18 months in the making and they have lift-off!
This is the story of a stellar performer who through years of loyalty and lay-offs in the organisation had their self-confidence chipped away at. They ended up settling for five years of no salary increases. They felt like they were lucky to have a job. They have now had two very good increases in a year!
Meet *Gill. She is a career sales person. Someone who is in the talent pipeline – that is recognised as a top performer year on year in their organisation. After years of workforce redundancy cycles she is left feeling battered and bruised. Each cycle left her with a sigh of relief that she survived. Yet always looking over her shoulder to see if something else was looming.
Over 2-3 years there were several changes of manager. So, any traction on getting a review was left in the dust of the manager moving on.
After Salary Coaching, Gill managed to put together a strong case and received a $15K + super uplift. This is good by anyone’s standards. They set about continuing to prove their worth – even in the face of a manager telling them on occasion they wouldn’t be able to achieve certain targets. Gill kept going – feeling buoyed by what she actually knows about herself rather than listening to the voice of her manager.
Fast forward another year and with a particularly challenging target in front of her, Gill managed to pull off a miracle. To get suppliers to attend a conference and pay for the privilege. A first for this company.
Unbeknownst to them they are being noticed for the way they create something from vapour, and at a conference are tapped on the shoulder by a senior leader. The question of do you want to work for me came up. Over several weeks and multiple conversations, it was agreed a job that was in the making was right for my client. The only hurdle was the pay. Gill asked for $50K, a grade increase and received a counter of ~$30+ with the grade increase. Pressing further with strong value statements and negotiation techniques that we had rehearsed and voila the $50K increase was agreed. Add on an MBA, study leave and working remotely from her holiday destination for a week at a time and the deal was done!
Learnings from the salary lift-off
The learnings from this is that when in a job within the same company and wanting to progress your career, a long-game approach should be adopted. Just like the Pantene ad, it will take time. You can achieve BIG salary bumps this way if you can quantify your value and put a great case forward. There was no need to threaten with leaving. No need for any of that. Smart negotiation and strategising is what got Gill to where she landed.
It’s safe to say she is about to head north of the equator for a well-earned holiday and for the first week Gill will work remotely. There are many levers you can pull when negotiating salary and this is a great example of creative thinking.
Roughly, Gill’s total $66.5K uplift in salary over this period equates to ~$1.5million over the balance of her career.
