Becoming a masterful negotiator will help you in every area of your life, from asking for a raise, promotion, or better benefits package after you’re hired, to getting the best deal on a new house or car.
Here are 10 tips for landing that dream job:
1. Unlearn everything you’ve been taught about the value of compromise. Offering to give something up in order to get what you want is as American as apple pie, yet the best negotiation professionals don’t do it. Compromise puts you at an immediate disadvantage from the start. You don’t have to give anything up, including your self-confidence, in order to get this job.
2. Do impeccable homework and preparation about the company and position. Use the internet, read the local paper, make calls and inquiries. And bring your notes with you, including any questions that have come up in the course of preparing.
3. Do not try to impress your interviewer with your dress, attitude, or style of communicating. It will backfire. Be honest, direct, and authentic instead.
4. Don’t be needy. You do not need this job. You need water, food, and air. You do not NEED this job. Neediness is the number-one advantage killer.
5. Be emotionally neutral. Learn to clear your mind of assumptions, fears, and expectations so you can maintain a calm, open-minded perspective at all times. When emotions enter into a negotiation, failure follows. Retrieve a dropped pen if necessary to get your emotions back to calm if they start to intrude.
6. Do not come with a prepared statement. Instead, have prepared questions. Find out what your interviewer wants, how s/he views the position. Get her/him talking as much as possible, while you take notes.
7. Ask questions that begin with interrogatives, such as what, how, and why. This will help YOU direct the dialogue. By avoiding simple yes/no answers, this style of questioning helps you find out more about what’s in your interviewer’s mind.
8. Get your interviewer to reveal what a “good fit” means to him or her. Your objective is to find out whether this organization is a good fit for YOU.
9. Answer questions with questions as much as possible. Determine your interviewer’s position and uncover any hidden agendas. Word your questions to keep your interviewer reassured, relaxed, and trusting you.
10. Base everything you say ONLY on information that has been disclosed in the interview. Don’t guess what your interviewer means by something, or wants to know. Effective negotiating is all about collecting information in the present time, taking copious notes, and responding only to the actual facts you’ve collected. If you don’t have enough facts to answer your questioner, ask for them.
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