Men consistently negotiate a pay rise, while women often accept what is offered, according to Karina Collis, a professional negotiation expert and founder of Liinea Sales Advisory. Moreover, women will negotiate their relevant salary less often, which generates a vicious circle over the course of a career. Collis offers some tips and steps to successful salary negotiation.
How can women overcome the social stereotypes they face and successfully negotiate what they really deserve without downside?
#1 Negotiate with more ambitious goals
The payment for a position is never written in stone. You will be surprised, but setting higher and more ambitious goals tends to deliver higher payoffs.
Analyze the salary range for your position in other companies to understand how much you can really get and make the conclusions. And remember that women’s salary expectations are 3-32% lower than men’s for the same job. Maybe it’s time to prepare for negotiation and stop being afraid of setting higher goals.
#2 Focus on the communal benefits
You should show that you appreciate your cooperation and relationships, that you really want to build a long-lasting and effective relationship with the team, and that you believe it is very important that you work together towards finding the best solution.
Use a friendly social style of communication instead of a more direct style, – it is proved that such an approach is more effective for women. Alas, the gender biases are still very present: direct style of communication is well perceived for men, but not for women. But your goal is to achieve the result, – so, use the most effective tools.
#3 Gather information and use confident reasoning
Collect good information to minimise uncertainty. What is the average salary in your industry? Are you fairly paid? If you are armed with facts, you can formulate your position clearly, with numbers and statistics. Sometimes a friendly style of communication and focusing on the communal benefits are not enough for successful negotiation for women, so, prepare facts.
How to break all the stereotypes and get what you really deserve?
- Event: Negotiate! “Power Negotiation for Women” is a special training programme created and developed by Karina Collis, the founder of Liinea Sales Advisory and the sales expert with more than 15 years of professional negotiation experience.