To negotiate a salary can be both the most profitable and the most humiliating thing an employee or job seeker can do. If correct knowledge about how negotiations work, an employee can achieve marvelous results. If taken lightly, the negotiation will often end up in frustration and humiliation. Thus, the route of knowledge should definitely be chosen by anyone seriously wanting to negotiate for a high salary. Here are five important tips for the salary negotiator:  

Tips # 1 – always aim for a win-win scenario The basic principle of all negotiations – not only salary negotiations – is that the negotiations will end up in a co-operation between the parties only if the benefits for both of entering into an agreement exceed the costs for doing so. Thus, the salary negotiator must always aim for a win-win scenario when negotiating the salary.  

Tips # 2 – focus on the interests of the employer In order to achieve the sought for win-win situation, the employee or job seeker must focus hard on the employer’s interests and really understand them. The job which salary is negotiated fits in somewhere in the employer’s plans. The employee or job seeker must understand those plans in order to be able to present himself/herself as the solution to them or an important contribution to their achievement.  

Tips # 3 – prepare carefully before negotiating the salary Research shows that the key factor explaining the difference between successful and less successful negotiators is the extent to which preparations are made. There are several important steps to take, among them to find the range within which the salary can be negotiated and to brain storm for arguments that the employee/job seeker should have a salary in the higher end of this range.  

Tips # 4 – adopt a winning attitude To succeed with anything, a winning attitude is of great importance. This applies to athletes and salary negotiators equally. One way to adopt a winning attitude is to write down an ambitious target for the salary negotiation, the reaching of which is thereafter visualized by the employee or job seeker days before the negotiation.  

Tips # 5 – make sure the timing is right The employee or job seeker must wait and try to avoid discussing actual salary figures until the right moment. The employer must “be on the hook” first, being really interested in the employee/job seeker and his/her job there. Only then shall s/he name his price.