Interview Salary Query Parallels

Here’s an interesting angle on when to talk money. It comes from an MBA Careers Adviser called Angela Edkins.

You sense there are parallels between when you discuss salary expectations when selling yourself in a job interview and when to mention your prices when selling your wares in a first prospect meeting.

Angela has some terrific tips, readily adaptable from recruitment to sales. They include to talk in terms of a broad range and know where you fit in relative to the marketplace.

Then there’s this succulent paragraph (which she uses to prefaces several Youtube clips of sound advice) which I’ve slightly modified;

Delay the discussion about money as long as possible.

You are in a much more powerful position to negotiate … once you have been [given the nod] so try to avoid getting into specific discussions about money before that.

Use phrases such as:

“(I’m prepared to be flexible), let’s discuss it when I know more about the [your needs] and you know more about me” or

“I’m sure we will be able to reach an agreement on [price], I don’t see that as a problem”.

Anther entertaining thought is her line not to be tempted to ask about money in the first meeting, as “you risk being seen in a bad light“. One of the battlelines in solution selling theory concerns ‘budget’. Many suggest, command even, you to ask about the budget upfront and early. I’ve long documented my alternative stance on this, which is why I find her thoughts so appealing here.