Factoring Your Own Opinion

From: Jack Chapman

Mary-Ellen Mort, a developer of the JobStar web page, has words of wisdom I quote here:

“Obviously the more you can find out (from your network, your research on the company and the industry) the more you are able to guess what your skills can mean to the company.  Inside information—such as they stand to lose a contract if they don’t get someone who knows how to do X—is the key.

“The interviewing process itself is one of the best ways of nosing out such stuff.  Ask the right questions; listen for the answers.  Check out the impressions you get during the interview with your close and confidential network.  Often they can add something that was not said about the vacancy or the need or the players involved.

“This is one of the big reasons you should delay the salary talk till later in the game.  Often people say it’s because you want them to want you [first, before you discuss salary].

“That’s true of course.

“But the more you talk and schmooze and listen between the words, the more you have a sense of how much they need you and what it will cost them if they don’t have you.  Job seekers forget they are not just giving info in the interviews, they are collecting it too.”

Her point is expressed well.

Remember the budget, fudgit, and judgit stages?  Remember how I encouraged you to postpone salary talk until they are in the judgit stage?  Well here’s where it pays off!  In the judgit stage, not only do they appreciate your value, but you know your value, too, especially the IV$ and Rf$ values.

Any doubts you had while reading Chapter 2 about delaying salary talk, and how it is only logical to wait until the judgit stage to discuss value, should be gone by now.  You should now be more confidently grounded in how your value depends on the organization’s needs and how those needs and your value often aren’t clear until the judgit stage.

When, at the budget stage, an employer asks your salary expectations, it’s logical to say, “I couldn’t possibly tell you what I’m worth to you until I know the whole job and how much I can produce for your organization.”  You may have thoroughly researched your ORV$ market value but, until the judgit stage arrives, your understanding of your IV$ and Rf$ value to the firm is incomplete.

Here is an example.

I had a client who applied for a job as a word processor, with a market value of fifteen to eighteen dollars an hour.  When asked at the start of the interview if eighteen dollars an hour was acceptable, she thought, “Wow!  Top of the range!”  But she said, “If eighteen dollars an hour is a fair and motivating wage, of course it’s acceptable, but I’d rather wait and discuss salary when we’re both clear about what I can produce for you.”

They continued talking.  By the time the employer reached judgit, it was evident to both of them that, besides needing help with word processing, the company also needed someone who could organize mailing lists, distribute newsletters, deal with printers, and handle a marathon monthly production weekend that required extreme efficiency, patience, and coordination and communication talents.

As a word processor, my client might have been worth just ten to fifteen dollars an hour.  But by adding those other responsibilities, she was worth much more.  When she postponed money talk until the judgit stage, not only did her employer see that increased worth, but so did she!

Jack Chapman is a nationally know job coach and seminar speaker specializing for the last 20 years in salary negotiations and job interviews.

For more information on Salary Negotiations, please visit: http://www.breakthrough-salaries.com/

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