Go through the list and make sure you know what you are being offered in addition to salary. If you receive a salary offer below your minimum, calculate what it would take in terms of other benefits to make up the difference in other words, ask yourself what it would take to make the offer attractive. Also, identify fall back positions. If a firm's policy is to make equity opportunities available only to partners, you might ask to have your eligibility for partnership reviewed earlier than usual. If you want a larger commission on sales and they refuse, you might ask for a higher commission only on sales over a certain value. Remember: each time you concede a point, you are going to try to win a concession in return.
When you get back to the organization about its offer, make a counter proposal a counter move. Ask for more than your minimum to give yourself room for further negotiating and to maximize your yield. Successful negotiators start out high, rather than from a "reasonable'' or moderate position. To a large extent, the more you ask for, the more you are likely to receive. But avoid patently unreasonable positions. You will have to justify your position in terms of benefits to the company. The name of the game the organization plays is "Let's make a profit" (even not for profits must generate enough resources from hiring you to at least cover what you cost), so your most convincing argument for increased compensation will be a higher return to the organization. Appeals to fairness or need will not get you very far in this game, no matter how valid or justified they might be outside the context of the game. You will get further if you play by the rules.
Knowing when to end the game is also important in negotiating. Sometimes, even if you could get more by pushing, you are better off accepting somewhat less and maintaining good will. Face saving is, I expect, more important in our gaming culture than is generally recognized. Pushing the other person to a humiliating defeat only breeds resentment and a desire for revenge. The people with whom you are playing the negotiating game are individuals separate from the organization, as well as its representatives; the organization will not lose face or feel humiliated, but they may. Their stake in the game is nonmaterial because they are not playing with their own resources (unless, of course, you are talking to business owners). Their stake is psychological just as in the case of Monopoly players and you may sacrifice their good will if you leave them feeling totally defeated. This is what win/win negotiating is really about leaving all players feeling that they have benefited or at least that they have not lost on all fronts not about reaching a fair, just, or benefit maximizing agreement.
After you have agreed on an offer, put it in writing. In addition to your oral acceptance, write a letter of acceptance that outlines the terms of the agreement, especially those points that are nonstandard. For example, if the organization has agreed to support your educational endeavors with time off and flexible scheduling, note this in your letter. The goal is to strengthen and clarify the organization's commitments to you and yours to it. Oral agreements have a way of being forgotten or of being recalled differently by different parties. Your letter will be helpful if a question ever arises concerning any unusual or nonstandard terms of your employment.
A client of mine once related the following story. She had secured an oral agreement from her prospective boss that if she became pregnant she could take up to four months unpaid leave, in addition to the three months paid leave the company traditionally provided. The boss left the company six months after she started working, and when the question of leave came up, her new boss insisted that she stick to the time normally allotted. He said he would not and could not be bound by any private understandings she had reached with his predecessor. Because she did not have documentation to prove that additional leave was one of the terms of her employment, her new boss treated it as a personal favor, and refused to be bound by it. So, don't relax as soon as you have accepted an offer; take the time to make sure both you and the organization clearly understand of what the offer consists.
