How to Negotiate Salary Through a Recruiter
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the dirty little secret of working with a recruiter and how to negotiate salary when you are being represented by one.
The Easiest Way to Negotiate a Higher Salary for Yourself
Hi, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and I want to talk with you about negotiating salary when you’re working through a recruiter. Now, most of the time, I’m a big advocate of working with a recruiter to find the position. Why? Frankly, a couple of things.
The relationship with the employer that greases the skids for you getting in the door and number two, the ease from your standpoint. After all, they handle all your scheduling, handle all the peripheral nonsense and deflect it from you where your inexperience can distract you from the process from seeing the employer as they should be seen. But when it gets to salary negotiation, there’s an interesting dynamic and that is the recruiter smells blood in the water, the blood being their fate and their job is to close the deal.
That’s true whether it’s a retained search firm or a contingency search firm. The retained firm will talk very nicely and say, you know, well, they won’t even address it. They’ll dismiss it as nonsense but it’s, you know, everyone’s working to make a living and this isn’t social work.
So, ultimately, they’re trying to close the hire and get the position filled just like the contingency firm. So, the tendency is to push and bully very nicely or very aggressively the candidate into taking what the employer offers. I wish it weren’t true but, you know, statistics tell me this.
Not the way I work. I really do try and make a match on the money but most recruiters don’t. After all, at the end of the day, you’re the one transaction and they’re going to try and work with that employer for many years to come.
So, their natural tendency is to try and squeeze you rather than squeeze the employer. Now, when you’re working through a recruiter, it’s important, just like it is when you’re negotiating with an employer directly, to know what your real value is. Now, sometimes your numbers may be wrong.
Now, you’re talking to friends who are shooting from the hip and don’t really have any data. So, you need to know your data and to understand that the data reflects a range. So, I’ll give an example.
You’re looking at a job that’s 130 to 150 or if you’re a lower level individual, 60 to 70 thousand or an even higher level individual, 4 to 425. Okay? It’s human nature to only hear the top number. 70,000, 150, 425 and focus in on that number and if you’re offered a dime less to say, hey, how come I didn’t get all the money? After all, my value is whatever it is.
The Second Easiest Way to Negotiate a Higher Salary
At the end of the day, you want to be in the range and you want to drive it up as high as possible. So, when you’re working with the recruiter, you have to say things to him or her along the lines of they’ve come in a touch low and I’m frankly disappointed and I have other things going on that will come in at a better number than this. Why don’t you circle back and see if they’ll improve it.
They’ll try and probe more and, from their standpoint, if the contingency recruiter is panicked, then the retained recruiter, I’m not going to project on them. I’ll just simply say that they’re going to try and push a little bit harder on the employer to up the number. Without that, you’re basically going to be stuck with with the recruiter, the headhunter, the search professional who’s going to be trying to push you into that box of the number rather than trying to have them push back at the employer in a diplomatic way.
You need to be prepared to walk away from the situation if you take this strategy. I want to be absolutely clear about that because they may say she’s not going to take it or he’s not going to take it unless you up the money. You know, in the example of the senior execs, I’ve said from day one, 425 and, you know, they’ve come in at 415.
I believe my value is 425 and the ten thousand dollar difference I’m going to make for them many times over in the course of my work. If they don’t see the value, then this isn’t the right place for me and with that, you’ve thrown the gauntlet down to say, I’m prepared to walk away unless they hit my number. Eight times out of ten, they’re going to hit the number.
If they aren’t, they’re being foolish and you don’t want to join a company populated with fools. For the hundred for the person looking at that job at 130 to 150, where you zero in on 150, you’re making 125. You’re probably not going to get to the 150 but you’ve got to push them up a little bit.
So, again, you circle back to the recruiter. This is true of the 60 to 70 thousand dollar job, as well. You circle back to the recruiter and very calmly say, they’ve come in a bit short.
I’ve got other things going on. This is a market where I can land and I prefer it being there but, you know, if they don’t value me sufficiently, then I’ll be very happy at this next place I’m talking to. And by doing that, you’re going to force them to earn their check and earn their fee.
So, this is Jeff Altman. Hope you found this video helpful. If you did and you’re watching on YouTube, share it, leave a comment, click the like button, do something that lets people know that it was worthwhile.
Then, come over to TheBigGameHunter.us. Watch my videos, read my content, listen to my podcasts, download free copies of some of my books. Pay what you want for them. I shouldn’t say it’s free.
I prefer if you paid something for them but if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. So, there’s a lot of content to help you with job hunting. So, come over to TheBigGameHunter.us and go exploring.
Also, I want to encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn. My page there is LinkedIn.com forward slash IN forward slash TheBigGameHunter. I accept connection requests from people worldwide, except if you’re a third-party recruiter or in a country known for scams or spam.
And finally, if your current firm is trying to hire someone, send me an email at the address below. Let me know who to contact and whether I should mention your name. I’d love to help you firm staff positions.
So, this is Jeff Altman. Hope you have a great day. Take care!
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