Are you leaving money on the table during pay raise discussions?
“I don’t know if it will work in theory but it’s been working in practice for four years.” Robert McTeer
Dave is a Six Sigma/Lean Black Belt Engineer. His savings are almost legendary at his firm. His firm does $95 million in sales and last year Dave generated $7 million in total savings.
Dave was a textbook type of person. He read a few articles on getting a raise and a book on negotiating, but he was missing one essential ingredient. He had no one steering him during the negotiations. No two negotiations are ever the same. They are not the same because people and situations are different. The subtleties make all the difference in a negotiation. Dave was unaware of these subtleties and so he lacked direction and perspective.
When it comes to seeking a raise many people don’t follow a winning formula. Instead, they work in theories. They do what Dave did. He had a theory, or thought, that a certain pay raise dialogue made sense because it was comfortable for him, so he just went about using it. The reality is that getting a pay raise is not about theory. It is about using a winning formula that has a high percentage chance of working in the real world. Books are great. Real world experience is something else. Plus, negotiation requires adjustment as the dialogue progresses.
Dave used his common sense. But there are emotions in negotiations and emotions rule over common sense. Dave got a great raise, but he also made some small and expensive mistakes. One mistake was he lacked clarity in describing his cost savings. Those mistakes cost him about $4,000 per year. He had no idea. What would you do with an extra $4,000?
What ideas have you or your friends used, but did not work well, in trying to get a pay raise?
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