No One Negotiated

In last week’s newsletter, I posted that I was going to try and hire someone to help me soon.

I got a lot of responses to that. According to the survey that I add at the end of every issue, that was my most hated post ever. Many people messaged me through various platforms, and the responses were very polarized. It was almost exactly 50/50: half of the people messaged me to rebuke me on allegedly exploitative practices—including one example that I published anonymously with permission—and the other half applied to what many of them referred to as “the perfect opportunity.” There weren’t many in the middle.

But no one did what I was hoping for.

No one negotiated.

For that half that applied to “their perfect opportunity,” it makes sense to me that they wouldn’t negotiate.

But what about the other half, the ones whose comments seem to imply that the offer would be better if the financial compensation was higher, closer to the “industry standard?”

I said I could responsibly pay someone $3k–$5k/month or $36k–$60k/year.

No told me how they could all but guarantee that their work would help me bring in an extra $40k–$60k next year and that they’d need an extra $20k–$30k of that to get their total comp closer to $56k–$90k.

This is what I do for my clients. I don’t expect them to pay me a lot of money just because they have it. I try to find the extra money for them to pay me with minimal work on their end.

(And just to say it out loud, I’m not playing any sort of game here where I intentionally am lowballing the numbers as a way to get people to negotiate. I hate those kinds of games—more about that in next week’s newsletter—and refuse to participate in them. I’m being honest about what I can afford, and I fully realized that what I can afford is not acceptable to many.)

How to land great clients

Because I’ve had the chance in my career to work with many reputable and popular companies, a question I get a lot from people is how they can get that too. Most of them assume that it’s brand- or reputation-based, that because I have a sizable audience, it automatically attracts high-profile clients who are already predisposed to working with you.

I have not found that to be true at all.

Instead, I think it’s because I’ve gotten really good at pitching over the years, namely showing clients how hiring me would be a profitable activity for them.

Most of the pitches I’ve received for this position are pretty lackluster. They tend to fall into these categories:

• “I’m cheaper than you’re offering”
• “I’ll learn so much”
• “This will be a great opportunity for me”
• “I’ve been looking for a change lately”

Rule #1 of a good pitch: talk about your prospective client more than yourself!

Think and act like a designer

Among other things, I’m looking to hire people who identify (at least partially) as designers. I think designers have superpowers, which is why I love collaborating with other designers. One of the superpowers a designer has is to envision a world that doesn’t yet exist and lay out the steps to get there and make it a reality. There’s a piece of that that means some designers never really settle for accepting reality as it is, and they do what they can to influence and shape reality into one that’s closer to what they like. These are the kinds of designers I want to work with more and more.

Instead of seeing an offer you don’t like and responding “no,” is there a version where you can respond, “yes, under these conditions?”

Of course, I’m not trying to force anyone to like what I’m offering. If you don’t and/or it offends you, I take it as a sign that we’re not aligned. You’d probably hate working with me! And we’re probably both glad that we discovered that now as opposed to 6 months into it when it’s going poorly for both of us.

But I know there are also people who want to like the offer, but terms aren’t quite right for them. I’m open to hearing what things need to be tweaked to make them right, especially if you can see a win-win version that I don’t.

I have yet to write a job description to outline the specifics of what I’m looking for. In this job description, I will write as many things in it to tell you how to easily get me to hire you. I want to give you the answers. One of those things will definitely be that you don’t take my word for it. Question the things that I write. Tell me how you see it differently. Show me what you’re seeing that I’m not. Prove to me that you can work under any set of constraints. Give me a glimpse into how creative you can be. These are the kinds of things I love about my favorite collaborators.

I fully intend for my thoughts to be starting points, not ending points. I think it’s almost always easier to revise than create. I like working with people who believe that too.

—Dan