Negotiating a Salary through Email

While I was doing my keyword research for the latest podcast episode, the prerequisites to negotiating a salary, which you can find the youtube version here, I saw one keyword which seems to have a lot of searches, and it was, how to negotiate a salary by email. So I figured I’ll answer the question that nobody asked. 

How do we negotiate a salary through email? 

We don’t, don’t do it! Never negotiate anything important via email. If you want to negotiate the price of a used dining room table you’re buying off of Craig’s list, then, by all means, email. If you are serious about the SE job you are applying to, or even a non-SE job, then do not negotiate by email.  

Here’s why:

1- It takes forever:

Rule number one of sales is to close the sales. I’m not talking about the ABC of sales, Always be closing. I’m taking that if the customer is ready to buy, and all they want to do is negotiate the price, then the salesperson needs to close that deal as soon as possible to eliminate the chance that the customer loses the budget, or a competitor comes in last second, or there’s an announcement that some other company will be taking over this one and there is a budget freeze etc.

Going over email, it just takes time. You send an email, then you wait at least five minutes, but it could be a day or more, then you receive an email from them. You read the email, disagree with what they said, write your response and send it back. Wait again. 

2- For mental sanity:

All this waiting, it’s just not good for mental sanity. They send you an offer, you send them a counteroffer, then you wait. In the meantime, your brain begins to think. Did you piss them off? Are they even going to come back at all? Are they going to accept? Should I email them back and accept their previous offer? Silence is something that experienced negotiators use during in-person negotiation as a tactic to make someone uneasy and to add tension. While working through email, it’s there by default. 

3- Lost in translation:

Not a secret I hope, but there is a lot of information lost through text. The tone of voice, gone. Smiles, smirks, frowns, cheek clinches, we cannot decipher that through email. That’s why every text message I used to get from my then-girlfriend, now wife, always ended with me thinking, what did she mean by that. 

The fact that emojis were created just to help in portraying tone and state of mind should tell a lot. Unfortunately, you can’t send the heart emoji to the hiring manager.

But how should you negotiate?

Well, at a minimum, the negotiation should be over the phone. In-person is always better, but these days, it’s hard to do if the hiring manager is not in the same area, so phone.

Keep in mind that if you did the job right, the negotiation would be minimal. There will not be too many back and forths. That is good since that means you can close the deal faster. And in many cases if and when you ask for more money, you can hear the hiring manager’s voice. 

The response might be 

“Ok let me go see what I can do”

Or   

“I’ve pretty much offered you everything I can offer” 

Or in an ideal world:

“You got it”

So please, do me a favor, never negotiate anything this important over email. If the hiring manager does not have time to chat with you to get you on the job, how will he or she give you guidance and assistance once you have the job? That is a red flag. 

What is needed on your end to negotiate a salary?

As in every sale, every word that exits the Account Manager’s mouth or the Sales Engineer’s mouth will be used in the negotiate later, either by the customer or by the account manager. Same thing with getting a job, any job. For negotiating a salary, here’s what you need:

1- The power to walk away.

Have you ever purchased a house in the past? How did it go? Did you fall in love in the house and you just needed to have it? Or were you able to keep your cool and attempt to negotiate the price of the house? I’ve had both situations. I once negotiated a house from CAD 475,0000 to CAD 450,000 just by walking away from the house. It helped that nobody else put an offer on the house. In another situation, I overpaid by CAD 5,000 because we really wanted it. Luckily for us, someone overbid on the house and we ended up losing that deal. 

Same thing with getting a new job. If the role is something the applicant really wants, then he or she might be willing to take a salary that might not be comparable to other SEs in the market. If the applicant is not desperate for a new job, as in he or she is happy with their current role, and looking for some additional challenges or opportunities that their current role cannot provide, that gives a bit more power during the negotiation process.

I do want to note that many people take jobs that they really want with a pay cut or less than market value. There is nothing wrong with that, especially if the job will make that person happy and challenge them in new ways. 

2- Value was proven to the hiring team

This is very hard to do during interviews. Everyone is usually on their best behavior, so it’s hard for a manager to gauge the potential SE, and it’s hard for the potential SE to gauge the manager and the team. This is why there might be many many rounds of interviews. In each and every round the SE has to prove their value to the person they are talking to. Just like sales, the messaging will change from interviewer to interviewer. 

The hiring manager wants someone who will solve problems for him or her. They don’t want someone who will get into constant fights with their Account Managers, or have to spend millions of dollars getting them up to speed on the soft skills. 

Sales Directors simply want someone who wants to sell. Salespeople want someone they can depend on for the technical information and won’t say anything to jeopardize opportunities. 

The more the SE can show each and every interviewer that they can do whatever is needed, then their value not only gets proven but might also go up. 

3- Knowing the market rate for Sales Engineers in their area. 

Again, if you have purchased a house in the past, I really hope that you took a look at the houses that have sold in the area, and how much they sold for. This helps not to overpay for a house, and if you want the house, not to offer a ridiculously low offer. The same thing goes while looking for a job, any job. When looking for a new job, as long as the market value is higher than what you are making right now, then you know what to ask for. The exception would be if you are already at the outer limits of the salary ranges which will most likely not be the case if you’re not already a sales engineer.  

4- Competition for your position.

If the hiring manager has several options to hire for that position, especially if you have not proven your value beyond those applicants, then you lose some power of negotiation. However I’ve worked with SEs on their interviews who have competition from other applicants, however they were able to differentiate themselves by proving their value. That made them 1st choice, and everybody else a distant second or third choice. Always ask if they are looking at other people as well, and how long does the hiring manager need to make a decision.

How to start the negotiation?

Salary negotiation starts when the potential SE answers the first screening phone call with HR or the hiring manager. One of the questions usually asked is “What is the salary range you are looking for?” and whatever the answer is given, more often than not, that is the range that the potential SE is stuck with. 

Like any negotiation, the HR manager has a range in front of him or her of how much they can offer the SE. The SE should have a range of his or her own. I like to have a best-case scenario (if all the stars align), my realistic number that I would say yes to on the spot, and the number where I walk away. 

Once the recruiter or hiring manager mentioned that the salary range is acceptable, then you can move forward knowing that you are not wasting your time trying to get a job that will not pay the minimum salary that you are looking for. 

Final thought,  money is not everything. If they pay an extra 30K a year but the commute to work is 1 hour in each direction, is that a raise or pay cut in terms of seeing the family. So the negotiation would include other factors, like being able to work from home. Other factors could be the split (75/25 instead of 80/30), company car or allowance, time off if that’s what’s important, travel or lack of travel, etc.

What was your experience applying to jobs? Let me know in the comments section.