How To Discuss Salary After An Offer: 4 Tips

You’ve made it past the competency questions, the motivational speeches and the company-related queries and you’ve got an offer. Now comes the part where tailored answers and structures won’t cut it. Salary discussions aren’t part of the script… Or at least, not the employer’s!

Here’s how to broker the deal.

Research

If you’re on a graduate scheme or an entry-level position at a large firm, negotiating pay isn’t likely to happen. Research and understand what type of position you’ve applied for to prevent yourself from making a crucial mistake.

In fact, most graduate scheme interviews don’t even mention pay; you only get a number once you’ve received an offer. In small-to-medium companies however, researching the average pay for a position like yours while keeping in mind that your qualifications will go a long way in salary negotiations. Resources such as Glassdoor, payscale.com and salary.com are extremely useful for this.

Learn what number is acceptable and how to say no

Having researched the average salary in your position, be ready to negotiate after being presented with an offer.

Since you’ve done your research, use it to your advantage. First, let the interviewer finish the entire pitch about bonuses and benefits; interrupting him/her before will make you look ‘money-oriented’ and give the impression that you don’t really care about the job. After the pitch, a good way to begin negotiating is to re-confirm the salary:

“Just to confirm, the salary is X correct?”

After their response, you need to express how you feel about the salary and how excited you feel about this role.

“I’m incredibly excited for this position as it seems like a fantastic opportunity. Unfortunately, I was really hoping for something higher.”

Now, you mention the research that you’ve done in a concise manner:

“Doing research, it seems the average is closer to X and this seems pretty low.”

Although you’ve progressed through the interview to talking about salaries, this shows the interviewer that you’ve come prepared and can discuss serious matters in a clear and concise fashion. Either way, you’ve made your claim and this will go multiple ways.

Don’t put yourself in a losing position and stay silent

After you’ve made your claim, interviewers will re-sell you the package. This will include things such as “you can progress quickly,” or “this is an entry-level position and given your limited experience”, or “with our bonus based compensation scale…” Do not yield to these statements. Stay firm on your position that the salary will change.

The crucial piece of advice here is to stay silent after you’ve made your claim. Do not say anything until they’ve responded. Similarly, you will be hurting yourself if you continue to try and justify yourself.

Ultimately, the salary negotiations aren’t about yours or their opinions re:your worth. It’s all about whether their offer is competitive in the marketplace, something that you should already know since you’ve done your research.

Take time to consider

After all this, if it doesn’t look like the salary will budge, ask for 24 hours to reconsider. They should always give you this courtesy. After all, it’s an important decision that you can’t make lightly.

Sometimes, asking for this additional time will get you a higher salary offer so don’t be afraid to ask. If a company really wants you, they will give you this day. On the other hand, a company that doesn’t give you this time is probably banking on you making a decision against your own interests.

Salary negotiations shouldn’t be skipped; even if you are in a position where you would be willing to take any position available, you lost nothing by negotiating pay. Firms will either give you this opportunity or tell you that salary is non-negotiable. They won’t withdraw their job offer because you asked an important question.

Inspiring Interns is a graduate recruitment agency which specialises in sourcing candidates for marketing internship roles and giving out graduate careers advice. To browse graduate jobs and graduate jobs Manchester, visit their website.