SALARY NEGOTIATION COACHING

This client was in the early stages of their career and was excited to have a job offer from their dream company in a different location. When I met them, there were some things in the offer letter and relocation policy that they didn’t understand, and they didn’t know what was appropriate to ask for.

We talked through what to expect from the negotiating process, and I helped them demystify some of the things in the offer letter and practiced what to say so they could negotiate from a place of confidence and get more of what they needed from their new company.

Bottom line: My client avoided a $25,000+ mistake with relocation, plus they increased their initial base, bonus, and equity offer by over 17%.

This client was interviewing for 2 different positions in their current company: the first was a 1-level promotion, and the second was a 2-level promotion. The company offered them the 1-level promotion, with a 16% increase, and gave them the good news. The client was upset about not getting the 2-level promotion, so they told their boss they needed some time to think about it.

We talked through the information they needed to make a case for a bigger increase, and they practiced what they wanted to say to their manager. The next day, they had a calm and rational discussion with their boss, who agreed to check with management to see what was possible.

Bottom line: This client negotiated an impressive 28% promotion increase.

This client was negotiating an offer with a wonderful company, one they’d always hoped to work with. When they received the offer, I helped them assess it and compare it to what they were already making. We talked about the benefits of negotiating and which items they wanted to tackle, and we created a game plan to get after them. They decided to negotiate base pay and sign-on bonus.

The client wasn’t confident they would be able to get the company to increase the base pay —the base offer had already moved significantly higher than what was first discussed over the course of the interview process. But their strategy for asking was based on the higher cost of labor in the new location, and also to make a higher sign-on bonus an attractive alternative for the company if they couldn’t move on base pay.

The future employer wasn’t able to move the base pay higher, but they offered a significant bump in the sign-on bonus.

Bottom line: The new sign-on bonus was a whopping 56% increase (multiple 5-figures) from the original offer.

This client was a senior executive who anticipated a complex negotiation that would cover base, bonus, and equity plus an employment agreement. Since the client had spent most of their career at a single company, they were concerned that they didn’t have enough information about the market or how pay worked in other organizations.

When the client first came to me, we talked about what outcomes they wanted to get from their negotiation. We also discussed market pay for their position, how the negotiation process typically works, and how we could work together to get them the best results. In the negotiation discussion, the person my client was negotiating with let them know that the company was not likely to be able to move the base and bonus to the level that the client asked for, but that they would go back to see what was possible.

The offer that came back was not exactly what we expected, but it was a welcome surprise. My client successfully negotiated a modest (5%) increase to their base pay and bonus, along with a staggering 50% increase to their equity award.

Bottom line: This client’s negotiations netted them more than $120,000 in value.