Category: Negotiation

Develop the powerful skills of negotiation that all great business leaders use

The Seven Steps of a Persuasive Presentation

When I worked at Procter & Gamble, I took a sales training course that included a presentation model that works for any situation.  Procter & Gamble titled the model the 5-Steps to persuasive selling.  Xerox had actually developed the original course as the 7-steps to professional selling (PSS).

Let us say that tomorrow you have a meeting.  This meeting could be a job interview.  The meeting might be with your board of directors to discuss a new direction for your company.

Here how the process works.

PREPARE FOR THE MEETING

The night before your meeting, you review the material you will present.  You might have a few notes on your laptop or you might have a slide presentation.  The important thing is that you have prepared what you will need for this meeting.

SUMMARIZE THE SITUATION

When your turn to present material begins, you greet the person or people in the room.  Perhaps thank them for meeting with you.  During this part of the presentation, you introduce your subject.  Your audience has a certain need or problem, for which you have a solution.  The subject of your presentation is a summary of the needs they have.  You might provide them with some additional information on your subject.  While you want to gain acceptance of the ideas you are presenting, the most important thing is to demonstrate that you have their interest foremost.  You are there to help them.

STATE THE IDEA

In a brief, easy-to-understand statement, you give a recommendation for a solution to their need.  Allow your audience to participate.  Ask questions.  They may have objections to your idea.  Let them get comfortable by raising objections.  Treat the objections as questions and provide answers.

EXPLAIN HOW IT WORKS

You might provide a schedule of events, prices, and who will do what.  Help your audience see that your plan is thorough.  Give them the details they need to know.  Help them be comfortable that they can trust that your plan will accomplish the goals you have established.

REINFORCE KEY BENEFITS

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”  This part should have no more than three statements as to how your plan gives your audience the benefits of solving their problems.  Keep it brief.

SUGGEST EASY NEXT STEPS.

This is the close.  This is where you request approval of your plan.  I recommend that you layout easy steps that may provide options, and do a trial close on an assumptive choice.  For example, you might say, “Should we start to work this afternoon or first thing tomorrow?”

FOLLOW UP

This part may require a little bit of discipline.  When you have left your meeting, you should do a personal review of the meeting.  Review any notes you have taken.  Write follow up correspondence.  Schedule the next steps you need to take.  Notify others who might be involved of what you accomplished in the meeting and what they can expect going forward.

Why You Should Never Accept A Counter Offer When You Resign

Why You Should Never Accept a Counter Offer When You Resign

Counter offers are risky.  The reasons you resigned seldom goes away if you stay.  In addition, when you met with your boss to turn in your resignation, you showed your boss that you have been disloyal by interviewing for another job.

However, your boss cannot afford to lose you at the time that you are resigning.  Companies prefer to lose people based on the company’s timing.  This concept is easy enough to understand.  Your company is in the middle of work project that could fail if some people leave at the wrong time.  You are one of those people.

So, what happens during a counter offer?

  • You go through a standard process to keep people aboard until the company can throw them overboard.
  • Your boss asks you the reasons that you are leaving.
  • Your boss shows understanding about your frustrations.
  • Your boss promises to make adjustments to keep you on the job where you are currently working.
  • You may receive a pay raise or a promise of a pay raise.  Remember that you forced the pay raise by trying to resign.
  • Your boss may even may promises to improve things as time goes on.
  • Your boss gets the details of your job offer and shows you the flaws in going to the new company.
  • You feel pressure from the counter offer process.  You become indecisive.  Even if your company does not offer you a pay raise or change any of the conditions that have made you unhappy, the company pressures you to stay.
  • You begin to waver in you decision.

As a recruiter, I have had applicants go through so much stress, they have cried.  I had one manager who was going through a counter offer that was so stressful he called me at 2:00am.  He was in tears.  He was still in tears later that day when he called me to say that he had accepted his company’s counter offer.

He stayed with the company he wanted to leave.

Seven month later, he was out again interviewing with another company.  Nothing changed after he accepted the counter offer.

He hated where he worked.  He needed to get another job.

Unfortunately, his boss saw him interviewing at the St. Louis airport and the poor guy did not know that his boss had seen him. The guy turned in a daily report that showed that he was making sales calls.  The report was false.  His boss knew that the report was false.  His boss had seen him interviewing at the airport.  At this point, his current employer no longer needed him.  The same boss who had talked him into staying seven months before fired him.

So he lost the offer from the company that wanted to hire him. The company that gave him the counter offer had fired him.

He was unemployed.

Many people feel pressure when they resign.  You can reduce the pressure. When you resign, make the discussion short and to the point.  Just be polite.  Say that you are leaving.  The reasons are strictly business, but they are the confidential information of your new employer, and you can’t discuss them.  Then head out the door and keep walking.

Things to Understand About a Job Offer

Things to understand about a job offer

Disclaimer: Federal and state laws change.  I am not a lawyer.  At the bottom of this article, I have posted a link to a source for information.  The points in this article will helpful lead readers to find the information they need.

A job offer is more than an invitation to go to work for a company.  Depending on the company and the type of job, a job offer includes these elements.

  • Salary, Bonus
  • Benefits to include medical/dental benefits, vacation, paid holidays, retirement, profit sharing, stock plan
  • Job title
  • Job function
  • Quality of your supervisor
  • Location of the job

Federally Required Employee Benefits

The federal government requires all companies to provide some benefits.  Companies with an effective human resources program give people information on the federal benefits as part of the job offer.  Here is a list of those benefits:

Disability Insurance

The following states and territories require businesses to provide partial wage replacement insurance coverage to their eligible employees for non-work related sickness or injury:

  • California
  • Hawaii
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Puerto Rico
  • Rhode Island

Leave Benefits

The majority of common leave benefits offered by employers are not required by federal law, and are offered to employees as part of the employer’s overall compensation and benefits plan. These leave benefits include holiday/vacation, jury duty, personal leave, sick leave and funeral/bereavement leave. However, employers are required to provide leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Family and Medical Leave

  1. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles employees up to have 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave during any 12-month period for any of the following reasons:
  2. Birth and care of the eligible employee’s child, or placement for adoption or foster care of a child with the employee
  3. Care of an immediate family member (spouse, child, parent) who has a serious health condition
  4. Care of the employee’s own serious health condition
  5. FMLA requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave. FMLA applies to private employers with 50 or more employees, and to all public employers. Visit the Department of Labor’s website for more information.

Social Security Taxes

Every employer must pay Social Security taxes at the same rate paid by their employees.

Workers Compensation

Businesses with employees are required to carry Workers’ Compensation Insurance coverage through a commercial carrier, on a self-insured basis, or through the state Workers’ Compensation Insurance program. Visit the Workers’ Compensation page for more information.

Understanding the job offer

Before you sign an offer letter, understand your job offer. Ask the hiring company to help you with things you do not understand. Talk with your confidential mentor and friends and with your spouse before signing a job offer letter. If you are looking at a job offer right now, congratulations and good luck with your decision.

How To Negotiate A Job Offer

How To Negotiate A Job Offer: An Outline for Getting What You are Worth.
How To Negotiate Awesome Job Offers

Employers are more open to negotiating a job offer when they can see that there is a real shortfall between what they have offered you and what you have in your current job.

The simple way to approach the matter is to make a straightforward presentation of the facts involved.

Employers do not want to go back and forth over negotiations. Before going to the hiring company with counter offers, you need to make sure that you understand the offer and that you understand how it compares with what you want.  List the offer items in a column.  Then create a second column to list the details of your current or desired offer.  Create a third column to list the details of the job offer.  Create a fourth column of the things you would like to change.

Items Current Job New Job Desired Change
Vacation
Job title
Start date
Salary
Bonus
Unpaid bonuses at your current employer
Reimbursement for business expenses
Benefits: deductibles, costs, coverage, start of coverage
Cost of commute
Retirement plan
Profit sharing
Stock options or grants
Other Items

Now that you have everything on paper so that you can understand how the offer compares with what you want,  simply create a list of things that you want changed and present your list to the hiring company.

Ask yourself whether you will accept the offer if the hiring company changes the offer to fit your needs.   If the answer is that you will accept the offer, present your list to the hiring company and state that you will enthusiastically accept their offer if they can adjust the offer.

“The World’s Noblest Headhunter”

Jobs: How to Negotiate Anything from Pay Raises and Promotions to Job Offers

How to Negotiate Pay Raises, Promotions, and Job Offers

Whenever you negotiate anything, do your research.  For example, when negotiating a pay raise, research the salary range of your job.

If you have an open, comfortable relationship with the human resources, simply ask for the salary range for your job.  Some companies publish internal information on salary ranges.  Some companies even post salary ranges on public job listings.

If you have the actual amount of the salaries in your company, ask for the pay raise in the increments of pay.  If your company pays once a month, ask for a monthly pay raise that matches what your company actually pays for a month of work.  If your company pays you once each month, you get twelve payments a year.  If your company pays every four weeks, you get thirteen payments a year.  Knowing the difference is important.

The arithmetic works like this.  A monthly salary of $1000 per month is an annual salary of $12,000.  A four-weekly salary of $1,000 (4 X 13 = 52) is an annual salary $13,000.

Knowledge from the Internet

On the Internet, you can research salary ranges for your job.  Some companies do not show their compensation ranges to their employees.  To learn the value of your job, click on the “Salaries” tab at the top of the page on JayWren.com.  You will find a custom search engine built on multiple compensation sites.

Negotiating promotions is a fundamental part of your career.  If you want your career to grow, make promotion negotiation an ongoing progress.

  1. Watch for internal job postings.
  2. When you see internal job postings, check your skills and education for a match.
  3. If you do not have skills or education for a job that you seek, get them.
  4. Apply for positions you would like to have.
  5. Ask your supervisor for support in applying for a promotion.
  6. Periodically update your supervisor on your accomplishments.
  7. If proper, discuss your accomplishments with other managers in the company.
  8. Treat everyone with respect.  Your coworkers may someday be your boss.
  9. When you go in for a performance review, write your own review of your performance.  Give a copy to your boss.
  10. Do your research.  Network within your company.  Say great things about yourself.

When you interview, you are negotiating for getting a job offer.  Some people start negotiating the terms of an offer before they even get an offer.  You should know the range of compensation and the details of a job during the interview process.  However, before you can negotiate the amount of a job offer, you must first go through an interview process and get an offer.  In other words, you are negotiating for an offer.

Apply the same principles of any negotiation in the interview process.  Do your research.  Show the hiring managers how their company benefits from hiring you.

Layout the Details

To prepare yourself for negotiating the details of a job offer, you can use a comparison chart.  You can use nearly any word processing document or spreadsheet to create this table.  You can use a pen and paper as well.

Here is a sample:

Details Current Job Job Offer Difference
Salary
Bonus
Car
Investments
Retirement
Vacation
Health Ins
Dental Ins
Life Ins
Job Title
Job Function
Commute
Location
Travel
Job Interest

Once you have created your comparison table, you can begin a meaningful negotiation.  If you believe that your table can help you as a presentation in your negotiation, you can give a copy of the table to the hiring manager.

Should You Discuss Your Income?

Should you be prepared to discuss your income?  My answer as a veteran headhunter is that you should discuss your income only if you want to get an interview.

I have placed 100’s of applicants with dozens of companies. I never referred an applicant for an interview without first knowing that person’s income.

What are you really keeping to yourself?  At one time this advice may have had some basis for negotiation purposes, but today there are plenty of websites that have nailed compensation for every possible position in every possible location.  Right here on JayWren.com, I provide employers and job seekers with a free salary custom search feature built on a database of compensation sites.

For nearly every job seeker, discussing income is private matter.  Many employers have a company policy that instructs their employees never to discuss their income with anyone inside or outside the company.  These are solid, meaningful, valuable policies that benefit the company and benefit the employees.

However, if you intend to leave your current employer, you will need to work with hiring managers and perhaps with headhunters who will need to know your compensation.  Many of these hiring managers work for companies that have policies that require applicants to provide a truthful statement of their income.

Why burn bridges?  The interview process can be costly to recruiters and to hiring companies.  If you make $150,000 a year and you require $300,000 to accept a job, put that information out there before you have your first interview. If you plan on running a lot of people through an expensive, time-consuming process to spring a fantastic compensation negotiation on them at the finish, you are more likely going to burn a bridge than double your income.

You can double your income.  I have placed people in positions where these people have doubled their income.  Small growth companies often offer large performance-based and stock-connected compensation packages.  I have helped a lot of people pay off their home early.  The way to go about doubling your income is to work with a recruiter who has the connections that will enable you to accomplish your financial goals.  The best way to help that recruiter is to start by telling the recruiter where you are financially and where you want to go.

The people to whom you discuss your income needs to be people you know you can trust to keep that information to themselves except when you have given them explicit direction to discuss the information with a specific employer or explicit circumstances.

If a hiring manager or headhunter calls you and you have no interest in making a job change but would like to begin to develop a relationship so that you can have people to contact for future needs, you are smart to avoid a discussion of income. These people have no need to know your income until you get serious about making a job change.

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