knowing that it doesn’t matter to you whether you take this one or another one. Now, your preference is, you take the job that you really want. Let’s say, it’s this one that came in a little bit low. Yes, you can follow my advice for the easiest way to negotiate a higher salary for yourself. I’ll have a link in the show notes for it on YouTube.
“Stupid Salary Negotiation Mistakes: Being Too Grateful”
However, your best weapon, the most powerful gun that should carry is the ability to say, “no.” See, they’ve decided you’re the best choice for them and that’s the most important thing that you’ve done up until this point. You know, they’ve decided for themselves of all the people whose resumes they looked at, all the people that they evaluated, you’re it. You’re the best one for that.
So, let’s say they come in $5,000 low and you knew what the salary range was going in because the recruiter told you, they mentioned it the course of the interviews in some way, shape or form. I want you to respond, and, again, this has to fit your personality type, if you want to go for the easy way, watch that video. But let’s assume you want to do some casual negotiating.
You can respond by saying, “I’m curious. I was told that this job was going, I’m just picking numbers here, 120-150K and you made an offer at 135. How did that decision come up?”
Now, they’re going to come up with some BS line about how “they graded you to an associate to level 135.” You know, it’s BS and don’t accept it at face value.
“So, what’s the difference between a person at 135 and a person at 140?”
Start putting it back on them to explain and justify the price point they set for you.
“And between 140 and 145. What would that have been? And where was I deficient in that?”
Now, the reality is organizations don’t work that way. They work on percentage increases over the current baseline, but they’re going to blow smoke at you. So, I want to remind you, your greatest weapon in the negotiation is the ability to say, “no.” At the end of the day, you can always say, “I’d like to think about it and come back in a few days.” So, today’s Tuesday, “I’ll be back to you by Friday,” and to do it in a way that’s casual.
“Well, what’s going to happen between now and then?”
I have final interviews at two other places, so, you know, I’ll see how this all turns out, but right now, as you know, I’m disappointed.”
No surprises there. You see, they knew it from this conversation that you’re disappointed. They just thought they could get you.
How Can They Catch You Bluffing?
“Well, what it would take to get you?”
“As I’ve been saying all along, I’m looking for such and such and you came in significantly less than that (or a couple of dollars less than that).
“What would it take to get you to cancel together the views”?
Let’s stop the BS. Make the offer at the right price point. They say, “yes.”
So, again, the ability to say no, the ability to delay and make them become anxious about whether or not they’re going to get you. Tell them you’d like to get a copy of the offer letter. You want to confirm the level of the position because I can’t tell you, from my time in recruiting, there were so many instances where people were talked with about officer level positions and suddenly they’re seeing a job title that’s clearly not an officer level.
So, you always want to make sure you get that offer letter in writing before you really commit because, hey, look, I’m going to let you in on a secret– firms lie.
Just like job hunters lie, everyone’s posturing for advantage. Sometimes your manager has been talking with you about this “very senior role,” and, suddenly, you see a job this job title that doesn’t look so senior to you. So, don’t do anything yet.
Remember, you can always say, “no.” Always use the threat of “the no” to advantage. You can win more negotiations.
By the way, just as an aside, and that will also work once you’re on board. You know, not agreeing to do something that you’re being forced to do is a very powerful asset.
Deciding Between Multiple Job Offers
Someone sent me a couple of videos yesterday to look at about salary negotiation and asked me what I thought. These were videos about, "you've got the job offer, and now the offer came in low. What do you think? How do you respond?" Remember, you can always say, "no." Always use the threat of "the no" to advantage. You can win more negotiations.
Now, I've covered this in a couple of different ways but one thing I haven't expressly stated is what the most powerful weapon is you have when you get the job offer. ndA I just want to review some of the nonsense that has been said after the offer. You do market research.
No! You should have done this before you got the offer so you can set the price expectations.
You talk about your value. You should have been doing that all the way through your interviews.
You have to figure out what your ideal salary is versus your "I'll be okay settling for this" salary. Yeah, that one I agree with. That should have been done way before you try to get leverage in the negotiation.
If you're not trying to get multiple offers, you're making a mistake. All the way through the process, you're not interviewing at one company. You're interviewing at more so that, in this way, you can counterbalance one option with another and behaviorally you act humble. Oh, God, what a load of crap.
You know, I just don't have words to express how stupid this recommendation is because, the fact of the matter is, you join an organization, whether you're a junior staff, individual or substantial, individual within the firm, and the nature being humble, polite, contained and behaved is the way I refer to it, is nonsense. This is the point in the process, where you have this demonstrate that you've got a weapon, too.
So, let's say they've come in a little bit low. Now I've got a couple of different ways of approaching this. You can look at the playlist for my videos at JobSearchTV. com;that'll take you to my YouTube channel. You can watch the playlist that deals with salary negotiation. here areT lots of different options, including the easiest way to negotiate a higher salary for yourself. The Second Easiest Way, some ball breaker ways to do it. There's lots of different information.
I want to remind you of something and that is if you go into negotiation needy--
"I need this. I deserve this."
You lose, because they smell it and then know they gotcha.
Your job is to go into a negotiation, knowing that it doesn't matter to you whether you take this one or another one. Now, your preference is, you take the job that you really want. Let's say, it's this one that came in a little bit low. Yes, you can follow my advice for the easiest way to negotiate a higher salary for yourself. I'll have a link in the show notes for it on YouTube.
However, your best weapon, the most powerful gun that should carry is the ability to say, "no." See, they've decided you're the best choice for them and that's the most important thing that you've done up until this point. You know, they've decided for themselves of all the people whose resumes they looked at, all the people that they evaluated, you're it. You're the best one for that.
So, let's say they come in $5,000 low and you knew what the salary range was going in because the recruiter told you, they mentioned it the course of the interviews in some way, shape or form. I want you to respond, and, again, this has to fit your personality type, if you want to go for the easy way, watch that video. But let's assume you want to do some casual negotiating.
You can respond by saying, "I'm curious. I was told that this job was going, I'm just picking numbers here, 120-150K and you made an offer at 135. How did that decision come up?"
Now, they're going to come up with some BS line about how "they graded you to an associate to level 135." You know, it's BS and don't accept it at face value.
"So, what's the difference between a person at 135 and a person at 140?"
Start putting it back on them to explain and justify the price point they set for you.
"And between 140 and 145. What would that have been? And where was I deficient in that?"
Now, the reality is organizations don't work that way. They work on percentage increases over the current baseline, but they're going to blow smoke at you. So, I want to remind you, your greatest weapon in the negotiation is the ability to say, "no." At the end of the day, you can always say, "I'd like to think about it and come back in a few days." So, today's Tuesday, "I'll be back to you by Friday," and to do it in a way that's casual.
"Well, what's going to happen between now and then?"
I have final interviews at two other places, so, you know, I'll see how this all turns out, but right now, as you know, I'm disappointed."
No surprises there. You see, they knew it from this conversation that you're disappointed. They just thought they could get you.
"Well, what it would take to get you?"
"As I've been saying all along, I'm looking for such and such and you came in significantly less than that (or a couple of dollars less than that).
"What would it take to get you to cancel together the views"?
Let's stop the BS. Make the offer at the right price point. They say, "yes."
So, again, the ability to say no, the ability to delay and make them become anxious about whether or not they're going to get you. Tell them you'd like to get a copy of the offer letter. You want to confirm the level of the position because I can't tell you, from my time in recruiting, there were so many instances where people were talked with about officer level positions and suddenly they're seeing a job title that's clearly not an officer level.
So, you always want to make sure you get that offer letter in writing before you really commit because, hey, look, I'm going to let you in on a secret-- firms lie.
Just like job hunters lie, everyone's posturing for advantage. Sometimes your manager has been talking with you about this "very senior role," and, suddenly, you see a job this job title that doesn't look so senior to you. So, don't do anything yet.
By the way, just as an aside, and that will also work once you're on board. You know, not agreeing to do something that you're being forced to do is a very powerful asset.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2200 episodes.
