Negotiating Higher Pay - Feel Underpaid in Comparison to Others!

T-faz

Hi everyone,

I have a bit of a dilemma that I am looking to get some advice on. Its about how much I am earning at the moment and how I can negotiate a higher salary.

Let me give a brief background to my situation first. I started a new job last summer at a small but growing company. I was brought on as mid-level marketing executive to help the company develop its overall strategy when none existed, it was a completely new role. As I have varied skills in a number of functions, I made a very good impact and soon I was inducted into the management without any promotion or financial incentives.

Since I have been in the company, I have done very well and consistently implemented changes that have led to increased service requests/leads. After me, a lot of new individuals have been hired and a completely new sales team has been created, all of whom have higher basic salary than me.

My problem is that all these people earn a lot more than me and earn commission on the inbound requests that my work generates. Many of these people perform a limited set of tasks while I overlook multiple functions like marketing, design, web development and events myself. This is making me feel resentful and I want to ask you people on how I can negotiate a better salary.

I have an annual review coming up and I want to discuss this with the owner of the company. How can I bring this matter up and request that my salary matches the basic salary of the sales team?

Does my age or lack of experience make a difference on how I am payed or is my performance the main indicator of my value?

Thanks for replying in advance.

Sambucus_Nigra

Sales people always get paid more - because that's the nature of the beast.

If they don't make the sales then they are usually let go.

Do you do any actual sales?

T-faz

I understand that they make more but I am not asking to meet their commission based pay. Shouldn't my salary be close to their base salary?

The primary source of new business is incoming quote requests that is generated by my work. They use these for sales purposes.

Savvy_Sue

I wouldn't necessarily use comparisons with other people, might be better to concentrate on YOUR value to the company, IYSWIM.

marisa

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily use comparisons with other people, might be better to concentrate on YOUR value to the company, IYSWIM.

This

Bosses and companies hate the fact you know what anyone else earns, and hate you even more if you try to use that as leverage.
They will always come back with the idea that you have no way of knowing what that person does behind the scenes, and what they have discussed with the manager etc. Even if you do it is seen as none of your business.

Far better to get some figures down such as

I made this change in Month-Year and I can see that over x Months it made this list of positive outcomes, and brought in the company xcustomers or £x more revenue.

Make a solid list of things you and you alone have done and what benefit they have to the company. Ask if the company is willing to reward you in anyway for this effort and assure them you will continue to make positive changes and think of new ideas.

It is easy to get emotional and argumentative, I have done it lots and know that is what costs me in the long run!

Wait till the end of their part of the review with you an d when they ask if you have any questions, be direct but polite and say you were wondering if there was any scope for a pay review as well as you have done xyz for the company.
If they don't shoot you down straight away go on to list the things above.

It is good to have some research on similar roles at other companies that get paid more and mention the market trends, don't directly say you will look elsewhere but just say you are aware of similar roles at other companies and the going rate.

Ask if they can just think about it and let you know in a week or two then let them think about it.

If they come back with no say you understand but are unhappy and hope that the subject can be revisited in the future, then make them think you are looking elsewhere and stop a couple of the optional extra things you have been doing or come up with no new ideas for a while, do your job but seem just a little less enthusiastic, a hard line to pull maybe.
make them see what they would be missing.

Only you know how far you can push this and if you want to push it far enough to make it difficult so you actually do have to go for one of those other jobs

Savvy_Sue

BTW, our 'review' documentation specifically states that it's NOT intended as a time to review pay. If the OP's is the same, concentrate on getting an excellent appraisal, and revisit the subject separately.