How To Ask For A Raise

The below strategies have allowed me to negotiate salary increases of 20% and 26% ( the last I was going for 36% so I fell short but again, I reassessed what a win was), title changes, commission increases, an offer of a company car and a few other cool perks.

There are things I haven’t touched upon here because I think they deserve their own posts about such as:

• Relationship building with your line manager

• Making your career ambitions known to senior stakeholders

• Leveraging relationships to get a better understanding of the company you work for (back-channeling)

They will be coming shortly, I believe those in addition to over-performing and having evidence to support this claim were crucial to my bids and their success and the aforementioned points above.

But, let’s kick off.

The best times to ask for a raise include when:

• You’re scheduled for an annual or quarterly review

• The company is doing well financially

• You’ve just completed a project that went well, thanks to your initiative

• Your manager is in a good mood and isn’t overwhelmed with work

Talking about money for many is always hard. The key to making it easier is preparation.

Here are action next for you:

• Bring this up with your line manager -this is best done in a 1 to 1

• Research salary trends – this will inform you of how much you’ll ask for, make sure to factor in how long you’ve been in your career at this company.

• Create a list of your most important accomplishments and responsibilities – I would argue that you should be doing this monthly as we do so much at work and much of it we forget. This is your ammunition, you should aim to have as much data as possible

• List all questions you can be combatted with – Your request for a raise will likely be met with at least some resistance. Think about how you’ll answer questions like “Why do you think you deserve this raise right now?” or “Would you be willing to take on new responsibilities for this salary?”

At times, it is important to reassess what a win is. This could be some of the following:

• Flexible working hours

• Additional vacation days

• A title change

• A smaller increase to your salary

You should always have a Plan A and a Plan B in mind; a big ask and then a little ask. If you ask for something big, and they say no, you don’t sweat it, you keep it pushing and move to Plan B. This is called the door-in-the-face (DITF) technique, were the persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader’s face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, than if that same request is made in isolation (1).

I would suggest practising your pitch before you use it on your boss as you need to present confidence, too many of us have a tendency when we’re nervous to end our statements sounding a bit like questions. Also that homework I recommended the listing of your highlights, you should share that with them as a Google doc.

Why you may ask? In most cases your line manager is a stakeholder who will relay this information to other stakeholders to make a case for your raise, you want to make their job as easy as possible.

What happens if you hear no?

As difficult as this sounds do not take it to heart. There are many reasons why your raise has been rejected, here are a few:

• Bad timing

• Insufficient budget

• Failure to articulate your case

However, what I would suggest is agreeing upon a follow-up time which is better to further discuss. This level of proactiveness might feel like you’re being too pushy. But what it does, is show your boss how serious and confident you are that you deserve a raise. I would strongly avoid talking about personal reasons as to why you need the money, it may come across as unprofessional and take away from how your performance at work demonstrates that you deserve a raise.

References

1 Cialdini, R.B.; Vincent, J.E.; Lewis, S.K.; Catalan, J.; Wheeler, D.; Darby, B. L. (1975). “Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: the door-in-the-face technique”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 31 (2): 206–215. doi:10.1037/h0076284.