Competitive NegotiationHow we provide help in your negotiations.You may feel you know how to negotiate. But, consider the realities... have you ever negotiated a sizeable signing bonus... or a substantial stock option package?Many people take negotiation for granted and feel they are excellent by virtue of their corporate experience. Without professional assistance many executives take unnecessary financial risks. On the other hand, every week many of our staff are involved with dozens of negotiating situations. We see what deals are going down in every part of the country. This "knowledge base" gives our clients a great advantage in negotiations. Negotiating on your own behalf is a completely different thing. You can easily leave a lot of dollars on the table. We have negotiated thousands of financial packages and equip our clients with our negotiating system.Here's what this means to you. We realize that negotiating can be awkward. Nevertheless, we want our clients to accept compensation at the highest possible level. Employers expect some sort of negotiations. No one wants to hire a weak person. However, when most people find a job... they just "take it" and usually it's for a small increase.You may have read that the "offer" really signals the beginning of negotiations. We agree. In fact... if a 45-year-old left $20,000 on the bargaining table, we could demonstrate that his failure at that very moment will end up costing him at least $20,000 x 20 or $400,000 by the time he retires. That's because whatever income you start at, the chances are you will maintain the difference over where you were, for the better part of your career. 
You also need to keep in mind that jobs don't come with a "salary"... they come with a "salary range"... and that's why there is almost always some room to move. We see the same lessons being learned every day. A general manager... earning $125,000, wanted to win a new job at $150,000. He was invited by another organization for an interview. After two meetings, the division COO said, "Bill, we'd like to have you join us and I'd like to work out something that's very attractive for you. What have you been used to earning?" At that point, having been encouraged by the COO... Bill explained his present income. To make a long story short, he accepted a position at $150,000... a nice increase. Working on their own, without professional assistance, we are always surprised at how much money top executives... leave on the negotiating tables. However, he later found out that the last person had been paid $200,000 and that the company expected to match it! For those competing for $200,000, $300,000 and up to $1,000,000+ ... the stakes are very high. Now, the moral of this story is simply that you should never negotiate based upon where you've been. Negotiation is like a poker game... the employer may sit there with their cards all cupped in their hands, so you must avoid putting your earnings on the table... face up! We help each of our clients negotiate maximum compensation, signing bonuses and other perks.Negotiating skillfully and with dignity... can result in your being held in higher "professional" regard as well. The bottom line is... that our experience allows us to be an enormous resource to our clients in the critical negotiation stage.
One other thing, you might not be aware that thousands of firms routinely use signing bonuses as part of their recruiting process. These range from companies like Merrill Lynch to the U.S. Government. They are more commonly available than you might realize. Suffice it to say that the financial opportunities available to you through our negotiation assistance... can sometimes be substantial. Can we quantify the benefits of negotiation assistance? Once a client gets an offer, we're often able to help negotiate a 10 to 30% increase... and some get signing bonuses which are more common... even at lower income levels. Related Topic Competitive Interviewing |
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