Quote from Ali Scarlett on December 12, 2020, 4:05 am

Negotiating for a Raise (By Chris Voss)

1. Step One: Prepare To Get Ahead of Your Employer's Negatives (The Accusations Audit)

Make a comprehensive list of all the negative assumptions, thoughts, and feelings you think the other side (your employer) may be harboring against you. This will be your accusations audit.

Later, you'll use the accusations audit negotiation technique to get ahead of these negatives.

2. Step Two: Walk Into Your Boss's Office

3. Step Three: Gather Information

"[As an employer] how much do you know about my ability to pay you? [When you're just starting out] you presume it's there. But you don't know. And, you don't know how to make yourself more valuable [so you can justify more money]. So, how do you do that in a job negotiation? You got to come in, first of all, and find out, 'Am I living up to expectations? How have I done? How do I negotiate my success [in the company] for the future?' Then, you start talking about what that success is worth [to them]. But, terms make the deal in any negotiation. Especially in a job."

4. Step Four: Disarm Their Negative Emotions (The Accusations Audit)

A lot of employers might see employees as being selfish. So, disarm that by treating it like it's the elephant in the room and addressing it.

You: "Look, I don't want you to think I'm selfish. I'm gonna have a conversation with you where I'm gonna seem very selfish."

Here might also be where you want to throw out any other negatives you feel your employer may be harboring against you.

"How exhaustive should you be in your list of accusations that you're compiling? I'm here to tell you if you don't feel like you're laying it on thick, you're not laying it on thick enough...And, a great way to test that is, as you're laying out your accusations audits, read the other side's reaction all along the way. If you've got a list of 15 things and you've gone through the first three, and they say, 'Oh, you're being too hard on yourself,' you know you've done your job...because when somebody [your employer] says that, they have stepped to your side of the table. You have forced empathy into the situation and that's exactly what your objective is."

5. Step Five: Start Negotiating For What You Want

Use the labeling, mirroring, and other negotiation techniques to reach your desired outcome.

6. Step Six: Find the Black Swans in Business

"If you're negotiating a for a salary, you might not know that behind the scenes of the company, that the person that you're going to work for is going to leave in a year. You don't know what opportunities are coming in conjunction with that job that the company's already forecasted and budgeted out. You don't know who's planning on moving on. You don't know all the things that are going on behind the scenes. All you know is they've offered you this job within these parameters. But, they already know, have a very good idea of the dynamics that they hope to change in the company over the next year. Finding out those dynamics behind the scenes could either make it a wonderful place for you to work or a horrible place. And, it has nothing to do with the job description at the moment. The things that they know that  you don't know are the black swans."

There's also a chance that you have value (possibly in the form of a valuable sill set) that fills a specific strategic need in their company that they don't know you have yet. If you are in talks with them about a salary increase and they don't know that this value is something you bring to the table, that's an example of a black swan that you bring to the negotiation.

"So, the idea is to start the communication and for me to start getting the information flowing from you so that I can find out what those black swans are and I can change the outcome."

7. Step Seven: Move For The Close (Move From "No" To How)

"What you're really trying to get is an authentic commitment. And, even with that [authentic commitment], 'yes' is nothing without 'how'."

So, once you've reached a point in the negotiation where the deal is more of a win-win, you need to seal the deal. And, if they haven't given you a way to proceed finalize the deal), you can ask:

You: "How should we proceed? What are the next steps? How would you like to proceed?"

"Use 'how' or 'what' to begin to pave your way into how you're going to proceed."

8. Step Eight: Anticipate Implementation Problems In Advance (Move From "No" To How)

"[Once you've finalized the deal]...think in advance a little bit because there are always going to be implementation problems. So, in some anticipation of that, you want to ask some 'how' and 'what' questions to deal with implementation problems in advance.

You: "How do we know if we're on track? How are we going to deal with it if we're off track?"

9. Step Nine: Leave A Lasting Impression

To leave a great last impression that establishes you as someone they would want to collaborate with (give another raise) in the future, take what you would say at the beginning of a negotiation in order to open it positively and simply put it at the end.

You: "You know, I'm--I'm here because I'd love to have a great long-term relationship. I'd love for you to prosper from working with me. Let me know how we can proceed. How do you want to proceed?"