How to negotiate for a salary, without actually having to negotiate for a higher salary 👀

How many more inflation based pay rises are you willing to endure…?

A lot of us feel a little icky around the topic of money. We’re taught not to talk about it, and for women, this becomes our operating model.

‘Money doesn’t grow on trees.’ [Side note: Erm, maybe not, but it is literally made from trees.]

Most of us grow up hearing things like this about money. ‘We can’t afford it’ etc. is the thing that breeds the scarcity mindset that we have around the topic.

This extends into how we approach things like salary at work. When it comes up, I’d go so far as to say some of us feel actually sick. Real talk.

Let me tell you what happens when you don’t.

You get offered a job or a promotion, and ‘panic accept’ without pushing back, or maybe you do but not hard enough. So you accept the title and compensation that is offered, but deep down you feel like something wasn’t quite right.

You ignore it, and convince yourself that everything is great. Then you get 6-12 months in, and you realise you don’t feel valued. You know what your peers are earning, but because you are likely in HR in some way, you can’t really use that as collateral to build a case.

So you say nothing, then pretty soon, you feel resentful, maybe you are even being gaslit by others in the team because they don’t see you as a peer. You dread coming into work, and you start to dread certain meetings. Your confidence starts to shrink.

But here’s the thing.

If you had entered role with salary and title know should have gotten, then:

• You feel happy and fulfilled for longer.
• Your leadership peers recognise your leadership qualities from the get go because of how hard you backed yourself.
• You are so respected, that the initiatives you are working on are prioritised.
• You don’t have to fight so hard for budget and you get to build an amazing team.

Through Bloom, I help people to build their career on their own terms, and get the salary and title they deserve.

First, you gotta work on your money story.

The journey to breaking through the £100,000 barrier felt like a lifetime for me. I hit £70,000 pretty fast as a Recruiter, then when I moved in-house, the increments got smaller.

I started to work on my money story. Here’s the reframe that helped me the most, said by a trusted advisor: ‘When you have more money, you will use it for good things’

As my salary grew and I broke through the £100,000 barrier, guess what…? I used some of that money for good things. I gave more to my people. I improved more than just myself.

My guess is that you are the same, as you have more, you will use it for good things.

Second, you gotta know where you want to be.

What would you like to be earning?

My guess, is that whatever just popped into your mind, is just a modest step from where you are now. In my last role as CPO, my last salary was on a par or higher than ALL members of the last executive team I was on, including the CEO.

My company was like that because as leaders, we decided to try to build a company that felt fair for those within it. Parity might be a stretch for some companies, but figure out what really is 'fair' in the market and make sure you know where you want to be.

The only person that can improve your situation is you. It doesn’t serve the system to make sure you get a higher salary.

Third, let your energy do all the talking negotiate for you.

Lots of you are interviewing right now, and that often looks like:

• Responding to interview questions that are offered.
• Sharing only what is asked of you, and missing out all your best stories.

What if instead you said something like; ‘Let me tell you how I am going to make you a lot of money…’ and proceed to say:

• All the things you did to hire amazing talent.
• All the amazing initiatives you ran that improved retention.
• The business results the humans in that company created.
• In my next role, I’d like to go further… here’s my vision for what your company could look like…

That's how you negotiate a higher salary without negotiating a higher salary.

It works the same if you are in a role too. By learning to communicate your impact and build powerful strategies for your team in future, you soon become an undeniable force within your organisation.

That's what we learn in Bloom, and if you aren't on the waitlist for the next iteration yet, jump on here.