Are you selling yourself short?

On Wednesday night, Olivia and I came off a 36 hours stint of intense planning and preparation for 2018.

We celebrated with a fantastic dinner at Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak in Scottsdale. Her husband, Matt, joined us and the only person missing was my wife, Jill (on the opposite coast traveling for work).

The celebration was three-fold:

1)   Our clients have had some phenomenal breakthroughs this year (I’ll share one, in particular, below).

2)   We just closed out our best month ever and are wrapping up the year at 300% growth over 2016.

3)   We’ve plotted out a deliberate and accountable plan to increase that growth at the same pace for 2018.

In short, that means we will be able to help more people and have an even LARGER impact next year.

That gets us excited (and, hopefully, you too).

At dinner, as always, the conversation turned to work. We talked about jobs we’ve had that we loved and those we…well…loved, less.

One of the things we dug into was the behavior around getting a much-anticipated offer.

More specifically, how easy it becomes to sell yourself short…particularly when it’s for a job you love.

Take, for example, our client Jen.

She is a superstar. No doubt. Jen is a hard-charging, high performer who sold her company a year ago and came to us wanting to find some very specific roles.

In our initial conversation shared her compensation requirements, but was concerned that they were “too high.”

Frankly, the numbers she gave us were not only achievable, but they actually undervalued what she could bring to an organization.

(BTW – this is typical for high performers making pivots…but that’s a conversation for another time).

Let’s fast forward to 60 days later…

Jen gets the offer.

She’s ecstatic.

Not only does Jen beat out 600+ other applicants (you read that correctly), but the offer is significantly higher in base than she’d targeted plus there’s a bonus.

Olivia and I jumped on a call with her to talk through the offer. Were we happy for her? Yes. Did we know they could do better? Absolutely.

Here’s the thing…they want her to negotiate.

When a company is hiring you in a senior, strategic role, they need to know you are going to work to get the best deals, partnerships and agreements for them.

What’s the best way to determine if you’ve “got what it takes?”

See how you negotiate for yourself.

The thing is, in this highly emotional moment where you are euphoric, appreciative and relieved to get the offer, there’s a natural tendency to be a little too grateful.

We even hear clients use words like “greedy.”

As we dig deeper, there’s always a fear in there that the offer will disappear if they ask for more.

Here’s the thing.

There’s always more. There’s severance. There are performance bonuses. There are perks.

This is why we consistently “beat the drum” about understanding the REAL pain the company is in that only YOU can solve.

Because, when you know that, you know what it’s worth to them to fix it.

And, when you know THAT…you know your true value in terms of what you can deliver for them.

The great news is you can create the revenue for them to pay you even more. This isn’t a handout. It’s compensation truly earned.

Think about that.

Moreover, think about the fact that it’s tied to something important to them (not what you feel like you need or are worth).

Is what you feel you’re worth important? Sure.

Is it next to impossible to defend and negotiate? 100%

Remember that the offer is a covenant of what you’re going to deliver to your new company, the painful problems you’re going to solve and the revenue you’re going to help them achieve.

Moreover, that conversation starts well before the offer.

You set the conditions as soon as you start talking to them.

You’ve got this!

P.S. We will share more about Jen’s story next week.

P.P.S. If you know someone who can benefit from this message, please forward it along to them. Your friend can also get our best selling book (at no-cost) The Career Upgrade Roadmap which outlines exactly how execute this process – and more.

P.P.P.S. If you’re interested in exploring if we can help you like we helped Jen, let’s set up a time to talk. You can start that for yourself process here.