Answer a question with a question in your salary negotiations
When it comes to salary, no hiring manager wants to be the first to quote a salary number.
Whether it’s the phrase “Salary based on qualifications,” “Pay based on experience,” “Send salary history with your resume,” or some other way of putting it, the hiring managers want to keep the upper hand in salary negotiations from the very beginning of the hiring process.
And the best way to do that is to get you to show your cards first – by getting you to say a number first.
You can do a bit of research to strengthen your hand, of course. You can go to Salary.com and look up all the variations on your title, put in your zip code to get more regionally accurate data, or even pay for a personal salary report.
When it comes to a specific position at a specific company, though, all bets are off. The company may have set ranges from which they never deviate. They may have a budget within which they have to stay. Or regardless of any other considerations, they may just lowball the offer in the hope you’ll just accept it (worst case scenario).
No matter the situation, your best option for getting the upper hand in salary talks is simply to turn the question around. When asked for your salary requirement, your response should be akin to the following:
“I would expect my salary to be commensurate with my education, experience, and the demonstrated value I’ve created in my previous position(s). How would you compensate the [insert job title here]?”
It’s a non-answer answer, immediately followed by a question. If you ever watched the comedy improve show Whose Line Is It, Anyway? you may recognize this as a variation on “The Question Game.”
To play “The Question Game,” you must answer a question by asking a question of your own. You win when the other person breaks down and makes a statement instead of asking another question.
This is another role-playing opportunity, so get with a friend or family member, and play the Question Game to see whether you can get the “interviewer” to break and give you a number first.
And when you get into a live interview, you’ll have a better chance of getting the salary you want … or know a lot sooner whether you should be taking your executive resume elsewhere.
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