One of my over-achiever students, "Belinda" worked in a commercial real estate company and even those it was her first year in this role, she had exceeded her annual sales goals already in early October. Her HR representative was really impressed with her and told her that it will be completely reasonable to discuss a raise with her supervisor. Belinda also found out from another colleague that she was about to get an important large client account added to her portfolio. Belinda was preparing for the conversation with her boss and asked me how she should communicate the request to him. We discussed the general approach and she was concerned that he won't be able to do much since she was already close to her salary band's top range. I challenged her to think about asking for a promotion to the next hierarchical level. If you're facing a similar situation, here are two simple tips to help you prepare for this conversation: 1. Use company standards: Find out from HR or your company internal materials the descriptions of responsibilities for each level of seniority and identify examples of how your performance is comparable to those one level higher up. 2. Benchmark to others: Look for the responsibilities and portfolio sizes of more senior colleagues and if yours are comparable, use this benchmark in your argument. Are you preparing for an important negotiation? Drop me a note to discuss your strategy! You can also join my free Influence Mastermind Group to discuss influence and negotiations strategies.
