Significant Salary Increase — If you sell yourself right!

Manager reveals how you can negotiate a higher salary with your boss.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

“Boss, I need more money.” Have you ever tried it so simple? And did it work? Growing desires in life, the children need more money and also the rising energy prices, higher rents and interest rates, higher prices for food, in short we have inflation. All understandable reasons why you want more money. And at the same time they are not good reasons for your boss to give you more money.
If your boss has a good heart and above all follows altruistic ideals, arguments that only focus on your needs might work out with a small adjustment that helps you compensate for the increased costs, but you won’t be able to achieve a significant jump in salary this way.

If you argue only with your needs, you will get only pittance out of pity but not a significant increase in salary.

Why? Business enterprises want to make profits and only see themselves socially obligated to their employees to a certain extent. Mostly only if positive economic effects arise from the social benefits for employees. This can be the reputation on the labor market as a good employer or a higher social standing due to the good treatment of employees, which should pay off in higher sales.
However, when it comes to the specific relationship with you, you are ultimately a business case for the company. The company needs to allocate its resources in a way that will have the greatest impact. This also means for salaries and wages that they are spent where and to the extent that they achieve effect. You are needed to perform certain tasks. Your value is determined by what profits can be made based on your work.
At the same time, the employer also checks what your work is worth on the labor market. If he can get the same work for less money, he will not be willing to pay more money for it if you cannot make him understand why he should do it.
Your value is determined by the following factors:

1. Your knowledge & skills (which include soft skills like salesmanship or presentation skills),
2. Your experience,
3. Your creativity,
4. your performance: your commitment and dedication, and
5. how efficiently and effectively you know how to use your skills.

Your value gets a special boost if you have interdisciplinary knowledge combined with the other soft skills. People with skills in different areas are much rarer and many tasks require knowledge from different fields. This could be legal knowledge paired with economic but also technical knowledge combined with economics or law. Currently, all in-depth knowledge from one field plus skills related to automation (for example, RPA) and AI are in demand as this is growing in importance in every field.

How do you get more money now?

There are 2 Options that determine the next steps:

I. Option: you already have essential skills and can demonstrate how you use them successfully.

Then it’s time for a conversation with your boss.

Set up an appointment where you both have time and prepare it well. Never ask for money casually or between door and corner! Otherwise your request will not be taken seriously.

Prepare the appointment. Create a presentation that shows how your value has increased. This is always individual. It could include the following content:

1. My latest achievements: What are my outstanding recent accomplishments? What do I contribute to the success of the team?
2. My development: How have I developed and why am I now worth more? Only seniority does not justify more money, but increased performance through experience:
   — Improved efficiency (more customers, more units, etc.) Especially through routine and experience, employees become valuable.
   — Improved effectiveness (customer feedback, feedback from colleagues, special achievements, outstanding deals)
   — Improved knowledge — what new knowledge and skills have I acquired or trained?
3. My impact: What recent financial effects have my actions produced?
   — Proposed or implemented improvements for the company and their impact
   — Sales increases or cost savings
   One-time impact is usually rewarded by bonus payments or premiums, but if such effects are achieved regularly, it increases your value in general, since it can be assumed that you will repeatedly accomplish such achievements.
4. My value: What makes me special on the job market and for the company and what are my options outside the company? Caution! Never threaten here that you will leave the company if there is not more money. Anyone who does that is more likely to be promoted to the bench in the medium term. As the saying goes, don’t stop a traveler. Nevertheless, one can emphasize feeling comfortable with the company and happy to continue to be fully committed to the company, but desiring to be paid in line with the market because one has received certain offers or knows of other options that reflect that the market would be willing to pay substantially more for you, but one does not want this, but at the same time wants fair pay.
5. Outlook: What will I be making in the next few months and what will the impact be? Generally, salary increases are paid for an effect that has already been achieved. However, if you already give an outlook of what to expect, it increases the desire to keep or motivate the employee. However, it should be clear to you and the boss that the current increase does not cover what does not yet exist.

The Negotiation:
After you have shown your value, state your desire. Be friendly and not too demanding, but firm. Never fall into the temptation of pressuring your boss and threatening to quit, but make it clear that you still see yourself in the company with all your strength.
Set an anchor point, which salary increase you expect. This anchor should be named by you and will be the starting point from which your boss will try to give you something less. Make your boss feel that you will continue to do all you can for the company, but that the raise is important to you as fair compensation for your efforts and increased value. Give him time to make necessary arrangements with his superiors and agree on a binding follow-up date when you will talk about it again and by when he can make an offer. In the negotiation you should not haggle, but also not necessarily accept the first offer. You have to decide that depending on the amount. Often a one-time renegotiation is possible, but not 3 rounds. The company knows your expectations, has made a first offer and has improved it. As a rule, it is not willing to pay more and you have to decide whether this is enough for you or whether you draw your consequences from it.

The 2nd offer is usually the best that will come. Take it. If it’s not enough, look for another job.

II. Option: You need tolearn new skills that are a good fit for your job and combine them successfully.

Another way is to invest in yourself and learn new skills that are in demand in your job. This will allow you to be more versatile and take on different or higher level tasks.
By cleverly combining skills, this again improves your value if you combine disciplines that work together and whose combination creates an overview and a better operational capability that the company needs.

Examples include:
- A physician who learns strategic planning and business management skills, making him or her a candidate for chief medical officer positions or division leadership.
- A technical account manager who gains technical knowledge to be able to speak more at eye level with an IT manager.
- A human resources manager who acquires further legal training in order to be able to make well-founded assessments in labor law and to relieve the legal department.
- An IT technician who acquires knowledge in Robotic Process Automation in order to be able to automate processes.
These combinations make these individuals very valuable, as they can interface both sides and thus act as a liaison or generalist.

If you have learned such skills, prove them through certificates and even better through work samples or projects. This extension is perfect to prove your value.

Conclusion: You can get a significant salary increase if you succeed in demonstrating your increase in value. Prepare well for an agreed appointment and present your value. State your expectations as an anchor point. However, do not put pressure on your boss. If you lack good reasons for more money, it may not be time yet. Then acquire valuable knowledge for the company and try it after that.

Always remember: You are a business case. If you are valuable, it is worthwhile for the company to buy you at a good price. The more unique the combination of your skills, abilities and performance, the more valuable you are.

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