How do we negotiate a salary through email?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>We don\u2019t, don\u2019t do it! Never negotiate anything important via email. If you want to negotiate the price of a used dining room table you\u2019re buying off of Craig\u2019s list, then, by all means, email. If you are serious about the SE job you are applying to, or even a non-SE job, then do not negotiate by email.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>Here\u2019s why:<\/span><\/p>1- It takes forever:<\/strong><\/h3>Rule number one of sales is to close the sales. I\u2019m not talking about the ABC of sales, Always be closing. I\u2019m taking that if the customer is ready to buy, and all they want to do is negotiate the price, then the salesperson needs to close that deal as soon as possible to eliminate the chance that the customer loses the budget, or a competitor comes in last second, or there\u2019s an announcement that some other company will be taking over this one and there is a budget freeze etc.<\/span><\/p>Going over email, it just takes time. You send an email, then you wait at least five minutes, but it could be a day or more, then you receive an email from them. You read the email, disagree with what they said, write your response and send it back. Wait again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>2- For mental sanity:<\/strong><\/h3>All this waiting, it\u2019s just not good for mental sanity. They send you an offer, you send them a counteroffer, then you wait. In the meantime, your brain begins to think. Did you piss them off? Are they even going to come back at all? Are they going to accept? Should I email them back and accept their previous offer? Silence is something that experienced negotiators use during in-person negotiation as a tactic to make someone uneasy and to add tension. While working through email, it\u2019s there by default.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>3- Lost in translation:<\/strong><\/h3>Not a secret I hope, but there is a lot of information lost through text. The tone of voice, gone. Smiles, smirks, frowns, cheek clinches, we cannot decipher that through email. That\u2019s why every text message I used to get from my then-girlfriend, now wife, always ended with me thinking, what did she mean by that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>The fact that emojis were created just to help in portraying tone and state of mind should tell a lot. Unfortunately, you can\u2019t send the heart emoji to the hiring manager.<\/span><\/p>But how should you negotiate?<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>Well, at a minimum, the negotiation should be over the phone. In-person is always better, but these days, it\u2019s hard to do if the hiring manager is not in the same area, so phone.<\/span><\/p>Keep in mind that if you did the job right, the negotiation would be minimal. There will not be too many back and forths. That is good since that means you can close the deal faster. And in many cases if and when you ask for more money, you can hear the hiring manager\u2019s voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>The response might be\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\u201cOk let me go see what I can do\u201d<\/span><\/p>Or\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\u201cI\u2019ve pretty much offered you everything I can offer\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>Or in an ideal world:<\/span><\/p>\u201cYou got it\u201d<\/span><\/p>So please, do me a favor, never negotiate anything this important over email. If the hiring manager does not have time to chat with you to get you on the job, how will he or she give you guidance and assistance once you have the job? That is a red flag.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>What is needed on your end to negotiate a salary?<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>As in every sale, every word that exits the Account Manager’s mouth or the Sales Engineer’s mouth will be used in the negotiate later, either by the customer or by the account manager. Same thing with getting a job, any job. For negotiating a salary, here\u2019s what you need:<\/span><\/p>1- The power to walk away.<\/strong><\/h3>Have you ever purchased a house in the past? How did it go? Did you fall in love in the house and you just needed to have it? Or were you able to keep your cool and attempt to negotiate the price of the house? I’ve had both situations. I once negotiated a house from CAD 475,0000 to CAD 450,000 just by walking away from the house. It helped that nobody else put an offer on the house. In another situation, I overpaid by CAD 5,000 because we really wanted it. Luckily for us, someone overbid on the house and we ended up losing that deal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>Same thing with getting a new job. If the role is something the applicant really wants, then he or she might be willing to take a salary that might not be comparable to other SEs in the market. If the applicant is not desperate for a new job, as in he or she is happy with their current role, and looking for some additional challenges or opportunities that their current role cannot provide, that gives a bit more power during the negotiation process.<\/span><\/p>I do want to note that many people take jobs that they really want with a pay cut or less than market value. There is nothing wrong with that, especially if the job will make that person happy and challenge them in new ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>2- Value was proven to the hiring team<\/strong><\/h3>This is very hard to do during interviews. Everyone is usually on their best behavior, so it’s hard for a manager to gauge the potential SE, and it’s hard for the potential SE to gauge the manager and the team. This is why there might be many many rounds of interviews. In each and every round the SE has to prove their value to the person they are talking to. Just like sales, the messaging will change from interviewer to interviewer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>The hiring manager wants someone who will solve problems for him or her. They don’t want someone who will get into constant fights with their Account Managers, or have to spend millions of dollars getting them up to speed on the soft skills.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>Sales Directors simply want someone who wants to sell. Salespeople want someone they can depend on for the technical information and won’t say anything to jeopardize opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>The more the SE can show each and every interviewer that they can do whatever is needed, then their value not only gets proven but might also go up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
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