Part II: What Gerta’s MIT negotiations professor taught her
The rest of our convo with Gerta's MIT negotiation professor from 15 years ago!
We recently published our podcast interview with Gerta’s negotiation professor from MIT, Ofer Sharone (full episode: YouTube | Spotify | Apple). We covered a lot with Professor Sharone, more than fit in one newsletter, so we’re picking up where the first newsletter left off.
That first newsletter was about negotiation mindset. Today, we’re going to get more tactical: why it’s important to dig for why a company picked you, whether you should name a number, and the concept of anchoring.
1. Figure out why they picked you
When you’re arguing for higher comp, you want compelling reasons to justify your asks. And no, things like cost of living are not good reasons. As Professor Sharone put it, cost of living in your city isn’t the employer’s problem. Every other applicant signed up for that same city.
Coming up with stronger reasons takes some digging. You got the offer out of a pile of applicants, so ask yourself why. A company asks you why you want to work there, and you should be asking the same kind of questions back throughout the interview process: what they’re looking for most in this hire, what would make them call you a huge success a year in, what specifically made your application stand out from the rest of that pile.
Whatever they responded to - your specific background, a unique skill or expertise you have, the way you handle people - will be the backbone of your actual argument for a higher offer. A case built on what they’ve already told you they value goes much farther than a generic market stat or industry pay averages you looked up.
Most candidates go straight to the numbers and skip the digging.
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2. Don’t name a number before they make an offer
When a recruiter asks about salary expectations when you’re early in the process or before an offer exists, Professor Sharone’s advice is to politely dodge. This covers the first call, the early screen, any point before they’ve decided they want you.
Naming a number early cuts two ways. If you go too low, you’ve capped yourself below where you could have landed. If you aim high, you risk getting cut for being unreasonable before they’ve warmed to you.
Either way, they don’t know you well enough yet to price you. Professor Sharone borrowed a line from another researcher for this stage: “the company is in shopping mode, not buying mode”.
A simple redirect can suffice, something like, “I’m sure we’ll be able to align on comp expectations, but I’d like to understand the role better before we get into numbers.” You come across as reasonable without boxing yourself in.
3. Anchoring doesn’t do what you’d expect
We often get asked, “should I just ask for 20-30% more than my target compensation?”
No. With a few exceptions, you want to tactfully nudge the company to share their numbers first, whether at the verbal offer stage or even in the later counter offers.
Now, we commonly get asked “But if I don’t share it, what if they anchor me too low?”
You may have heard of anchoring in Negotiation 101. It means the number that’s thrown into the discussion first will shape the rest of the negotiation and inform the ultimate number you end up with.
However, it’s not in the company’s best interest to anchor you too low. If they pay you too little, you become a flight risk, and now they’re thinking about retention instead of just filling the role. That works against them, so most companies won’t do it.
Negotiations are also about gathering information, not just making asks. When the company throws out a number first, you learn something. When you throw out a number first, you don’t.
There are plenty of levers that can move their budget even if they start you at the bottom of the range. The clearest one is a competing offer. Once that’s on the table, companies often move to closer to the top of their budget rather than lose you to someone else.
Anchoring matters, but in job offer negotiations it’s one piece of a much bigger picture.
Quick note: a company’s budget for a role and the range posted on the job listing are two different things.
That posted range exists mostly to satisfy salary transparency laws, now in effect in most major US states. Any company that knows negotiation 101 (and most do) isn’t putting its real number there.
When we say “budget,” we mean the actual ceiling: the most they’d pay for the role. That’s total compensation, base, plus bonus, plus equity, all of it. And the base salary they have in mind is almost certainly higher than what’s listed too, for similar reasons.
The full episode goes very deep, into Japanese deal-making, the calculus companies do behind who gets hired, and a house-buying story that locked in a property with a single letter. Listen here: YouTube | Spotify | Apple
Connect with Professor Ofer Sharone: LinkedIn
Warmly,
Gerta & Alex
Founders, YourNegotiations.com
P.S. Are you job searching or have upcoming negotiations?
If you have an offer coming or are mid-process, we’re always happy to help you think through how to approach it. Book a free call here: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call
P.P.S. Know someone interested in negotiations?
Send them our way and we’ll thank you with $250 for each person who becomes a client. No cap.
A quick intro or an email to alex@yournegotiations.com works.
