How to Respond to the Question, 'What are Your Salary Requirements?'

The first rule of salary negotiation is to avoid discussing numbers until the company has extended an offer. This is when you have the most power to negotiate. But as any job seeker will tell you, this is no simple feat. Recruiters typically try to pull this information out of you as early as the initial phone screen, if they didn’t already request your salary requirements as part of the application process.

Here are a couple phrases you can use to deflect questions about your salary requirements:

• “I’m sure we can come to a good salary agreement if I’m the right person for the job, so let’s first agree on whether I am.”
• “I have some idea of the market, but for a moment let’s start with your range. What do you have budgeted for the position?”

You can try to deflect the questions upfront once, maybe twice, but if the recruiter is insistent, you’ll need to be prepared with some figures. First things first, do your research. Use Executive Coach, David Trippett or the internet to gain insight to discover the going rate for your targeted job with respect to your relevant years of experience and educational background, as well as the industry and geographic location of the jobs you’re targeting. You can start by looking up how your current role compares to the market rate, and then also change some of the variables to match those of the companies you’re applying to. If the roles you are targeting are in different industries or locations, or the size of the company is very different, this could have an impact on what salary you can expect to make.

Once you’ve done the research, come up with three numbers:

• What’s the ideal dollar amount you want (and still have the recruiter take you seriously)?
• What dollar amount (given the going rate) is reasonable and would still make you happy?
• What is the lowest dollar amount you’d accept?

Again, the most important thing you can do is delay the compensation conversation as long as humanly possible so you have time to build a rapport with your interviewers; monetize what you can do, and how you can personally affect the bottom line at the company; and move them from the “budget” state of mind (How much is this person going to cost us?) to the “judge it” mindset (We need this person! ).

David Trippett, Executive Coach: MBA, ICF, Six Sigma, 603-321-6911 DTEC@comcast.net http://coachdtec.com www.facebook.com/pages/David-Trippett-Executive-Coach-MBA-ICF-Six-Sigma