5 Ways To Counter A Low Salary Offer And Get The Pay You Deserve
You've been through the interview process and you nailed it. They love you and you know you're the perfect candidate for the job. But then they make you an offer that's much lower than you were expecting. What do you do?
It can be tempting to just take the low salary offer, especially if you really want the job. But you deserve to be paid what you're worth, and there are ways to negotiate a higher salary. In fact, not countering a salary offer, or in other words, giving up the opportunity to negotiate, can cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds over your lifetime. Here are 5 strategies you can use to counter a low salary offer and get the pay you deserve.
Here are five ways to counter a low salary offer:
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1. Do your research
Before you start negotiating, it's important to do your research and find out what the average salary is for the position you're being offered. This will give you a good starting point for negotiations.
Research is an important part of any negotiation. You need to know what the average salary is for the position you're being offered so you can have a good starting point for negotiations. There are a few different ways to research salaries, including online databases, speaking to industry contacts, and consulting a salary guide.
Once you have a good understanding of the average salary for the position you're being offered, you can start negotiating. Remember to be clear about what you want and be prepared to walk away if you don't get the salary you're asking for. A lot of times, people who are not psychologically prepared to walk away ahead of counter negotiations will not get what they want, as it means that they do not truly believe they are worth more than what is offered.
Needless to say, you should therefore make an informed decision before and when counteroffering, with a huge emphasis placed on mental preparation. Know what negotiated items other than pay rate would be most attractive/acceptable to you should a company attempt to lowball your hourly rate or monthly salary scale compared to what fair market value is for the position being applied for. You must be psychologically prepared that a company may turn down your offer due to budget restrictions or organizational rules. Your research and preparation should hence not only be focused on industry salary levels, but also on other compensation and benefits that similar companies across industries may or may not offer.
For example, some companies may be willing to provide additional holidays and membership benefits; or they may offer a higher medical treatment and insurance allowance. If a lower salary is given but you can negotiate for extra paid leave, flexible working hours, sabbaticals or homestays overseas (if your job involves travelling), you may wish to accept this offer as this can indicate that your employer is making a strong effort to meet your demands, but may have internal constraints preventing them to increase your pay.
2. Highlight your experience and skills
Again, if you're offered a salary that's lower than what you were expecting, it can be tempting to just accept it and move on. But if you know you're worth more than what they're offering, it's important to counter their offer.
When you're countering a low salary offer, it's important to highlight your experience and skills. This will help show the employer why you're worth more than they're offering.
However, when highlighting your experience and skills, you should present these in an easily comprehensible way for the employer to understand, instead of vague phrases like "I have proven myself to be a hardworking employee with the past with good time management skills" - these will certainly not make the cut. To make your pitch sound professional and easily comprehensible for the employer, you should aim to quantify the experience and skills you possess that are relevant to the job role you are applying for, such as "I have handled over 300+ projects in my 8 years of experience as an IT project manager, with over 95% of projects having completed ahead of schedule and within budget".
If you're not sure how to counter a low salary offer, there are a few templates and examples you can use as a starting point. Just remember to customize your counteroffer to fit your own unique situation. With a little effort, you can get the salary you deserve.
3. Put Together a Plan About What You Aim to Accomplish Within the First 100 Days in Your New Role
Putting together a plan about what you aim to accomplish within the first 100 days in your new role shows your passion and commitment to the job.
From an employer's perspective, they may not wish to hire the person who accepts the least salary or the person with the longest experience. More importantly, with talent shortages in many industries nowadays, employers are often looking for loyal employees who show commitment to the new company. By creating a well written plan, your employer may be faced with a hard decision - shall I turn down the new counter offer? But what happens if he/she walks away? He/she has shown great commitment to the new position, shall I risk finding another candidate who might be less committed? This gives you psychological leverage over the employer potentially, increasing your chances of getting what you wanted.
The plan doesn't have to be too detailed, but it should be able to address the following questions: What do you want to accomplish in your new role? How can your skills and experience help out your new company? Any milestones you have set yourself in your new workplace? How are you going to make sure that you hit those milestones?
A well-written plan will show your new employer that you're serious about making a positive impact and that you're already thinking about ways to improve the company, increasing the employer's pressure to simply accept your new offer.
4. Explain your value
If the employer doesn't accept your counter offer, it's important to explain your value. This will help them see why you're worth more than they're offering.
It's important to remember that you're not just explaining your value to the employer - you're also explaining it to yourself. By understanding your own worth, you can be confident in negotiating for the salary you deserve.
There are a few key points to keep in mind when explaining your value to an employer:
- Outline your accomplishments and how they've benefited the company.
- Be specific about your skills and what makes you unique.
- Explain how you've added value over and above your job description.
-Talk about your future potential and how you can contribute to the company's growth.
By taking the time to understand and articulate your value, you'll be in a much stronger position to negotiate a salary that reflects your worth.
Remember, it isn't the end of the world if your employer refuses your counter offer - you can still accept or decline the offer. You can also make another counter offer, but you must clearly understand the reasons for your employer's rejection of your initial counter offer in the first place. You must then respond to your employer's reasons for rejection clearly, so as to not risk having your offer retracted - you must not give out an impression that you simply want a higher pay or more benefits without giving substantial reasons.
5. (Most Important) Use Other Job Offers as Leverage
If you receive multiple job offers, you can use them as leverage to negotiate a better salary, benefits, and/or perks from your preferred employer. Here are a few additional tips on how to do this:
1. Be upfront about having other offers.
It's important to be upfront with your preferred employer about having other job offers. This will show them that you are in high demand and that they need to make a competitive offer to secure your commitment. Having an offer from another employer is solid proof of your value in the market, which means that you should set out to look for multiple jobs instead of focusing on landing just one single offer.
It is also important to be honest about your other offers so that the employer can make an informed decision about their offer.
2. Use your other offers as leverage.
Use your other offers as leverage to negotiate a better salary, benefits, and/or perks from your preferred employer. However, you must do so in a non-threatening way, but rather, imply in your counter offer pitch that you may refuse your current offer if terms are not improved. Again, do not forget to emphasize your skills and experience alongside your pitch, and how you would be a valuable asset to their team.
3. Be prepared to walk away.
Lastly, if your employer is not willing to budge, you should be mentally prepared to turn down the offer. You never know, some employers might cave if you notify them of turning down the job offer!
