5 Keys to Salary Negotiation

Negotiating a job offer can go any number of ways. At best, it's like a great first date: after all the practicing in front of the mirror and second-guessing, you surprise yourself by finding instant chemistry. You agree on politics, prefer the same wine and would both rather stay in with a good book.

Few offer negotiations go that well. At worst, they feel like a hostage negotiation: "Calmly hand over a $25K relocation package and six weeks of vacation, and I'll sign right now. Nobody gets hurt."

That may explain why, according to SHRM, only 39% of job seekers chose to negotiate. Why do offer negotiations turn sour so quickly?

• People get emotional, emotion clouds logic, and clouded logic leads to poor decisions.
• Job seekers start to see it as "me versus them" instead of "let's get there together."
• Salary comes up too late. Job seekers wait for the employer to raise compensation, and employers seem happy to keep pushing it further down the road.
• Job seekers take too narrow a view. They overweight the base salary and undervalue long-term incentives and benefits.
• Job seekers don't have an accurate picture of what they're worth to the employer.

So how do you walk that line and still come out ahead? According to Glassdoor figures reported by CNBC, US employees who don't negotiate leave about $7,500 a year on the table. Here's what to know before you try to improve an offer.

1. Check your ego at the door

Your emotions are your worst enemy here, and they will only get you into trouble. Don't say or do anything reactively. If they lowball you, don't turn the offer down. If they take two weeks to come back when they said one, don't take it personally and do something rash. This is business, and things happen. Stay positive and enthusiastic. It's very hard to negotiate an offer you've already turned into a paper airplane.

2. Use collaborative language, and think win-win

"I'm really looking forward to joining the team. Between Mark, Julie and me, we're going to have the best quarter this company has seen." In your head you've already committed to the team, and language like that draws the other side into the same commitment. Once a mutual commitment has been said out loud, a few thousand dollars of base starts to feel like a detail.

3. Negotiation starts with the first conversation

Not literally, but the way you carry yourself through the interviews is a negotiation in itself. Before the company runs a number past finance, they should already be thinking, "We can't do without this person. We need to do whatever it takes to get them over the line."

So when and how do you bring up money? It's the million-dollar question, and the timing trips up more people than anything else. The short answer: ask your recruiter. If they have a strong relationship with the client, they can guide you through it smoothly.

4. Accept that no one gets it all

You know where you want to be financially, and which other terms matter to you: long-term incentives, 401(k) or profit sharing, benefits, paid time off, relocation or tuition reimbursement. But concessions are almost always made, usually on both sides. Choose the opportunity with the greatest upside over time, not the one with the quickest pop.

5. Do your research ahead of time

Understand what similar roles pay, so you can size up this one. The job isn't the only thing to size up: it's never a bad idea to evaluate yourself, too. Find out, discreetly, what people with similar education, employers, experience, tenure and results have earned, so you go into any negotiation with credible data.

FloodGate's MedTech Compensation Guide is a good place to start: base and total pay ranges for 62 MedTech roles, from sales and clinical to regulatory and the C-suite. For more on the conversation itself, read Navigating Salary Negotiations.