commission
• variable commission
• draw against commission
• advance against commission
• base plus commission
• salary plus commission,
• salary and bonus
• salary
• residuals
3. Performance Bonuses
4. Insurance
5. Cars and Expense Accounts
6. Professional Memberships
7. Vacation and Personal Days
8. Relocation Expenses
9. Other Bennies and Perks
Severance pay; Christmas bonuses; matching-funds investment program; deferred salary; corporate gasoline from private pumps; free parking; corporate cafeteria or executive-dining-room privileges; pension plans (do you contribute or does the company pay in full?); credit union; company-paid physical examinations; country-club or health-club memberships; and use of the corporate plane, boat, or vacation property.
With so many takeovers, downsizing, etc., negotiating severance pay can be very important. See the Special Situations chapter to learn more, especially the section, “Negotiating Severance Timing II: Long before you need it.”
Also ask about tuition reimbursement. Still more bennies and perks are estate- or financial-planning assistance, tax and legal assistance, and corporate-product discounts. Figure 7-1 contains a list of perquisites and benefits.
10. Signing Bonus (a.k.a. “Sign-On” Bonus)
In flush times generally, or when demand is high in your particular specialty, employers may entice you to take their offer by adding a signing bonus. This is a one-time multi-thousand dollar payment and its purpose can be to:
• sweeten the offer so you’ll take it
• compensate you for bonuses, options vesting, etc., you would lose with your present company if you accept the offer from the prospective one
• recognize the IV$ value you bring (i.e., you’re saving them $5,000 tuition in, say, Peachtree software because you already know it.)
• reward you for bringing over your “book” of business or your loyal-to-you clients
Any time you can think of special IV$ (see chapter 4), you have a rationale for negotiating this type of bonus.
Time to Think It Over
After you’ve discussed these matters, the offer should be pretty clear. Put all your enthusiasm back in gear and say, “This sounds terrific! I think we’ve really got a solid match here. Would you jot this all down so we’re clear, and I’ll get back to you as soon as you need to know. When do you need to know?”
It is extremely important to maintain your enthusiastic voice, gestures, and energy so your request for time is not taken as a lack of interest in the job. There’s a delicate line here between demanding time and requesting clarity.
Read The Book To Learn
• All 10 categories of benefits and perquisites.
End of Lightning Rounds: Dive into the book!
Chapter 2:
Aiming for What You’re Worth
Good negotiations, like Ms. Worth’s, are ones in which both sides applaud the outcome. Employees like Worth feel appreciated and motivated, and their bosses feel they’ve hired someone of quality who’s worth every penny. Obviously, it pays to follow Worth’s example and go for top dollar.
But how do you know what top dollar is? How will you know what’s too little? Is it possible to reach too high? How can you tell what you are really worth?
Later I’ll show you how to zero in on your objective market-value using internet resources (in Chapter Five); that’s one measure of what you are worth. For now, though, let’s explore beyond the objective market-value measure and ask, even more fundamentally, how you can tell what you are really worth.
To find out, we need to look at the situation through employers’ eyes and bring up the three principles employers have in mind when budgeting a salary or raise.
Labor Is Intangible
Salespeople can tell you there are two kinds of products: tangibles and intangibles. Employers consider that a person’s labor is among the latter. Note the contrast: While the price of a tangible is easily determined by applying the formula:
Raw Materials + Production Costs + 10% Profit = Price,
For intangibles there are no raw materials or production costs and the first two variables in that equation equal zero.
So the employer’s first principle is Labor is intangible. An employer buys your labor. But your labor is even less like a tangible TV or car because, after the deal for it is struck, your labor can fall short of expectations, or constantly improve, since it is entirely under human control—yours. The more you can do, the more complicated are the problems you can solve for someone, and the more your labor should be worth. Measuring that worth can be a full-time job. It’s called compensation analysis.
But employers know that, even when a compensation analyst has set a figure for a particular job, it’s only an educated guess, a guideline. Some workers are worth several thousand more because they do that much more, while others accomplish less and therefore deserve smaller checks.
Since labor is an intangible, employers know there’s no fixed price, no number chiseled in granite; rather, there is a range.
Salary Relates to Level of Responsibility
The employer’s second principle is The main variable that determines compensation is the extent of the employee’s responsibilities. The more people or products an employee’s decisions affect, the more money those decisions influence as well. Salary is merely an indicator of that responsibility.
The typists in a law firm, for instance, have little effect on business. Others decide what they will type, and still others check their work. The paralegal’s research, however, actually helps win a case. And the associate attorney’s contribution is crucial to getting the case resolved. But it is the experience, courtroom savvy, and legal
