Here are five useful tactics, strategies, or arguments you can use, either individually or in combination, to boost the base salary offer given to you:
- Your Actual Worth
- Your Requirement for the Going Salary Range
- Your Proven Demand
- Your Total Career Advancement
- Your Personal Economic Needs
With the necessary experience and a proven track record in the field, you have a very strong case. An interviewer might think, "Jones has a progressive record in the business, selling $200,000 three years ago, $300,000 two years ago, and $400,000 last year. With him on my team, we could easily outsell our leading competitors.''
Told that this new counteroffer is the "absolute top," you can still do two things: (1) hold to your position, say good day and close the interview, reaffirm your interest in this job and company, and appeal to the interviewer to find some way of bringing you on board, or (2) initiate ''compromise."
If you feel strongly enough about a job but realize that the ''absolute top" of the base salary has been offered, you can attempt a compromise, using other parts of the total compensation package to negotiate with. Tell the interviewer that the salary offer is just not up to your requirements. But quickly add that perhaps some other form of compensation might be arranged to offset this figure. At this point, hopefully, the interviewer will suggest some compromise in the benefit package, such as an earlier review, an improvement in the profit-sharing plan, or the addition of some new benefit not previously mentioned. If the interviewer does not suggest a compromise plan, you can either ask him to do so or raise some new possibility yourself for the company to consider.
If the reply to your request for a salary increase is "No," a few things may still be done here. The interviewer may initiate compromise talk; if so, decide whether you want to compromise your higher base salary for other company benefits. As mentioned earlier, if compromise talk is not introduced by the interviewer, you may initiate it. The interviewer could take a hard line and absolutely refuse to negotiate. If this is the case, and you still feel strongly about the job and about your bargaining position, take a similarly strong stand. Express your regret at not being able to work out a suitable arrangement, reiterate your interest in the job and firm, and close the interview. It is possible that your self-assertion on this matter of compensation is just the action necessary to elicit a higher offer from an astonished employer.
If within a week you do not hear from this employer, follow up the interview with a thank-you letter. This unexpected expression of appreciation may be the needed inducement to change the mind of this employer. If not, you have lost nothing but have created an atmosphere of good will that can be explored at some future date if job-getting becomes the subject again.
If the interviewer replies with a "maybe" or "I’ll have to consider," to your bid for a higher base salary, close out the interview and wait a week. As in the other cases, if you hear nothing during the week, send a follow-up letter or a telegram, or place a call, reaffirming your interest in the job and company and soliciting the second offer again. The results may be in the form of a higher salary offer, a benefit-package compromise, or a rigid restatement of the earlier offer. Here, as in all cases of negotiating, note your interest in the job and your bargaining position, and decide on the next appropriate course of action. You’re in an especially strong position if you’ve already been given a job offer, as this shows an explicit demand for your skills.
Once you open negotiations, play out your hand. This means knowing when and how to move forward, when to compromise, when to retreat, and when to refuse an offer. Realize that an employer usually has the power to retract a seemingly fixed offer and can do so if provided with the opportunity and the reason. Finally, recognize that the follow-up to a negotiation session is an important tool for keeping both an interviewer as a prospect and the negotiations alive.
Controlling the Job Interview
The skilled interviewee intelligently controls the interviewing situation, not by overwhelming the interviewer with words and emotions, by threatening with superior status or capability, or by using high-pressure sales tactics. Intelligent control leaves the appearance of authority and command with the interviewer, but in actuality allows the interviewee to subtly and skillfully direct the course of the interview into particular subject areas of high sales value. Intelligent control results from three factors: (1) understanding of and commitment to the purpose of the job interview, (2) serious preparation of the appropriate sales presentation, and (3) thorough knowledge of the dynamics of the interviewing situation.
You have already learned that ''selling credentials" is the job seeker's major objective throughout the job-getting campaign. This objective must be very clear to you as you approach this crucial stage of the campaign-the job interview. In addition, you have learned to prepare an effective sales presentation and can anticipate many of the questions which may be asked during the interview. This section is concerned, then, with the third factor of intelligent control: thorough knowledge of the dynamics of the interviewing situation.
The Interview: A Personal Sales Conversation
It is essential to view the job interview as a ''personal sales conversation." Using this definition, the dynamic processes of interviewing become easily understood in terms of three key words: personal, sales, and conversation. The word personal tells us that the interview is an encounter between two human beings with feelings, emotions, and egos. For such an encounter to be successful, good human relations must be applied by both parties, but most certainly by you. Demonstrate, by your actions and words, the common courtesies and social etiquette so basic yet so vital to formal business situations.
Show respect for the interviewer's official job role and status as buyer in conducting the interview. Express appreciation and even compliment sincerely when something said or done by the interviewer merits it. These types of human behaviors satisfy the interviewer's ego needs and indicate that you believe he or she is important and worth listening to. An obvious payoff of this approach is the interviewer's reaction to you (spoken or thought): "I like you; think you're warm, appreciative, respectful, intelligent, and deserving." An old expression applies: "I would rather do business with someone I like than with someone I don't."
The word “sales” reminds us that the job interview is a face-to-face sales meeting, requiring you to present your prepared sales presentation with interest, persuasiveness, and facility. You should be ready to present a functional selling point, share a personal success story, and respond impressively to a question asked of you. Every minute spent, word spoken, glance noticed, and moment of silence should be an opportunity for considering your next selling move. Your entire sales presentation rests on adequate preparation-research of self, job, and company—and on your ability to sell whenever the moment is suitable.
The third key word of the definition of job interview is conversation. As a participant in a conversation, part of your successful impression is based on your skills of speaking and listening. Your ability to formulate ideas and select the right words to express them clearly and coherently is an indication of intelligence to interviewers. It is thought that words and fluent expression are the tools of the mind and that poor expression is a measure of either ignorance or stupidity. Precision of thought and expression is an unquestionably impressive instrument to carry.
Hand in hand with good speaking goes good listening. Because a conversation is a series of informational exchanges between two people, active listening followed by appropriate verbal responses is important. During a period of listening you are generally silent but nonverbally active, expressing interest and thoughtfulness through facial expressions, head nods, and body movements. Occasionally you interject brief comments of understanding and agreement, such as "Ah,'*Uh-huh," "That's a good point," "I see,'' 'that's exactly how I feel." During the listening period you should actively seek the main point of the interviewer's words and respond with intelligent and appropriate positive remarks.
Knowing How Much and When to Talk
A thirty-minute interview is a short time to give an effective sales presentation. Therefore, if you have prepared well and can impress the interviewer with your words, ideas, and approaches, try to express yourself within the interview whenever the occasion allows. Many interviewers encourage your active speaking by asking many questions. Others seem to do most of the talking themselves. If you have a talkative interviewer, this could be a sign that your written documents were very impressive and that the interviewer is now trying to sell you on the job and the organization. Yet this may not be the case at all; in fact, the interviewer may simply be a talkative individual. Be smart and do not stop selling during the interview, no matter how much you believe that your written credentials can speak for themselves.
While attentive, courteous, and interested listening to the talkative interviewer does help your general image to some degree, you must still be respectfully aggressive, seeking ways and means of entering the conversation with key portions of your sales presentation. A few good functional selling points, personal success stories, and bits of Company Data Sheet information can help convert a one-way conversation into an impressive job interview.
If entering the one-way conversation seems impossible, all may not be lost. The interviewer may be thinking of extending your interview time or of asking you back to talk some more. Near the end of the interview, the interviewer may say, "Well, Joe, I've done most of the talking up to this point. Do you have any questions you would like to ask me about the position and company?" If this opportunity does not come about, take the initiative and say, "Mr. Samson, everything you have mentioned so far has affirmed my feelings about joining ABC Manufacturing. But I have a few questions about the job and a few ideas I think may be of interest to you. Could we take a few minutes now to discuss these things, or would you rather do this at another time?" If the interviewer is really interested at this point, you will receive a signal of that interest in the form of (1) a direct expression of interest in you, (2) a request to return for another interview, or (3) a request to remain longer to continue the discussion.
