How Do I Win?

Do you know how to expand your pie?

Soft Skills Quiz: Week 3. The statement made as item 3 on the quiz: I feel confident in my ability to interview for a job, ask for a raise, and negotiate a job offer. That last part is really kind of asking, how do you come out ahead or "win" when talking to a manager? I'm going to concentrate on the negotiations part of this question, because it's worth a whole post by itself. The best way to make this happen is to also ensure the manager wins, too. 

There's several different ways people define winning. In the case of this blog, what I mean by winning has a pretty simple definition - winning means more money in your wallet. However, in order for you to win, you have to make sure that your current employer (or potential new employer) also knows they win by hiring you (or giving you a raise).

In management school, the concept of "expanding the pie" is one of the core things that we learn when talking about negotiations. While a somewhat silly sounding phrase, it carries with it a fair bit of good knowledge. When you talk in real dollars, expanding the pie simply means thinking about your compensation in terms of things other than salary. If your boss/new employer has reached a cap in terms of salary they can offer, perhaps instead they can offer you more vacation time, or find a way to reduce your portion of benefits you have to cover. Maybe you can convince the person you're talking to that working from home would have great benefit for both parties. What I mean by this is, if you work from home, maybe you can promise to your new employer or current boss that you'll work during half of the time you would have spent commuting. You get more time at home. And your boss gets more work hours out of you.

Another term for this comes from a book I recommend frequently, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The habit I'm referring to is to "Think Win Win." Instead of playing a zero sum game where you come out ahead and the manager loses, or you lose and the manager comes out ahead, find ways for both of you to benefit from the end result. And don't just think in terms of money. Think of growth opportunity, title, team, department, telecommuting, vacation time, and many other things that don't have fiscal value, but definitely have tangible value.

Unfortunately, sometimes you'll find yourself in a position where the person you're talking to doesn't understand how to play the game where both people win. If you find this to be your situation, you need to be sure you're bringing to the table a BATNA. Yep, another one of those silly business school terms. BATNA is just an acronym for Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. What this really means, more than anything, is that you have to have the willingness, and ability, to walk away. If you're negotiating salary with a new potential employer, your BATNA, at the very least, is your collection of current salary and benefits. If the new employer cannot match what you're currently earning, unless the non-monetary benefits of getting hired at the new place out-weigh the monetary ones, you can walk away. In my experience, if you tell a hiring manager "I'm sorry, but that's not good enough" they're going to try just a little harder to up the ante. Which works out in your favor.

Another important and often overlooked aspect of negotiations with a job offer is to set clear expectations right at the beginning, even when the interview is starting out. You want to be as transparent as possible going into the interview process about what you're expecting the manager to accomplish on your behalf in order to make it so you're willing to shift into a new career.  If you feel like working the new job is worth $100 thousand a year, and you're worth it - say so. If you don't, you may go through the whole process to find out that what they're hiring for doesn't come anywhere close to your expectation. It's a waste of your time and theirs if your expectations don't line up to begin with. So be clear about them - but be careful, too. If you say "I think someone in this job should earn $100 thousand a year" - guess what, they're going to offer you $100 thousand. Instead, something like "I've done market research that suggests people in this position earn between $85 thousand and $135 thousand. Does that match your expectations?" Now you've given yourself a pretty good field to play in, so when the job offer comes in a little too low you can talk about moving it towards the upper end of that range.

There's all kinds of literature out there about negotiation tactics and how to make sure the negotiations go as well as possible in your favor. While my tips about BATNA and expanding the pie offer a good glimpse into how negotiations work, I'd strongly encourage you to scour the internet (or a bookstore/library) for resources on the subject. It's a complex and multi-faceted skill, and one that plenty of research has gone into perfecting. That way you can win, too.