Salary Negotiation: A winner’s mindset
Salary negotiation is often the elephant in the room. Whether you’re discussing a job offer, you’re a freelancer talking to a prospective client or you’re already in a job and want to talk about a raise, it’s the conversation that we tend to avoid even though it is probably one of the most important and often the decider over whether we take a job or continue in a position.
Before entering into negotiations, you need to do some mental preparation to make sure you know your worth and don’t settle for anything less than you deserve. We often play down our talents and find it difficult to say what we are good at. You might be an incredible sales person but selling yourself is the hardest thing of all. However, it’s very important here to stand firm, know not only what the position is worth but what YOU are worth. You’ve been picked for a reason and you need to use this reason to maximize your salary potential.
Winner’s mindset
It’s all about mindset. On paper, even at interview you may have been the best person for the job but do YOU believe it? If you don’t, you are not going to do yourself justice during any negotiations. You need to believe it, feel it, live it, breath it. Get into the mindset that you are the only person for this job and you need to be compensated accordingly. So how do you do that?
Visualize it
Visualize yourself doing the job, imagine how it would look, what you would do. Feel how you feel when you’re doing the role well. Now imagine the paycheque. Think about the amount exactly and what you do with the money. By visualizing your goal, you can make it seem real. Your self-conscious can’t differentiate between reality and perception so the more often you visualize your goal and the more real it seems, the higher the chances that when it comes to negotiations, you’ll except nothing less than what you want.
Tell yourself
It may sound woo-woo but telling yourself every day that you are great at your work, that you are the only person for this job and that you are worth X amount of money will send a message to your brain to start building this belief in your mind. Over time, your sub-conscious will begin to create change in you based on your new belief.
Prove it
As you start to build this new belief, you will find that you start living it. You will see things from this new perspective. For example, if you hit a target at work, you will start to genuinely believe that it’s because you are the best person for this job rather than it being a stroke of luck and this will boost your performance further and cement your new belief.
Be positive
Always use positive language when you’re talking and visualizing. As the well-known saying goes; ‘believe you can and you will, believe you can’t and you won’t’.
Conclusion
Salary negotiations are never easy but getting into the right mindset is the best starting point.
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Nikki Vivian is a Career Coach and owner of From Kids to Career, which was set up to support women who are returning to a career, or looking to move in a new direction after taking time out to raise a family. Nikki works with Mums to find their true passions and to re-build confidence that can be lost after a break from the work place. She believes passionately that being a parent does not put you at the bottom of the pile when it comes to your career. Nikki owns CV writing company Confident CV and has 8 years experience working in Careers for Cardiff University.