Dealonomics

‘If a few companies were less greedy, the people at the bottom would have a lot more.’

This is the chapter for which you have no doubt been waiting – the one that tells you how to make dealonomics work in your real life.

Before Salaryman puts on his cape and flies off to beat the bad guys, get his girl and rescue the kittens, he needs to take stock. What fundamental superpowers and what fabulous gadgets does he have that will give him the power to build the world he wants?

First, there are the fundamentals that everyone, in any walk of life, needs to know to build their superpowers. The ‘fundamentals’ are in Chapters 1 and 2 of this book.

Then there are the superhero tools that are vital to support the superpowers, and these are provided in Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Without these fundamentals and tools, he would be in the same position as someone who puts on a superhero outfit only to find that they can’t fly or lift cars.

Coming up are seven different scenarios to which you can apply your dealonomics expertise. You may be tempted to read only the section that relates directly to you, but woven through all the scenarios are tips and techniques that work for everyone. If you read them all, you will get the advanced version of the superhero instruction manual.

Once you have read all seven scenarios, go back and concentrate on the section that is most applicable to you.

Stop for a moment. There are a few fundamental rules that apply to all seven of the above situations. These are rules, not guidelines.

If you do not see the value of the work you do, the other party will not see it either. The lower your self-worth, the lower your salary. Start selling yourself at your value, and the self-worth will follow.

Whatever work you do must be rewarded. If your work is worth nothing, why do it? Even if you are a homemaker fetching and carrying your children, there is a value to this work. Love is not enough. When you are prepared to do something for free, the other person perceives that what you do has no value.

Even if it is something small, make sure you are compensated for any work you provide.

Do not neglect the detail. The devil in the deal is in the detail. Make sure you have thrashed out the components of your salary package, how your bonus will be calculated, your working hours, your title and responsibilities, office locations, company car rules, and so on. If you are stuck for ideas, revisit the 45-point Marbles list.

The advice in Chapter 7 relates to hard-working and dependable employees, quality contractors and service providers, and differentiated or upmarket products.

If you are a lazy slouch, or a me-too supplier, or a low-cost provider, you need advice specific to a ‘commodities’ market. Of course you can try to shoe-horn everything in this book to your low-end environment, but it ain’t gonna work so good.

There are two assumptions that have been made in this section (which is all about finding a new job). The first assumption is that you want a position outside of the organisation in which you already work, and the second is that you want to focus on how to get hired into the new position, not on how to find potential new positions.

Luckily for you, ‘Looking for a new position’ is the scenario that has been used as an example most frequently in this book so far. Much of the guidance you need in order to get the best possible job at the highest possible salary is already woven into the text of this book.

To make your life easy, a few of the key points we have already covered are summarised and expanded upon below, in the context of looking for a new position.

Your number-one priority when you go off in search of a fabulous new position is to establish your value in the market. In Chapter 3, there is a whole section on figuring out what you are worth. The most critical of the points are below, phrased slightly differently to help make them stick:

Before you even start looking for a job, you need to have an idea of what the position is worth outside of your current company. If, say, you are looking for a role as a marketing manager, you need to scour the job sections of newspapers and search online forums to establish the highest salary you could hope to earn. Try also to pick up patterns, such as which industries pay best, or which geographical areas offer the higher salaries.

Even if you are not interested in a particular marketing position, phone up and enquire about the job. If the salary is not advertised, ask.

This is not the time to be shy. The more information you can get about the going rate for a marketing manager, the more accurate you can make your Ball Park. You want your Opening position to be as high as possible, but still within the other party’s Ball Park. The trick, of course, is to be able to justify the high salary. More about this in a moment, but your Value Propositions are the justification you would present.

Knowing the salary range for a position is not enough. You must also find out if the salary is a total cost-to-company package, or if it includes on-target-but-not-guaranteed earnings, or how the variable portion of the salary will be measured. Throwing up your hands and saying, ‘I’m no good with numbers,’ is not acceptable. Find someone who is good with numbers to help you.

Do not go for any interviews, other than information-gathering sessions, until you have a clear Ball Park under your arm.

Just as you need to know the full details of the salary package so that you can compare apples with apples, you need to understand the job responsibilities for the same reason. The duties linked to a position can vary widely. Is the position to manage marketing people, or strategy, or market response? How many people report into the position? To what resources does the position have access?

Before you have your first interview with the potential employer, try to make sure you know the responsibilities of the position. The recruitment company can usually give you this information. Only when you are fully apprised of the job’s responsibilities can you check that your Ball Park is correct.

Something to watch – companies do sometimes call a director’s position ‘manager’ to avoid paying a director-level salary, but if the job responsibilities are those of a director, you need to ask for the salary of a director. It’s going to be your neck on the line, so make sure the salary package relates to the risk you will assume with the new position.

You are worth as much as someone is willing to pay for you, just like a house. How do you test the market to find out how much an employer is willing to pay you?

Go for a few test interviews and ask for a cheeky salary package with each position. Choose positions you know you can handle, but that you don’t want to consider seriously. As I said before, don’t be ridiculous – it’s no good asking for a manager’s salary if you will be the office assistant.

This also gives you the perfect opportunity to practise your sales and marketing skills. Position brand You, and then sell brand You to the interviewer. Your sales pitch must centre on the value to them in procuring the services of brand You.

You will not be wasting your time going for these test interviews. The more you can practise the salary and persuasion conversations, the better. And to make sure you don’t waste the interviewer’s time, make it your mission to add value in some way. Point out flaws in their job description, perhaps, or give ideas as to how the portfolio can be maximised.

Even though you are going in cheeky as all hell and not wanting the position, that company will want to employ you. Just try it.

Once you are armed with everything you need to know about the salary package you could earn in a new position, and the tasks linked to that position, you are ready to go for your ‘serious’ interviews. How can you stand out from the crowd of applicants? What do you need to do to make them sit up and notice you?

The first interaction the interviewing company will have with you is when you call or email to make an appointment, or they receive your curriculum vitae (CV) from whatever source. Even before the interviewer forms a first impression of you, your CV or phone call or email has already influenced their view of You. Make this view count.

No matter whom you speak to on the phone, be polite, pleasant and professional. Unless you already know the person, don’t be Chatty Sue or Nervous Nelly or Sleazy Steve.

To the matter of your printed matter. CVs do count. If you were the interviewer sorting through 20 CVs in order to choose five people to interview, how would you differentiate between them? CVs that are clearly laid out, have something eye-catching on the front page and that describe your skills in a Value Proposition format will win the day.

Just because the agency might send your CV in their format, there is no reason to abdicate responsibility. Recruiters are busy. I know this because when I worked as a recruiter, my target was placing 20 people in jobs per month – this is one successful placement per day. On average, I had to send three to five people to each interview. After I had sorted through the chaff, I had to prepare about 80 CVs per month. To make my target achievable, I would use as much content as I could from the CV the person had given to me. Nothing has changed. What you give the recruiter will, to a large extent, transfer directly to the interviewer.

In Chapter 2, The Law of First Impressions addresses this subject in detail. Please believe me that these first impressions matter. This may be unfair, but it is reality. Look your best. Clean shoes, clean hair, no holes in your shirt, no ladders in your pantyhose.

Again, put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. If you were looking at 20 people in a room and had to choose five to interview, how would you select them?

Never, ever be late for an interview or meeting. If you are involved in an accident and can’t make the interview or meeting, phone the interviewer before you phone your mother. Tardiness creates the worst possible impression. Arrive half an hour early rather than five minutes late. No exceptions.

You have stood out from the crowd and made an excellent first impression. Does it end there? Oh no. You only have your proverbial foot in the door. Now you have to sell product You. You need to tell the interviewer what skills and experience you have, and how this expertise profits them and their company.

As soon as you start selling yourself to a prospective employer, your Value Propositions need to come into play. The Value Propositions you use have to answer the interviewer’s questions, and be stated in a way that demonstrates the benefits to the interviewer and their company in hiring you.

The Value Propositions you present must address the business results (Needs) on which the interviewer is focusing, and take into account the interviewer’s personal hot buttons (Wants). As hot buttons are seldom obvious, try to figure out the interviewer’s behavioural style to get clues about their hot buttons, then press them.

Be careful of over-talking and under-listening. In your eagerness to sell yourself, there is a danger that you may talk too much. The interviewer will ask you lots of questions, or if they are less skilled, will say, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ And off you go, full steam ahead.

Slow. Things. Down. Think carefully about your answers and what questions you want to ask. Pay proper attention when the interviewer speaks. Answer the questions they ask, not the ones you want to answer. By all means elaborate, but make sure you give them the information they want.

A tip. When you make the appointment, confirm the amount of time that has been made available for the interview. When you commence the interview, confirm the time available again. Then pace yourself. Manage the time so that you can get the information you need and give the information you want the other person to have. Time pressure is never good for the interviewee.

If the time that has been made available is too short, reschedule. Tell the interviewer that you are really keen to hear about the company and the position, and rather than doing this a disservice, it may be better to reschedule for when more time is available.

You must have the time to sell yourself, or you will not stand out from the crowd.

A deal typically begins with selling – persuading the other party to give you what you want. If your sales effort has been successful, the other person will agree to what you have asked without expecting any concessions in return.

Often, though, the other party will want something in return for giving you what you want. This means that negotiations begin. While selling kick-starts the deal, negotiation usually closes it.

When you are applying for a new job, the higher the company perceives the value you can give them to be, the more they will be willing to pay you. But the converse is also true. The lower the perceived value you will add, the lower the salary they will offer.

Don’t be too quick to negotiate – take your time. One of the dangers in the interview process is starting to discuss or negotiate salary too early. You will have done your homework and know what the position is paying. If you discuss salary before you have had the opportunity to sell yourself, you will be selling yourself short. Remember the wise words of Warren Buffett: ‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’

Only once the interviewer can see the value you will add to their organisation will they look beyond pure price. And the interviewer’s objective is to buy you at the cheapest possible price. You have to show them that you are a Ming vase, not a cheap imitation.

When you are sure that you have shown your value, then you can start the salary conversation.

The section on who should make the first proposal hopefully left you with no doubt in your mind that you should make the first proposal. Nothing could be truer when it comes to negotiating your salary package.

Even after you have shown the value you will bring, if the other party goes first, they will make you an offer that is their Opening position – which is that they would love to obtain your awesome skills, but still for the lowest possible salary. They are not going to just move off their Opening position because of your fantastic sales pitch.

Before the prospective employer can make you an offer, put your Opening position on the table. Remember, though, not to dump your whole Opening position on the table, as it may seem too much as a package. Tell them what you want to earn, and why you believe you are worth that amount of money. If you have done a good sales job, it will be easier to convince them to pay you more.

When you make your proposal, be sure to indicate that you are flexible. Avoid saying, ‘I am negotiable.’ Use wording that implies trading – that you are negotiable, but there are conditions attached to your flexibility. The following phrases show conditional flexibility:

People, especially women, can be their own worst enemies when it comes to asking for the salary they want. They are often so grateful to get the job that they don’t tell the employer what they want to earn.

Once you start to value yourself properly, this will become less and less of a problem. If you believe you are worth x, and are able to communicate why, the other party will buy into your real value.

Recruitment companies, much like estate agencies, want to close as many deals as possible. The people who work for recruitment agencies usually have good people skills, and will show you how much they care about you and your career, but at the end of the day, they have targets to meet. They would rather close the deal at a salary package of R700 000 than risk losing it for R750 000. This makes perfect business sense. To them.

How, then, do you get the recruitment company on side? They are, after all, going to be paid by the prospective employer, so their loyalty will lean towards them.

In your first interview with the recruiter, tell them your salary expectations – your Opening position on salary. If this is not on the table upfront, they will think you are trying to be a clever dick when you raise it at a later stage. Don’t raise this matter on the phone – they may not want to grant you an interview.

In asking for a salary package that is higher than the advertised package (although, if the agency includes the salary in their advert, it is usually accompanied by the word ‘negotiable’), the recruiter will either accept that you are a quality individual, or think that you are overqualified for the position. If the latter, you have to convince them that this is not the case.

You want the recruiter on your side. The same rules for ‘standing out in the crowd’ apply – give them reason to have faith in you.

If you are able to build a relationship with the recruiter, you will be more likely to obtain information that will be to your advantage, and the recruiter will be inclined to promote you to the employer before anyone else. They can also tell you about the company’s interviewer – hot buttons, likes and dislikes, expectations during the interview.

Having the recruitment agency on your side is a huge benefit, so don’t forget to say ‘thank you’ once they have found you a position. If you need to move jobs again, you will get far better treatment than the ingrate who showed no appreciation.

Trading works for relationships as well. To build a bond with the recruiter, be willing to give them names of good candidates that you know, or informal references. Offer to recommend them to the new company once you have the position, or get them business from your old organisation. This is not insider trading; this is being a savvy dealmaker.

Although the recruitment company may push you to accept a lower salary, as this is an easier placement for them, they are usually paid a percentage of your package. The more you earn, the more they earn. Subtly point this out to the recruiter.

Share your Opening position with the recruiter. Let them know that you will be flexible and not jeopardise their deal. Get their support for your pursuing a higher salary.

The best opportunity you will have to get a substantial increase on your existing salary is when you are looking for a new job. You will see why when you read the section on ‘Getting a higher salary or promotion’.

Follow this advice and not only will you secure the new position, but it will be at the best possible salary.

You are looking forward to your first full-time job. You have finished school or university and you relish the opportunity to get your own place, buy yourself a car, have money to spend on what you want.

Good news and bad. The good news is that entering the working world for the first time is exciting. You will be exposed to an environment unlike anything you experienced as a student. The bad news is that unless you have a set of unique skills, which is unlikely for a first-time job seeker, your first salary is not going to come anywhere near your expectations. It is not going to buy you your dream life straight away.

Regardless of whether you are going out to work with a school leaver’s certificate or a master’s degree, your first salary will be disappointingly low. But even as a starter employee, you must negotiate your salary. This book gives you all the tools to negotiate, but it is up to you to make it happen.

One of the biggest reasons new employees don’t negotiate salaries is because, after competing to get the job offer in the first place, they don’t want to jeopardise it by being pushy. Negotiating is not being pushy. Negotiating is asking for what you want, and being ready to give something in return. If you don’t make the proposal, you won’t get what you want.

The consequences of not negotiating your first salary are terrible. In their book Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever found that anyone (not only women) who does not negotiate their first salary stands to lose more than US$500 000 by age 60, and that men are four times more likely than women to negotiate a first salary. That is a lot of money to kiss goodbye just because you weren’t bold enough to ask for more.

In the next section you will read about pay grades and salary ranges. When a company is hiring people with very little experience, they offer the salary that is at the very bottom of the salary range. In other words, if the salary range for an entry-level salesperson is R8 500 to R10 000 basic salary per month, you will be offered R8 500. You will not know what the range is, but you can be sure that you are being offered the lowest amount. This lowest amount represents the Opening position in the company’s Ball Park – the best candidate for the cheapest price.

If you can convince the employer to pay you more because the value you plan to add to the company is xyz, you will probably get a higher salary. In selling yourself, don’t be afraid to trade on your achievements from school or university – head of the chess club, leader of the junior liberals, captain of the netball team, most popular girl/boy in class (or, in my case, the person voted most likely to end up in jail).

When you sell yourself, think creatively. What vacation jobs have you had? What skills did you acquire helping your father to fix the family car, or being on hand when your mother ran the school tuck shop? Is your mother or father well known or well connected in a way that would benefit the company? To demonstrate value, you could say something like, ‘My father has been an executive in the pharmaceutical industry his whole career, so if you hire me, it will be easy for me to bring in new business from that industry.’ You are leveraging your associative relationships.

Spend time figuring out how you can show the value you will add to the company. If you are able to do this, and the next person in line for the job can’t, who gets the job?

But getting the job is not enough. You need to get it at the best possible salary.

Again, one of the main reasons first-time job-seekers don’t ask for more money is because they are shy, or nervous about losing the job offer. And one of the main reasons they don’t get the job is because when they are meeting with the potential boss for the first time, they are shy and nervous.

In the first part of Chapter 5, there are 10 tips for a successful meeting. Read them again, then read the rest of this point.

Your potential new boss, or his or her superior, may seem like a scary monster (and in a few isolated cases this will be true), but when you are actually face to face with a successful or powerful person, you will find someone with charm, intelligence and decent people skills. I have met thousands of executives over the years, and very few of them have been jerks. You will meet far more prats in lower management than at the top.

What can you do to prepare for the interview if you feel like a scaredy-cat on the inside?

Mr Boss is a normal person. He gets stressed, has sick kids, fights with his family and sits on the proverbial throne. When I was just starting out in my career, I was very intimidated by the executives in my company. My boss, the human resources head, told me to imagine them naked. It was not an image I relished, thank you very much, but it was better than picturing them sitting on the loo.

There is no need to be afraid of, or worship, Mr Boss. He is a human, not a god or a monster. He will have his good days and his bad days, but being petrified is not going to improve your confidence, or your chances of getting the position.

Have another read of the SWOT example in Chapter 2 and apply it to looking for a job. It is a great tool to use to plan for the ‘big’ interview – the one that counts.

In order to get the job you want, you will probably have to meet with a few senior people in the hiring organisation. Let’s work with an example.

Imagine your name is Sipho Smith, and you are interested in the position of junior salesperson for a company that sells high-end animal products to veterinary practices. You flunked out of university, but got decent marks at school. Having got through the first round of interviews, you are about to meet with the person who will be your boss if you get the position.

Your first meeting with Mr Boss will be the most critical. Why? First impressions count, especially when you have only you to offer, and no work experience. Make sure you look your best. Take time and care with all aspects of your external appearance, including the less obvious things like body odour, dirty fingernails and such things.

Plan for the interaction. How will you address Mr Boss – by his or her first name, or as Mr or Ms (surname), or perhaps ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’? You need to drill down to this level of preparation. When in doubt, a formal approach is always best in business.

You can even plan the words you will use for your introduction. Bouncing into the office saying, ‘Hi, I’m Sipho. I’m looking soooo forward to our chat,’ doesn’t show enthusiasm, it communicates a lack of respect for business protocol. This will not win you any points.

Boss:	Hello, Sipho. Come into my office and take a seat.
You:	Good morning, Mr/Ms (surname). Sipho Smith. Thank you for your time. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Did you notice that rather than saying ‘Hi. I’m Sipho,’ you have used your first name and surname. And avoid saying, ‘But you can call me Stinker/Cheesecake/ Tubs.’ You are not in the playground any more. Whether you are a man or a woman, offer your hand to shake. A firm handshake is important ( first impressions). No limp fish and no Iron Man hands. Firm but gentle pressure. Look Mr Boss in the eye when you shake his hand.
Boss:	I’ve had a look at your CV and have a few questions for you. I see you didn’t graduate. Why not? Eek. Do you tell the person that you were suspended and expelled? It is always best to tell the truth, but how you present the truth is up to you.
You:	I was getting a bit bored at university, and started paying too little attention to my studies and too much attention to the extracurricular activities. When I had a chance to reflect, I realised that I did not want to be at university. I am keen to start my career.
Boss:	Why this job? Why sales?
You:	At high school, I was a member of the debating team, and I was voted ‘Most Popular Person’ in Grade 10, both of which tell me that I am a good communicator and relate well to other people. Since I was a kid, I’ve been pretty good at convincing those around me to do what I wanted them to do. So I think that with these attributes, sales would be a good profession for me. I also like the idea of being able to earn more than just my basic salary every month. You have focused on achievements from your past, and presented them in a way that is not bragging, but rather relates directly to the job for which you are applying. You must think about what you are going to say when you are asked why you are applying for the position. You will be asked. By throwing in the comment about wanting to earn more, you are starting to structure the other person’s expectations about your earnings, and you are showing that you want to be a success. Companies look for salespeople who are money motivated.
Boss:	And why animal health?
You:	I have always had pets, and I’m sure this gives me an advantage over someone who has not spent their life around animals. I don’t think I could sell something I didn’t believe in, and I know that your company’s products are important to anyone who cares about animals. Although I don’t have experience in selling animal health products, I’m certain my passion to succeed will more than make up for this. My passion has always helped me to get good results, and I’m positive I can do the same for your company. As you don’t have experience, you need to find what you can leverage to add value to Mr Boss and his company. Your familiarity with animals and your passion are good starters. What makes your ‘passion’ statement extremely valuable is that if passion is one of your unique values, the value to Mr Boss is that your passion can help him get good results.
Boss:	And why my company? You better have done research on the company, their products and their market before you go into the interview. The more you know about their business, the better. You might, subtly, want to reveal the papers showing your research during the interview.

The people making the decisions that will affect your career need to know who you are, what capabilities you have to offer, and how these capabilities will benefit them. Present Value Propositions, in other words.

The guidelines for ‘Looking for a new position’ in the previous section are appropriate for someone looking for their first job. Read them again carefully, applying each point to your specific situation.

To help you do this, I have highlighted the Key Issues from the previous section for you and made them applicable to the ‘first-job’ scenario.

In the case of a first job, you still have to establish your value in the market. Nothing here changes from the last section. Also have another look at the related section in Chapter 3.

You need to have your Ball Park prepared. It may not be accurate, given your lack of experience, but you still have to have it ready. You also need to know what the interviewing company will be paying for the position.

Don’t hold back on test interviews – you will not be wasting your time. The more you can do to build your experience of interviews, the better. Position brand You, and then sell brand You. Practising the sales and salary conversations with real interviewers will give you confidence when it really matters.

You have to sell yourself, especially as you don’t have any work experience or work references. If you have not been able to sell yourself properly, the recruiter will reject you by saying, ‘You have to have some work skills,’ or, ‘We need someone with experience.’ You can rant and rave to yourself – ‘The advert said that they would train suitable candidates. How the hell am I supposed to get work experience if someone won’t give me my first job?’ – but the truth is you were rejected because you didn’t do a good enough job of selling yourself.

If you are nervous about preparing a Ball Park or Marbles or Value Propositions, ask someone with good work experience to help you.

One of the biggest challenges you will face when you start applying for entry-level positions is to rise above the rest of the candidates. What must you do to make them notice you?

The first interaction with the company needs to be any job-seeker’s number-one priority, and the company’s first interaction with you is likely to be your curriculum vitae. The intention of a CV or résumé is to get you an interview so that you can sell yourself. Take an objective look at your CV. Is it the same as all the others, or does it stand out? Will it get you the interview, or not?

The son of a friend approached me recently and asked me to help him find a position in the information technology industry. He had completed his studies with decent grades. His CV was fine from a clinical point of view, but it said absolutely nothing about him. It was completely and utterly boring. His life is full and interesting, but there is no way the recruiter who has to read that CV is going to notice it among the hundred others on her desk.

Make sure your CV is clearly laid out, has something to catch the eye on the front page, and describes your qualities in a Value Proposition format. Without work experience to recommend you, there is no point to your CV if it does not highlight the value you can add.

There are literally thousands of ideas on the internet on how you can create a compelling CV. It will not be a waste of your time to go through as many of them as you can to produce a brilliant document.

This book is not about how to find a job, it is about getting the job and getting it at the best possible salary. It would be unfair of me, though, not to give you a little guidance on how to find your first job.

Your obvious sources of potential jobs are the newspapers, magazines, online sites, social media, etc. that carry advertisements for job vacancies. Sending your CV to websites or mass mailing it to everyone is a very ineffective way of finding a job. People get jobs through personal contact.

My million-dollar advice to you is to become best friends with as many recruiters in as many recruitment companies as you can. Why?

Firstly, recruiters, if they are any good, become your network – they are out there looking for a job on your behalf. You have effectively hired someone to find you a position. The more of these people you can have on your side, the better.

Secondly, if you are able to develop a rapport with the recruiter, they will sell you to the companies with the vacancies. Selling can be quite daunting for a first-time job-seeker, but having a recruiter help you with this is a huge benefit. And once you have the interview with the company set up, ask the recruiter to brief you on how to sell yourself into the position. People are flattered when you ask them for their input and guidance.

Having recruitment agencies in your corner is a massive benefit, so look after the relationships you develop with recruiters.

Building relationships with recruitment companies is one way to improve your chances of securing a position. Another is through networking. There is a whole section on networking in Chapter 3, but networking is particularly important when it comes to job-seeking.

Networking is one of the most effective ways in which to find a job. To network to maximum effect, you need to get in touch with everyone you know or can remember – classmates, teachers, club members, friends, parents of friends, friends of your parents, family members, extended family members – from everywhere you can think of – home, school, university, extramural activities, part-time jobs, church, clubs. Once in touch, tell them that you are looking for a position, and ask them to help – or to point you in the direction of someone who can help. You will be amazed at how helpful people will be if you just ask. If you don’t ask … you don’t get.

The trick with networking and approaching recruitment companies is not to be fearful. Approaching people may make you feel utterly uncomfortable, but unless you spread the word that you are looking for a position, you are not going to find one that easily. And don’t you want your life to be easy?

If is far more difficult to get a significant salary increase or a promotion with your existing company than it is going into the open job market. The only time this might not be the case is in a very bad economy where jobs are at a premium, but even then, if you know what you are doing, you can still earn more by moving companies.

Why do companies make it so difficult for people to increase their earnings? The cost of losing a half-decent employee is so high that companies should not be losing good people to other organisations over what typically amounts to small change.

The income of people who stay in a company for a long time often makes them poorer. If you joined a company aged 20, and got annual inflation-linked increases, you would never be richer than a 20-year-old. The reality is you would get poorer.

You would presumably meet a partner, buy a house and a car or two, have a few children. Even if your partner could pay half these costs, you are not increasing your wealth. You have to feed three or four mouths with the same amount of money. There is less to go around, so you become poorer.

If, for whatever reasons, you want to stay with your existing company but want a decent increase or big promotion, or you have been given a promotion and now need to negotiate a new salary package, this section is for you.

You realise that moving companies from time to time is good for your earnings, but you don’t want to move right now. The good news is that the guidelines from the ‘Looking for a new position’ section are still relevant to you.

To make it easier for you to see the overlaps, I have taken the headings from the ‘Looking for a new position’ section and applied them to your situation – getting an increase or a promotion.

As with a new position, your first priority in getting an increase or promotion is to establish your value in the open market.

Before you ask for an increase or promotion, you need a good idea of what your current position is worth in the open market – the salary your company would have to pay a new recruit. Research the job sections of newspapers and search online forums to establish the highest salary you could hope to earn for the position you hold.

Do not have the increase or promotion conversation with the powers-that-be until you have a clear Ball Park prepared.

You need to compare the responsibilities you have in your current position with comparable positions in the marketplace. Do you have more, or less, responsibility than similar positions? More responsibility means more money. Less responsibility is an opportunity to take on more work and get a higher salary.

Again, don’t forget to go for those test interviews and ask for a very cheeky salary package with each position.

Not only will this tell you how much someone would be willing to pay you in another company, but it gives you a chance to practise the conversation you are going to have with your boss. And if it all goes pear-shaped, you have other possible positions lined up.

Once you are armed with everything you need to know about the salary package you could earn at another company, you are ready to have your ‘serious’ discussion with your boss. But what if there are other people lining up for the same promotion, or are willing to take your current position at a lower salary than you earn? How can you stand out from the other applicants?

You won’t get the opportunity to wipe out all memories of you from scratch, but you can still use the ‘first interaction’ guidelines to your advantage. Before you meet with the interviewer, presumably your boss, present a professional and updated new CV. I bet this sets you apart from the internal crowd.

Again, you can’t rewrite your first impressions with your employer, but you can still look your best for the meeting. Put yourself in your boss’s shoes – who would you choose from a room of 20 applicants?

You may think this step is not necessary, as your boss knows your talents, capabilities and skills. Absolutely wrong.

Imagine you have an exquisite piece of art in the entrance to your home: a family heirloom, perhaps. You have walked past it thousands of times and have stopped noticing it. The same happens in the work environment. Your boss stops seeing your talents, yet is easily distracted by someone new presenting their credentials.

If an art expert was to come into your home and exclaim over your piece of art, pointing out its form and colour and beauty, you would have a renewed interest in it. You need to be the art critic for your boss, pointing out all the skills you have learnt, your commitment to him and the company, what you have done to further yourself, and how you have managed obstacles in the work environment.

When you start reselling yourself to your company, you must use Value Propositions. You need to present yourself as the piece of art, demonstrating the benefits to your boss and your company in increasing your salary or promoting you.

The Value Propositions you present must address the business results (Needs) on which your boss will focus, and take into account the boss’s personal hot buttons (Wants). Fortunately for you, you will know which hot buttons to press.

For this meeting, slow everything down. Think about your answers and the questions you want to ask. Pay proper attention when your boss speaks.

Just like the new position advice, confirm the amount of time available for the meeting with the boss. When you start, confirm the time available again. Then pace yourself.

If the time available is too short, ask to reschedule. You must have the time to sell yourself, or you will not lead the pack.

When you are negotiating a promotion or a salary increase, the higher your boss perceives your value to be, the more he will pay you. The converse also applies. The lower the perceived value you add, the lower your chances of getting promoted or earning more money.

Don’t be too quick to negotiate – take your time. Only once your boss has been made aware of the value you add will he be primed for the salary or promotion conversation.

If your boss opens the conversation, he will make you an offer that suits him, no matter how well you have sold yourself. You need to put as much of your Opening position on the table as possible. If you have done a good sales job, it will be easier to convince your boss to pay you what you want.

When you do make your proposal, be sure to indicate that you are flexible – under certain conditions, of course.

Think of the human resources department of your company as a recruitment agency. They need to fill the vacant positions quickly, handle the staff queries and requests, and on and on. Help to make their lives and workload easier.

In your very first interaction with your human resources department, tell them your salary expectations – your Opening position. If this is on the table upfront, you do not waste anyone’s time.

You want the human resources person to be on your side. The same rules for ‘standing out in the crowd’ apply – give them reason to have faith in you.

If you are able to build a relationship with the human resources person, you will be more likely to get information that will be to your benefit.

Help the recruitment company earn more (or the human resources department to move more quickly). While this might seem as if it is not relevant to the human resources department or person, think in slightly different terms. If you can show human resources that you are the best candidate, and you make it easy for them to sell you to the decision-makers, they will sell you.

Prepare Value Propositions for them to use, and arguments for your promotion or increase to present, and hey presto, they will appear in front of your boss. Spend time helping them to help you.

The truth. Unless you are recognised by your current employer as absolutely indispensable, or a super-performing superhero, or an employee in a million, it will be far easier to get a higher salary by moving companies than to get a substantial increase in your existing job.

It makes no sense, not so? If you were to leave and be replaced, your employer is faced with a host of unknowns. You are tried and tested, while a new hire is an unknown entity. You have shown loyalty, which the new hire has yet to prove. You are already trained in the job, and the new hire will need training – in the company systems, if nothing else.

If you are a good performer with a decent attitude, there is zero logic in your company hiring someone else rather than giving you an increase or a promotion.

Based on various research documents I’ve studied, the costs (direct and indirect) of hiring an external person to replace a resigning employee is approximately 150 per cent of the annual salary for the position. The figure reaches 200 per cent to 250 per cent for managerial and sales positions.

Take our marketing manager example. Assuming a salary package of R700 000 per annum, the cost to the company to hire an external person into the position is approximately R1 400 000 (excluding the person’s actual salary). That is a shedload of money. What if the company could have enticed the existing marketing manager to stay with a 20 per cent increase? The cost of the increase would be R140 000 – one tenth of the new hire cost.

To read more about this, one of the best sites is http://www.isquare.com/turnover.cfm. Look at as many sources as you can to get all the ammunition you need to defend your proposal for a salary increase or promotion.

The most frequent arguments you will hear as to why you can’t have an increase are, ‘The increase will put you above the pay grade for that position,’ or, ‘The salary range for your job is x to y, and you are already at the top of the band.’ Whether this is true or not is not the point. These arguments are seldom valid.

All the companies for which I have worked – as an employee or a consultant – find ways of manoeuvring around the pay grades to hire expensive people they really want, or to keep highly valued employees. Consider an overperforming salesperson. They are worth their weight in gold. Is the company going to waste 250 per cent of the salesperson’s annual salary – on an unknown entity – to avoid a 20 per cent increase?

Twelve years of my working life were dedicated to being a human resources professional. I know how companies use salary surveys to justify arguments, or obfuscate increase requests. It reminds me of the old accounting joke.

Companies do manipulate pay grades. They research until they find the ones that give them the answers they want. This is a bit different in civil service, but a whole section is dedicated to government and parastatal employees.

How do you counter someone hiding behind ‘terms and conditions’ or pay grades?

Firstly, recognise that they are using these ‘conditions’, which may or may not be valid, to defend their negotiating position. In other words, they do not want to give you what you want, and by throwing the rule book at you, they make you go away.

Thirdly, tell them what you want, tell them why they must give you what you want and, if necessary, put an incentive or disincentive on the table. An incentive would be taking on extra work, a disincentive is ‘I will resign’. More about using that threat in a moment.

Do not try any of this if you have not planned properly. ‘Rule book’ trumps ‘unprepared’ any day. Have a look at point 3 below, titled ‘How to get that increase or promotion’, for your next steps.

However. If you are an underperformer with consistently poor performance evaluations, there is no way you can counter this argument. As invalid as it may be, it is a more compelling argument than you will be able to present. The stronger your work ethic and performance, the greater your chances of getting what you want.

This is only fair. If you don’t give your best to your company, don’t except them to make exceptions for you, or give you the best rewards. Quid pro quo.

Another reason that the company may not want to give you the increase or promotion is ‘precedent’. This is a far more valid argument than pay grades, in my opinion.

Precedent is defined on the Web as: ‘An earlier event or action regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent or similar circumstances’. What this means is that if you are given an increase, there is a case to be made that everyone else can demand an increase too. And not everyone deserves an increase or promotion.

Companies have been crippled by precedent, especially in highly unionised environments. They have every reason to be nervous of it, but again, it may just be a ploy to avoid negotiating with you or giving you what you want.

As soon as the ‘precedent’ argument rears its head, you need to tackle it. The longer the other person talks about precedent, the more they will believe it to be a danger. What can you offer to get around the threat of precedent?

Trade your silence. ‘If you give me the increase/promotion/extra benefits, then I will not disclose this to anyone. I am even prepared to sign a confidentiality agreement.’ Another option: ‘If information on my increase gets out through any wrongdoing on my part, you can take the increase back.’

If the argument of precedent is valid, it should disappear with a promise of secrecy. If, however, precedent is being used as a way of blocking your proposal, then the same tactics as you would use for the pay-grades argument can be used again.

You have successfully overcome your company’s pay-grade or precedent objections to your promotion or increase. What now?

You already know this answer. To get what you want, you use two key strategies, although there are a host of other options (see the ‘new position must study’ example in Chapter 2).

The first key strategy is selling. Try to persuade the other person on the merits of giving you what you want – how much it will cost the company to replace you, or the unique value you bring to the company and their life.

The second key strategy is negotiating. Trading. Quid pro quo. For you to get what you want, you must give the other person something they want. How do you find out what they want? Look at their business Needs and personal Wants. What is in it for them to give you what you want?

If this fails, look at your company’s power base. Who holds the power to give or not to give you the increase or the promotion? The Highlander.

To get what you want, you need to be talking to the person who can actually make the decision. Human resources may be able to recommend an increase providing it is within certain parameters, but they can’t make the decision. If your boss has profit responsibility, he may be able to make this decision, but if he has to have the decision signed off by someone higher up the food chain, then you need to be in front of that person.

Moving higher up is not always possible. Your boss will have your guts for garters if you go over his head to the Highlander. If this is the case, go back to The Golden Rule in Chapter 2 and find ways to get to the Highlander.

If it is the Highlander that is saying no, and he is not willing to move from this position, you are in deadlock and have a difficult decision to make. Do you back down, showing the company they can ride rough-shod over you? Or do you exercise your right to move on?

There are so many factors you need to take into account if you resign and move on, but greater than everything else put together is this – do not threaten to resign if you can’t execute on that threat, and don’t lie about having another job offer.

If you do go off and find a new job and tender your resignation, what might happen is that your current employer comes back to you with a counter-offer for you to stay. What then? Coming up shortly.

Do not pull out a gun if you are not prepared to use it. Do not threaten to resign, strike, create havoc or whatever unless this is what you are prepared to do to get what you want. Bear in mind that a threat is a disincentive or stick. ‘If you keep my salary the same, I will resign.’ ‘If you do not give me the promotion, then my whole department will turn against you.’ Sounds a lot like blackmail, doesn’t it? It is exactly like blackmail, in the same way as negotiation is like bribery. It’s a matter of perspective.

My message about threatening to resign is very clear. If you can’t execute on the threat, don’t use it. Why not? Because your employer might take you up on the challenge and accept your resignation. Then what? You will be leaving your job on bad terms, with no other position secured. If you have pots of money or savings, this isn’t a catastrophe – until your money runs out. Then you may be forced to take a lower-level job at a lesser salary to feed your family.

If you believe that the only way you can get an increase is to use a threat, ask yourself two questions:

Just as you shouldn’t use a threat to get what you want in this situation, don’t lie about having another job offer. Again, if your employer calls you on this, you have to leave the company to save any semblance of face or credibility. If you say, ‘I was only kidding,’ let’s see how long you manage to keep your job before you are moved along.

Can you believe that the ‘give’, or trade, option is exactly the same as the threat option? It is. The only – and may I add, major – difference is that instead of using a stick to get what you want, you use a carrot. Which of the two do you think is going to be better for your career? The carrot is only a bad idea if you plan to insert it into one of your boss’s orifices.

The primary law of dealmaking is this – to get what you want, you have to show (sell) or give (negotiate) value to the other person. There is no getting away from it.

Let’s use a promotion as an example. You work hard. Your performance appraisals are always good. You don’t fight with your colleagues or cause trouble for your boss, and your attitude is positive. You are an exemplary Salaryman. You have been with the company five years, during which time you have mastered your job, and you are ready for a new challenge. You want to move from your current support role to a management position.

First. You may have stiff competition from inside the organisation. Best strategy? Stand out from the crowd and sell yourself to your boss via Value Propositions. No one else will do this. Leverage your track record to show the boss that your performance in the future will be predictable. Take the FUD out of the situation for him.

Second. External competition. Easy one. Show your boss the cost of hiring someone from outside the organisation. Sell using FUD, and reinforce with how you would be able to add more value to the company in the promotion rather than denude value.

Third. Your boss doesn’t like you or is threatened by you. You will have no choice but to go above your boss’s head to the Highlander. If your boss is the Highlander – and I mean the real Highlander, leave the company.

You have been given countless ideas on how to get what you want in a constructive manner. It will pay you, though, to be proactive. Make well-considered proposals, and support these with Value Propositions. Eradicate doubt in anyone’s mind whether you are the person for the job. Sell, sell, sell.

Companies are in business for one reason: to make money. Don’t be gullible about this. You can read wonderful vision and mission statements, but at the end of the day, if a company doesn’t make a profit, it ceases to exist.

In order to ensure that the company is profitable and able to offer a return on investment to its shareholders, the people who run the company play some interesting games. Their objective is to keep expenses as low as possible, while their employees’ objective is to earn as much as possible. Conflict.

We are not going to dig too deeply into the multitude of shenanigans in which companies indulge (it is not actually the companies per se, but the people running the companies). We will look at the three games that impact you, as an employee looking for an increase or promotion.

By the way, it is not only companies that play these games. Children play them with their mothers, husbands their wives, teachers their students, dogs their owners.

In the point on ‘Test your worth in the market’ for new positions, I cautioned you about job titles. I mentioned that companies sometimes call a director’s position a ‘manager’ to avoid director-level salaries. More than just being cheated out of a fair salary, with the role of a director comes certain legal obligations and risks. If you are accepting these obligations, you must ensure that your compensation is coincident with the risks you are carrying. If you are unsure, speak to a labour lawyer.

If you realise that your company has been giving you a workload that is far greater than your job title, you need to address this with your boss. Don’t just whinge and complain. Follow the process.

First – set the scene. Tell your boss there’s a problem and that you want to address it.

Second – make a well-considered proposal. State how you would like the situation to be resolved.

I have left out a whole lot of detail between the three steps, but you get the gist. Take control of the situation and make proposals to fix it and get what you want.

It’s an old adage, ‘to flog a willing horse’. You may inadvertently find yourself on the whip end of this scenario. You are sneakily given extra work and responsibilities bit by bit, or you are dumped with a big load of work on the open-ended promise of an increase or promotion.

In either case, your earnings have fallen out of line with your responsibilities. The longer you allow this to continue, the more you will be flogged.

You owe it to your family, your colleagues and your self-respect to stop this. How? The same process you would use to handle the ‘name-game’ problem above.

Assume that you have been making proposals to fix ‘the name game’ or ‘the willing-horse game’ and nothing has happened. That you have presented arguments for your increase or promotion, and still nothing has happened, or your proposals have been rejected for no good reason. You have even seen the Highlander, to no avail. You now decide it is time to move. You go for interviews, get an offer and tender your resignation. During your notice period, you receive a counter-offer from your current employer, giving you everything you wanted, maybe even more.

Why do companies do this? Because doing nothing – or postponing or using deadlock in dealmaking parlance – is much cheaper than giving you what you want. It is only when their backs are against the wall that they will play nice.

People give you what you want because of carrots and sticks. You are now being offered what you want because you produced the resignation stick.

When you get a counter-offer, you need to make a decision to stay or to go. Is the devil you know really better? Do you leave in protest because they have underpaid you all these years? Can you work in a company that plays these destructive games?

As much as I love giving unsolicited advice, I can’t tell you what to do in this situation, but I do have a few suggestions.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Some people, like my husband, are far more comfortable with the relative security and certainty that comes with being Salaryman. Others, like me, have a burning desire to build something from scratch. We thrive on the uncertainty, and the possibility of creating a hugely successful company. But. For an entrepreneur, there is always the danger that the new venture crashes and burns. I have lost my shirt three times, while my man’s tally is zero.

If you read the research on how many times you need to fail as an entrepreneur before you succeed, you will probably come to the conclusion that your seventh time will be a success. Statistics I recently read said that 80 per cent of new companies fail in their first year, and of the remaining 20 per cent, 90 per cent of these will fail in year two. This means that fewer than two companies in every hundred will last beyond their second year.

Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted. So why do people become entrepreneurs? There is the rush that comes with a successful deal (and the downer when you lose a deal), there is the possibility of more freedom (but entrepreneurs work even harder than corporate employees), and being your own boss (although entrepreneurs still answer to their customers, partners and shareholders). As you can see, the logical reasons for becoming an entrepreneur are not logical at all. I believe people become entrepreneurs because it is in their blood, their unique DNA, rather than a learnt behaviour.

How can you succeed as an entrepreneur when everything seems to be stacked against your success? The answers lie in what the business schools teach, getting the fundamentals right, understanding the financials, having access to funding, finding a blue ocean for your products (as already suggested, read Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne), working hard and closing good deals.

No distinction will be drawn between an entrepreneur and a small business, but the assumption is going to be made that you own or are running a small business.

How different is it, really, to close a contract for your business compared to looking for a new job or getting an increase? Not much, to be fair.

Looking for a new job is similar to looking for new projects or contracts. And if you want an increase, there is little difference if this is a salary or a hike in the amount a customer is paying you.

In drawing these similarities, you may be tempted to think that small business is very much like employment. It can be, but the dissimilarities are noteworthy.

To make the parallels between ‘Looking for a new position’ or ‘Getting a higher salary’ more accessible, I have examined them below through an entrepreneur’s lens. Before you read them, though, consider two small issues.

It does not matter if you are an independent contractor (such as a plumber, a software programmer, a musician, a magician or a hit man) or an entrepreneur (you’ve invented a new product or thought up a new service) or a small business owner (a distributor for a large company or a franchise owner) … this section applies to all of you.

The common denominator between all the possible jobs and professions here – and millions I have not listed – is that you are responsible for driving your own income. You do not receive a set, guaranteed salary.

If you receive a fixed, contract-based retainer but are not an employee, you are a hybrid – neither and both entrepreneur and Salaryman – so the sections already covered, and this one, apply to you.

A lawyer friend of mine once told me that ‘customers’ is a dirty word, because prostitutes have customers. An ex-boss once told me that ‘clients’ belong to prostitutes.

Back to the point. What is the difference between a customer and a client? Not that much. According to www.dailywritingtips.com (edited):

The two terms have traditionally differed widely in usage: A customer is simply a recipient of products or services in exchange for money. Even though the relationship to the provider might be long lasting, the sense is of discrete exchanges. By contrast, a client is engaged in a more qualitative relationship in which the provider generally applies professional skills to offer often intangible commodities such as legal services, insurance policies, and the like.

Because of the greater perceived value associated with provision of professional services, businesses not normally classified as providers of such have taken to referring to their customers as clients. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with that; why shouldn’t an auto-mechanic refer to people with car trouble as clients rather than customers? It’s all about the prestige: a streetwalker services customers, but an escort sees clients.

The words ‘client’ and ‘customer’ are used transposably in my writing. I like to mix it up to keep the reading more interesting.

And now on to making the sections on looking for a new job and getting an increase relate directly to entrepreneurs and small businesses.

As with looking for a new position or getting an increase, your first priority is to establish the value of You or your product in the open market. Even if you have no direct competitors, find out the going rate for similar products or services.

To get this information, be prepared to speak to lots of people, even the competition, and to conduct a great deal of research. This information is essential, as it enables you to charge at the high end of a realistic Ball Park, and see off price objections more easily.

Once you have a good idea of how much you can charge for your product or service, you can prepare your Ball Park. The more information you analyse, the more relevant your Ball Park. Your Opening position needs to be as high as possible, but still realistic for the market.

Knowing the price for your product is not enough. You need to decide pricing for all the other variables around your product or service – travel costs, travel time, on-site or off-site, you or one of your juniors, turnaround times, payment terms, and so on. All these factors need to be divided into Key Issues and Secondary Issues.

Your financial management – your in-depth understanding of your Ball Park – will make or break you. If you are not good with the numbers, you must find someone to help you with this.

Do not approach the market until you have a clear and detailed Ball Park under your arm. Your Ball Park is effectively your price list.

You need to compare the expectations and requirements of each project or contract with other similar contracts. Your comparison must extend right into the Marbles.

Will you have more, or less, of a workload? Higher expectations must be linked to more money. And what are your profit margins? Less profit needs to be connected with a lower level of support or quality from your side.

Your product or service is worth as much as someone is willing to pay, just as a house is worth whatever a potential buyer will pay. Hopefully, all your market research confirms that your Ball Park is accurate, but will customers be prepared to pay extra for you?

Find out. Make a few appointments and ask for the highest possible price. If the potential customers squawk, lower your price by taking yourself out of the equation. For example: ‘Well, if you are happy for one of my team rather than me to handle the installation, then I can reduce the price.’ This will be very interesting feedback for you.

These less serious meetings also give you the perfect opportunity to practise your sales and marketing skills. Position your products or services using marketing (remember brand You?) and then sell your offerings to the customer. Your sales pitch must centre on the value to them in procuring your products or services, and the value you or your small business brings to the mix.

You will not be wasting your time having these test conversations. The more you can practise, the easier it will become to position your services.

Once you are armed with everything you need to know about what you can charge for your product or service, you are ready to tackle ‘serious’ business discussions. How can you stand out from your would-be competitors? What do you need to do to make the customer pick you? How can you differentiate yourself or be unique?

The first interaction the potential customer is likely to have with you is when you speak to them: you call to make an appointment, or they phone you. Even before the customer actually meets you, a strong impression of you will have been formed. Make this view of you count.

About you. No matter whom you speak to on the phone, always be polite, pleasant and professional.

About your company or product. Your printed matter and marketing material count. Spelling mistakes or poor-quality information packs create a horribly bad impression. If you can’t afford decent brochures, don’t have any. Spend your money on remarkable business cards.

If you have dealt with the customer before, you won’t get the opportunity to wipe out all memories of you from scratch, but you can still use these ‘first interaction’ guidelines to improve their perception of you or your product.

The Law of First Impressions in Chapter 2 addresses this subject in detail. First impressions matter. Look your best. Clean shoes, clean hair, no holes in your clothes, no hangover breath. Even if you are arriving to fix the plumbing or to get a gig for your heavy metal band, look as good as you can.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. If you had 20 plumbers in a room and had to choose one on first impressions, who would you select?

You have stood out from your competition and made a good first impression. It does not end with your foot in the door. Now you have to sell your products and services. You need to tell the potential customer why they should choose you and your company.

Even if you have done business with the person before, you need to remind them about your excellent service, unique expertise and ability to add value to their life.

The potential customer could be an individual; it does not have to be a company. If you are dealing with a single individual, the same rules apply.

When you sell to a customer, you must do this in the form of Value Propositions. The Value Propositions have to answer the customer’s questions in a way that demonstrates the benefits to the customer and their company in choosing you.

Your Value Propositions need to talk to the business results (Needs) they require, and their personal hot buttons (Wants). If you have not met the customer before, try to figure out their behavioural style to help you determine their hot buttons.

Be careful of over-talking and under-listening. Salespeople – and as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you have to be a salesperson – are renowned for ‘showing up and throwing up’. In your eagerness to give your sales pitch, you could launch straight into your sales pitch and not give the customer time to tell you about their Needs and concerns. Your product or service has no value if it does not address the customer’s Needs and remove their concerns.

Slow. Things. Down. Think carefully about your answers, and the questions you want to ask. Pay proper attention when the other person speaks. Answer the questions they ask, not the ones you want to answer. By all means elaborate, but make sure you have given them the information they want.

A tip. When you make the appointment, tell the person to whom you speak how much time you need for the meeting. Manage the time available so that you can get the information you need and give the information you want the other person to have.

You must have the time to present your unique value, or you will not stand out from the crowd.

A deal typically begins with selling – persuading the other party to give you what you want. If your sales effort has been successful, the other person will agree to give you the contract you want, without expecting any concessions.

Often, though, the other party will want something in return for giving you what you want. This sees negotiations begin. Maybe they want a bigger discount for higher volumes, or more favourable payment terms, or a single point of contact. Selling kick-starts the deal, negotiation usually closes it.

When you are pitching for a contract or project or job, the higher the customer perceives the value you can add to be, the more they will pay you. But the converse is also true. The lower your perceived value, the lower the fee. Who is responsible for managing the value perception? You. Use your Value Propositions to do this.

Don’t be too quick to negotiate – take your time. If you negotiate terms and pricing before you have had the opportunity to sell your product, you will be selling yourself short. It is usually once the customer can see the value you will add to their organisation that they will be ready or prepared to look beyond price.

Salespeople are often guilty of overselling. ‘Don’t buy from me yet, I haven’t finished selling to you.’ Listen carefully for the buying signals (if you don’t know what these are, learn quickly) and then stop selling and start closing. If objections are raised, use your value arguments to overcome the stumbling blocks. If selling does not work, it is time to try negotiation.

The section on who should make the first proposal has hopefully left you with no doubt that you should make it first. Nothing could be truer when it comes to negotiating a contract or the terms of a project.

Even after you have shown the value you can offer, if the other person makes the first proposal, it will still be an offer on their Opening position – what suits them. If they do not see material value, they will certainly not consider paying more than their Opening position. If you can show this value, they may consider upping their offer. Regardless, if they make the first proposal, you are not in the strongest position.

Before the prospective customer can make you an offer, put your Opening position (usually your price list) on the table. Tell them the price for the product or service, and why you believe it is worth the money you are asking. If you have done a good sales job, it will be easier to convince them to pay your list prices.

We are now at a point of departure from the new job and increased salary examples of the previous sections, so do not skim this section. It is very important for the entrepreneur or business owner.

Once you have met with the customer and they have made the decision to buy from you, you could be passed along to a procurement or buying department, or some other ‘control’ entity. This is bad news for you. Even if you are selling to an individual, say a life insurance policy to a business person, you could still be directed to the buying department – their spouse, in other words.

Why bad news? The person to whom you would have sold, let’s say it is the logistics manager, is sure to have negotiated with you based on the value they believe that you or your product will add. You may already have agreed a discount. Enter the Buyer.

Buyers get rewarded for the amount of money they can save their companies. They do not care about relationships, value, or anything that is not centred on saving money. This will be at odds with your strategy of getting the highest possible price for your products or services.

In your very first interaction with the buyer, tell them your expectations for the terms and pricing for the deal – your Opening position. Then tell them about the deal you have agreed with the logistics manager or spouse. They may factor this into their conversation with you, but probably not. They are rewarded for what they save the company, not for the discount the logistics manager got.

If your expectations are on the table upfront, they do not think it strange when you resist their efforts to negotiate you further down.

The buyer is going to keep pushing you. Hold firm. Make it clear that if they want a further discount, you want more x in return. Every demand for a reduction from their side must be met by a demand from your side. If you unconditionally give an inch, they will go for the whole ruler.

It is very possible that a stand-off with the buying department will derail your deal. What now? You can’t surrender because the Rottweiler buyer will savage your proposal, and if you maintain the deadlock, you could jeopardise the deal.

If you have not already tried to convince the buyer of the merits of the deal as it is, try to show them the value you bring to their company. Selling doesn’t work if the relationship has completely broken down.

Your second tack would be to trade. Quid pro quo. ‘For you to get what you want, Mr Buyer, I need this in return.’ The buyer generally wants to take, not give. They often make demands, but are not prepared to trade.

If this fails, who holds the power to give or not to give you the deal? The Highlander.

If the logistics manager is the Highlander, he will be pretty sore about a deal he thought was closed being screwed up. It is important that you don’t become the fall guy. Make sure the Highlander knows that you did everything you could to trade with the buyer. Revisit the value-based arguments, and remind the Highlander of the value he is getting in exchange for the price he is paying. If you can, get the Highlander to fight your fight for you.

If the logistics manager is not the Highlander, and does not have the power to break loose the buyer’s deadlock, try to get the logistics manager to take your fight to the Highlander. If the logistics manager is not prepared to do this, you need to go directly to the Highlander.

The danger is that you upset the logistics manager by going over his head. Then you have a call to make. Do you want to keep the logistics person happy and lose your deal, or do you want the deal at any cost to the relationship? Choose.

If the logistics manager is powerless and the Highlander says ‘no’, you lose the deal. Which is why it is better to try to build a relationship with the buyer early on in the process.

First prize is obviously not to break the relationship with the buyer. If you can bring the buyer into the conversation before you negotiate terms with the logistics manager, the buyer will get the credit for any concessions or reductions the logistics manager makes. And, the buyer is also more likely to hear your value arguments, which should help influence the buyer’s decisions. The implication of this is that you need to identify the buyer early on in the engagement.

Companies, especially the big retailers, discourage their buyers from forming relationships with vendors. Companies will even move their buyers around every year or two so that they don’t interact for too long with any one vendor. Time builds relationships.

Buyers, believe it or not, are also human. Try to establish their hot buttons; how they prefer to interact with suppliers; how they are measured by their employers. Maybe you can help them to achieve their targets so that they earn more – just like a recruiter.

The more you know about the buyer, the easier it becomes for you to have worthwhile conversations with them.

That is how it feels. Whether you are a sole proprietor, a small business or a large enterprise, it always seems as if the customer has the power. Does it make you feel better that large organisations have the same problem?

‘He who has the gold makes the rules’ is a statement about who has the power. We explored the one side of this golden coin in Chapter 2, The Golden Rule, where the attention was specifically on the Highlander. Even if you make the Highlander a company – a company that has the power to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ – the same rules stick. If you are not able to convince the company to give you what you want, you don’t get it.

‘He who has the gold’ applies to every level of society – from children wanting pocket money to a homemaker needing a grocery allowance, to small business to big business. Someone else always seems to hold the purse strings.

The other side of the coin is ‘He who has the gold makes the rules’. Move away from thinking of gold as money. Gold could be anything you have that another person wants.

If the customer does not want the gold you have to sell or trade, they will not give you what you want. You have no power. People, customers, want what you are offering if it addresses their Needs or pushes their personal hot buttons. You can try to bully the other person into a deal, but ultimately the deal will fail. Your greatest power is when you have the gold the customer wants.

An expert sales professional will be able to show the customer that they need the gold that the salesperson is selling – and they do this by presenting Value Propositions to meet existing Needs, or Needs the salesperson has created or identified. FUD is an example of a created Need. Creating Needs requires a great deal of skill, and it is not within the bounds of this book to explore this in detail. You have not been left out on a limb, though.

In Chapter 4, ‘Planning what you want’, the section on ‘Business needs = the other person’s Key Issues’ gives plenty of guidance on how to address the other person’s Key Issues and Needs.

To get someone to do business with you, you must have something they want. No Need on their part, no deal on your part.

If there is a Need, you have to get them to choose your offering rather than someone else’s by showing them the value in doing business with you – how you or your brand is unique, and what value this adds to their business.

Once value is established, it comes down to pricing. Give them the price they want on the terms you want.

Over and above these three vital issues, the more power you can bring to bear, the better. Chapter 3 is all about power. It will be a good refresher to read it again now.

When you have something the customer wants – you, your services or products – they will often ask you for a sample. If you bake cakes, this cost to you is low. If you run training programmes, like my organisation does, the cost of a ‘freebie’ is very high.

Can you recall reading that if you give something away for nothing, the other party does not value what you give them? It is a truism. If you give your customer a sample, for them to perceive value, they must pay for it in some way. It does not have to be money. It can be a commitment, a report, a recommendation, feedback, a return on investment, whatever.

Many years ago, an organisation that ran incentive trips for overperforming staff approached my employer. I was head of human resources at the time, and was tasked with deciding whether this service would add value to our company or not. To win the business, the incentives organisation invited me to a one-week, no-expenses-spared trip to Portugal. But, it was not free.

The trip would have cost, say, R10 000 if I had booked it on the open market. I was required to pay R1 000 for the trip. I asked my boss, who was the real Highlander for the incentives decision, if the company would pay the token amount. He said ‘no’, so I had to pay for it myself. It was a significant amount of money for me at the time, but I really wanted to go.

During the trip, I asked the managing director of the incentives organisation why they had bothered to charge me for the trip, as it was such a small percentage of the total cost. He answered that it was how his company stopped the offer of trips being seen as bribes. It struck a chord with me. Bribery aside, the fact that I had to contribute to the trip made it that much more valuable to me.

If you give someone something for nothing once, they will be grateful. They will, however, also feel comfortable asking you for another favour. If you give to them twice, you are establishing a pattern of giving. A third time, and the person to whom you have been so generous will think, ‘It is so easy for her to give this to me, it can’t have a value or a cost to her, so what is the value to me?’ And they ask for more and more expensive concessions.

Give, by all means, but always get something in return – no matter how small.

Assuming you are not in a commodities or fast-moving consumer goods market, the biggest cost in securing business for you as an entrepreneur or small business owner is the cost of your time. It takes a lot of effort to find new opportunities, to sell into those opportunities, to negotiate the deal and to keep the customer. Losing a deal or existing customer can be catastrophic for your business.

People, in small or big companies, sign up business that is not profitable to them for a number of reasons. The most valid reason is because they are a new business and need at least one customer reference site. Fine.

However, companies frequently sign bad business ‘to get a foot in the door’. They think that once they are entrenched, they can move the deal to profitability. A human resources consultancy may, for example, offer to scope the restructuring of a client’s human capital and do this work for less than it is worth in the hope that they will be employed to implement the new structure. This strategy is seldom successful, as a precedent of low pricing is established.

To get respect, you need to earn it. To get respect, you need to give it. Accepted.

There are, unfortunately, people in the business world who think it is okay to treat their suppliers like dirt. Of course, they expect their customers to treat them properly, but it seems acceptable for them to treat salespeople and service providers badly. It is not acceptable and it is never acceptable.

You will not only find disrespect in your customer’s attitude towards you, but also in them not honouring their promises to you, paying you late, giving you no support. Being treated badly will eventually undermine your self-worth and make you doubt yourself or your business. Your relationship with your customers should be a mutually rewarding partnership, based on respect.

If you are being treated badly by a customer, fire them. Walk away from a bad business relationship in the same way you would walk away from a bad marriage. Of course you need to plan your exit strategy. Have other options lined up, but even then, don’t walk out and say, ‘You keep everything.’ You deserve better than that.

You have probably noticed that I love old sayings and clichés. One of my favourites for entrepreneurs is, ‘Never put all your eggs in one basket.’ It is a dangerous strategy to direct all your resources and energy into one customer or account. Of course you are not going to turn your first egg away, but as soon as you can, get more eggs. That way, if you lose an egg, you don’t lose your business.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs are generally hampered by a lack of capital. They take mortgages out on their properties and leverage every other asset to the hilt in order to start and sustain their business. At some point, the business needs to become profitable. While trying to keep afloat and pay off debt, it is difficult to even think about expanding their customer base. It has to happen. Having one customer is a massive risk.

If you lose your single customer, you are reactive in finding new ones. What if it takes six months to close a new deal? You may be out of business by then. As hard as it is, you must make sure that your income is not linked to a single account. The rule of thumb is to never let one customer account for more than 20 per cent of your income.

My book Deal Diva was dedicated to helping women get the best possible deals. Much of it centred on women and their income. As this section is specifically about women and their salaries, the pertinent issues from Deal Diva are covered here, but for a much broader perspective, I urge you to read the book.

As a woman, the problems you face finding a new job, or getting an increase or a promotion, or being an entrepreneur, or working in the civil service, are much the same as those of men. There is no point in rewriting these sections for women, so what you have here are the issues that are unique to women.

Research shows that women earn about 25 per cent less than their male counterparts for doing the same job. Why? Is it because women are simply paid lower salaries, or is the value they add perceived to be less, or are they perhaps paid differently?

When I started my own investigation into this conundrum, I was strongly influenced by the findings of Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever (their study is detailed in their book Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide). Basically, Babcock and Laschever determined that women are paid less because they can’t or don’t negotiate.

My investigations revealed a somewhat different conclusion. While being a poor negotiator is undoubtedly a factor, there were other, far more interesting reasons for women earning less than men.

This last point was a revelation to me. What I discovered is that, for women, value works on different levels. Men, on the other hand, tend to think of value as a quantum. So how do women calculate value?

Firstly, they value themselves on a highly personal, individual basis. This is linked to their self-worth.

Secondly, women do not always know how much they should be paid for the work they perform, especially if they have taken time off work to have children. They base their salaries on previous income, not market rates.

And, thirdly, they calculate value as part of a bigger picture – being able to work flexitime, having access to a crèche at the office, a pleasant work environment, and similar.

You may think that these perceptions disadvantage women. Not so. They give women the ability to see beyond the obvious, which enables them to get exactly what they want. The problem is that they don’t know how to structure their thinking.

If a woman believes she is not worthy, she will expect to earn less than anyone else. If you know you lack confidence or are guilty of putting yourself down, reread The Law of Fair Play. Also take another look at The Law of First Impressions in the same chapter.

What you earn is directly linked to what you believe you are worth and to your self-image. Get out there and fix your esteem issues immediately. Release the wonderful woman you know is inside you.

My apology for being so blunt, but this is not acceptable. And it is easy to fix.

Basing your income on what you received in the past makes no sense. You have grown in skill and experience, taken on more responsibility, and probably moved up the corporate ladder. Why on earth should you get small increments when you have grown in leaps and bounds?

And what if you were a homemaker before? Running a household gives you a whole range of skills that must be properly rewarded.

Chapter 3, ‘Market Intelligence’, will shove you in the right direction, and there is also plenty to help you in the first three sections of this chapter.

This is bloomin’ marvellous news. Understanding value comes naturally to you. One of the main reasons women do not get paid the same as men is not necessarily all the bad stuff, but because women are prepared to sacrifice part of their salaries to get benefits such as flexitime, working from home, more annual leave, more freedom of movement, etc. This doesn’t only apply to women with children.

In Chapter 4, ‘Define your Ball Park’, you can see what I’m talking about in action. Women are generally happy to be flexible on several of their Key Issues as long as they get a whole bunch of valuable benefits in return.

This makes me question whether women really do earn less than men as a rule. In the past, and even in the present, women have been paid less than men and have struggled to close the pay divide (evidence shows it is actually widening, not closing), but the measurement may also be faulty.

When a woman’s income is compared to that of a man, is the value of her extra benefits – shorter working days, longer leave, crèche benefits – taken into account? Regardless, there is no reason a woman’s total salary package should be less than that of a man.

As soon as women accept that there is no justification for earning less than men, the world around them will accept it too. Women have a huge amount of historical prejudice and discrimination in the workplace to overcome, so the world is not going to change overnight. Instead of whingeing about it, though, women need to be their own best friends and prove their worth in the working world.

Borrowing from Work Diva and Deal Diva, here are nine ways women can demonstrate their value in the workplace.

Delivering less than you promise always puts you in a bad light, even if the delay is not your fault. Under-promise and over-deliver, rather than the other way around.

Don’t procrastinate and don’t give up. If you say you will do something, do it. See assignments through to completion, regardless of the challenges and obstacles in your path.

People value predictability in business. We all have moods, but up one minute and down the next is not appropriate in the work environment. Leave your moods and extreme emotions at home.

Working hard is not enough. Someone who works hard will gain a reputation for being a hard worker, but won’t necessarily get the promotion. You need to work smart at the same time. Working smart is knowing how to prioritise, knowing where best to invest your energy, understanding the difference between urgent and important, being able to delegate, and so on.

Get to the point. In business, nothing is more irritating than someone who dithers or uses 50 words where 15 would suffice. This does not mean you shouldn’t explain things properly; rather, it means that you need to keep your communication clear, concise and honest. This also means no gossiping.

People need to be able to trust you and take you at your word. If you say you will do something or be somewhere, make sure that you keep your promise. Do everything in your power to be known as someone upon whom others can depend.

Do you convince yourself that it’s okay to tell a little white lie if it spares someone’s feelings? What about a big lie to protect someone you love? Nobody respects a liar, regardless of the motive. But you don’t have to share every thought you have.

This operates on two levels – accepting responsibility for your work duties, and taking responsibility for your actions. In either case, you will get the credit when things go right, but also carry the blame if it goes wrong. You have to accept both levels or neither.

Many people battle with making decisions, never mind unpopular ones. When you make a decision, be sure to think through all the options, consequences and outcomes of your decision, and how it will impact those around you.

If you are not a full-time homemaker, but have plenty of homemaking responsibilities, do not skip this section.

It frightens me to think of the number of women, and the few men, who stay at home to run a household and manage the children but receive no compensation. Has it even occurred to them that they should be getting more than a housekeeping allowance?

If you are staying at home but do not have a breadwinner partner, you are presumably getting a social grant or support of some sort. This section is not directed at you. It is for people who, as a life choice, stay at home while their partner goes out to bring in the bacon.

Has the thought ever crossed your mind that you should be earning a salary for being the homemaker? If it has, you probably dismissed it as a silly notion.

Or do you think that you don’t need a salary because you share all the money with the breadwinner anyway? That’s great, but what if your relationship breaks down? You stand to lose your home and your source of income (your partner’s earnings) for starters. You can’t hope that the breadwinner will do right by you.

Maybe you are convinced that your relationship is rock solid, but what happens if you are widowed? Is there a trust or insurance policy that will pay you a salary, or will you have to find an entry-level job?

Here is a harsh wake-up call. If you are not receiving a formal salary for staying at home, your lack of business savvy allows me to predict that you will get royally screwed if your primary relationship falters. Don’t think to yourself, ‘I’ll get a good lawyer.’ With no income, you can’t afford a good lawyer, but your breadwinner partner can.

Housekeeping money is for keeping the house – buying groceries and toiletries, paying the plumber and electrician, vet bills, petrol to run the kids around, and and and. The list is endless. You may even have all the expenses relating to the children in your housekeeping allowance – school fees, uniforms and clothes, tuck-shop money, gifts for birthday parties.

Do not confuse housekeeping money with being paid a salary for the tasks and responsibilities you need to perform as manager of the home.

On the subject of the housekeeping allowance: when last did you do an annual reconciliation of your housekeeping expenses? I say ‘annual’, so that it includes all the once-off payments too. Part of your responsibility in running a home is to calculate these costs.

Not only does this help you budget, but it also starts separating ‘house expenses’ from ‘house-spouse salary’. To help you with your money management, I strongly suggest you stop using cash and start using a single credit card for your housekeeping expenses. Even if the kids need cash, draw the cash from the cash machine. Why?

It may be more expensive to use a credit card, but it is cheaper than paying an accountant. And analysing a year’s worth of credit card statements to see how much your housekeeping really costs is far easier than trying to keep the papers.

A note for the profligates among us: do not use your credit card for extended credit, and be sure to pay the whole balance in full every single month.

But why is it so important to understand your housekeeping expenses? A friend recently asked me to have coffee with her cousin, whom we’ll call ‘Dani’. Dani is in a bad way financially. She is slowly being starved of money by her husband. My gut feel is that her husband is preparing to exit the relationship. She disagrees.

Now I’m no financial-planning expert, but I know a thing or two about getting the best deal. The first question I asked Dani was, ‘What is your housekeeping allowance?’ She told me. Second question: ‘How much does it actually cost you to run the house?’ Dani wasn’t sure. When we did a quick analysis on the back of a cigarette box, it became patently obvious that her husband is giving her far less money than she needs.

Dani is also receiving zero money for herself, despite the fact that she works part-time in her husband’s business. She has been using her limited personal savings to balance her books. She has been at pains to point out to her husband that she has no salary but is still expected to contribute to the housekeeping money. ‘From where?’ she has asked. He tells her to ‘manage the money better’. If he leaves Dani, do you think she will get a decent, or even a half-decent, settlement from this man?

The advice I gave Dani was to begin keeping accurate records of all the house-related expenditure, and to draw up a budget for the actual housekeeping costs, including an ‘allowance’ for her personal needs (cosmetics, clothing, etc.).

In this situation, Dani’s husband is effectively the Highlander, and she needs to present this pre-prepared information to him in the form of a proposal. She must tell him what she needs, and point out what he gets in return.

Why bother going to the trouble of recording and budgeting and proposing when her proposal is unlikely to be accepted? Two reasons.

Firstly, if (when) he rejects the proposal, she knows exactly where she stands and can take the same action as anyone whose valid request for an increase is denied by the Highlander.

Secondly, she now has records that she can present to the courts in the likely event of a divorce.

Building on Dani’s situation, what is the actual cost of no salary to you? Do you know where to start calculating the salary you should receive for managing your home?

It is not just full-time homemakers who need to think about their compensation. The same rules, with a few minor adjustments, are appropriate for people with part-time, or full-time, jobs. They are often expected to keep house, run around after the kids and dogs, sort out the staff, handle the administration and still work.

Everyone with significant home-keeping duties needs to comprehend fully how much it costs them to fulfil these responsibilities. Even if they have a part-time income, they still need to measure how much their household duties are worth from a financial perspective.

What would it cost you to pay someone to do your home-running duties for you? Think of this in business terms. You would employ this person, on a full- or part-time basis, to take on these duties. Using and abusing your family or friends to do this work does not count.

There is no way on earth that an external person would do this for you for free. If you are performing these jobs, it stands to reason that you should receive this salary. Otherwise, your breadwinner partner is using and abusing you.

Understand that I am not talking about being a good wife or husband or parent – that is expected of you as a human being. What I mean is that the tasks you perform add value by keeping the money inside your family unit. With you doing them, you do not have to pay someone else.

Your breadwinner might be giving you an allowance, or even free access to ‘combined’ cash, but what we are exploring here extends way beyond the money.

If this sounds mercenary, then keep on believing in a fairy-tale ending … and that Dani’s husband is not going to try to leave her with nothing.

You have to calculate your worth. To do this, draw up a ‘Value Balance Sheet’. Don’t panic, all you need to do is complete the following five, dead-easy steps.

A similar model was included in Deal Diva. If you saw it, rather use this model, as it is updated and clearer.

You need to put a monetary value, in other words an amount, in the Value Balance Sheet table below for each of the home services you provide. The best way to determine an amount is to work out how much you would have to pay someone to perform the task for you on a monthly basis.

For example, animal care. I probably spend one whole day each month with my dogs – taking them to the vet, feeding them, training, washing, exercising, etc. I would expect to pay someone (with a car) about R250 per hour to do this on a contract basis, making this amount R250 × 8 hours per month = R2 000 per month.

If you don’t know how much it would cost to pay for a service, find out! Do not include any of the related expenses (e.g. petrol, shampoo, vet bills, etc.). These do not form part of your income.

If there are tasks you can think of that are not included on the list, add them to the blank spaces. Exclude tasks and amounts from the table if you already pay someone else for that work (i.e., you don’t do the work yourself).

The Value Total (1) below is what you should get paid for your contribution to the home by the breadwinner (who, in this type of situation, effectively becomes the employer). To keep things simple, I have not factored tax into any of the calculations.

Calculate how much money you currently receive each month, in the form of cash or credit card limits or allowances, from the breadwinner to perform the tasks you quantified in the table above. Do not include the money you are given for groceries, school fees, clothing, consumables or any other expenses – only write down what money you receive in exchange for providing these services.

In the table below, deduct the Cash Total (2) from the Value Total (1) to get the Net Total (3). Fifty bucks says that your Net Total (3) is a very large negative amount.

You can use Net Total (3) as the basis for what you should receive as income, excluding child support and any household expenses.

You will need to do some research to get the information for the table below. Calculate what you could have earned if you had had a full-time job, or what you have sacrificed by working part-time, for the period that you have been the house spouse.

Before you decide that this is all too much trouble, you already know how to get the salary information for this calculation. If you have forgotten, look again at the ‘Test your worth in the market’ point above in the section on ‘Looking for a new position’ in this chapter.

And don’t be put off by all the calculations. If you use the table directly below, it is really simple.

Work out the salary you would earn plus a monetary amount for any social or fringe benefits as if you were an employee. If you don’t know the monetary amount, get onto the internet and figure it out.

To keep it simple, ignore trying to calculate the compounded value of the salary. You can come back to this later if necessary.

To see how much it costs you financially to be the homemaker, compare Net Total (3) with Package Total (4). Use the table below to work out your shortfall.

This paints a frightening picture, does it not? It is the real cost to you of being the house spouse.

Consideration number one. How can you get the breadwinner – the person who holds the gold – to pay you a salary? Easy question. Easy answer. Make a proposal.

If you follow the main points in the section above on getting an increase, you will find that with small adjustments, the same rules apply. Know what you want. Argue (sell) for what you want. Present proposals for what you want. Be flexible.

Avoid, at all costs, what our delightfully phlegmatic neighbour Chris Speight calls the ‘Tea Pot Strategy’ – standing with one arm on your hip, the other arm wagging a finger in the breadwinner’s nose, demanding that you be given what you want now! Selling, manipulation, seduction, subversion are far more effective means than a steaming pot.

Your home is effectively your place of work. Employ all the tactics you are learning in this book to get paid what you are worth.

Consideration number two. If ever you find yourself in the unfortunate position of getting divorced, the ‘Net Total (3)’ of your Value Balance Sheet will be a plausible base on which to calculate your maintenance or ongoing compensation. Do not include any child support or housekeeping or other direct expenses in ‘Net Total (3)’. Direct expenses must be paid to you over and above your maintenance salary.

Even if you have a stable relationship with the breadwinner, it is no guarantee that you will be financially secure in the future. There are too many variables that are beyond your control to be sure of what the future holds.

Consideration number three. Should you be earning a salary (from any source other than the breadwinner), you need to contribute an equitable share of this income to the cost of running your home. This means that you take a salary for all the tasks you perform at home and then pay towards the housekeeping costs. It sounds like double accounting, but it is the easiest way of ensuring that you give and get what is fair.

If all this talk about money and finance is making you nervous, read any one of the books by Susan ‘Suze’ Lynn Orman (American financial advisor and author; 1951–). Her practical advice will give you the confidence you need to become your own home-specialist financial advisor.

All our household responsibilities (except cooking) – administration, maintenance, staff supervision and finances – are handled by me. In exchange for this, I am paid one return business-class air ticket to any destination in the world every year.

Between my writing this book and you reading it, I will have travelled to Honolulu, San Francisco and London.

As a civil servant, you are the ultimate Salaryman. Your wings, you believe, are clipped. The confines of your environment give you limited flexibility. Is there room for you to put on your dealonomics cape and test your restraints?

Does what applies in the corporate world relate if you are a government employee? Mostly. Being in civil service doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about your earnings. There are still plenty of opportunities to get what you want.

When it comes to negotiating your salary with the government, the most important point in this book is Chapter 4, specifically ‘Defining your Ball Park’. It does not matter if you work in central government, local government, parastatals, ministries, the armed forces, the revenue services, hospitals, whatever. It doesn’t matter if you are a soldier, fireman, policeman, nurse, social worker, teacher or a street sweeper. And the level of seniority you have achieved within government doesn’t matter either.

In the previous section on getting increases and promotions in the corporate world, I said that salary ranges and pay grades are guidelines behind which companies often hide so that they can avoid paying more to employees. This is not the case in government.

The sheer size of government necessitates that pay grades be honoured far more strictly, but as with the corporate world, pay grades and salary ranges are just that – ranges. When you are being recruited into, or promoted within, a governmental entity, there are grades for each job and each level of seniority. With every job and every level, there is also a fabulous range of fringe benefits.

If you thought that the other points in this chapter won’t work for you, you’re wrong.

The same rules, though, do not apply with contractors or consultants to government.

People who work for government but are not employees need to read the section on being an entrepreneur far more closely than this section.

What consultants and contractors need to watch for is the payment terms government extends itself. Even if you have an agreement that stipulates that you must be paid at the end of each month, or within x days of completing a project, government is very slow to pay. Whether this is a result of bureaucracy or inefficiency, you must factor late payment into your pricing structure. Charge a premium for government business, or build in penalties for late payment. Slow payment by government has crippled thousands of businesses and charities over the years. Make sure you are not one of them.

Securing tenders is not covered in this book, although much of the ‘Looking for a new position’ section could work for tenders too. There are specific strategies and techniques that need to be used for tenders, but these extend beyond the context of this book.

Back to pay grades for government employees. Although pay grades do exist, you can still manage them to your advantage. Imagine you are a nurse being promoted to ward sister. The system in government is to automatically increase your salary to the pay grade and seniority level of a ward sister. Assume the range for a ward sister is R8 500 to R10 000 basic salary per month. As a new ward sister, your salary will be increased to R8 500.

If you approach the hospital head and ask for more money, the head will insist that your pay is linked to your job grade and level of experience. Don’t give up. There is still room to manoeuvre – but only if you can sell yourself. If you can show the head of the hospital why the unique value you add to the position is of benefit to the hospital, you have an argument for a higher salary. The hospital head may be able to increase your salary within the range for that position.

If you are reluctant to sell brand You, or you don’t know how to sell yourself, you will simply be given the lowest salary in the range.

The wonderful thing about being a government employee is not the salary. Generally, civil servants are paid lower salaries than those in the private sector, but that does not mean that you can’t earn the same, or even more, than corporate Salaryman. The joy in your job is in the fringe benefits.

Much like the section for ‘Women and their salary woes’, you need to consider the value of your package as a whole, not just the basic salary element.

Let’s use the British Army as our example. The following information is from their website www.army.mod.uk, which illustrates the incredible options available to someone in (or considering joining) the British military. An edited extract from the website follows:

THE RIGHT JOB FOR YOU

There are more than 220 different roles in the Army. Some are full-time roles, others you can do in your spare time with the Territorials. You might choose a role that develops your existing skills, or that helps you to learn new ones. Whichever job you choose and whatever you want to achieve, we’ll do everything we can to make sure that you succeed.

If you’re not sure which role or even if the Army is right for you, why not ask to join a ‘Look at Life’ course. This experience is specifically designed to offer a no-commitment introduction to Army life to see if it’s right for you. You’ll get hands-on experience of the jobs you’re interested in and take part in activities and challenges designed to test your initiative, leadership, communication and team-building skills.

Before we have even got to salary and benefits, can you see what you can get from the Army if you use the system correctly? The British Army will give you all of the following, if you want:

Please tell me where you can get better benefits than this? Not in the corporate world, that’s for sure.

You might not like the army example because you are a pacifist (pacifist or not, if another great war breaks out, you will be drafted), or you don’t like the physicality of the army, or you may have to give up your life for your job (don’t fool yourself here, the corporate world can also kill your soul).

You do, though, have a choice. You do not have to take a front-line position with the army – you could work in administration.

What is important in this example is that in most governmental institutions, you will have similar opportunities and benefits. You don’t have to sign up for the army: you could join the health ministry as a nurse. Many of the same benefits apply.

Back to the British Army. If you have a look at the salary and benefits they have to offer under the ‘Army Life’ tab, you will find (summarised and edited):

Daily life.
- You can live in a camp, at the Army’s expense.
- Your family can live with you.
Travel and working overseas.
Lifelong learning.
- Education programmes.
- Apprenticeships.
- Qualifications.
- Learning credits.
Faith and diversity, where you can.
- Develop spiritually.
- Participate in the Armed Forces Humanist Association.
Resettlement, offers a choice of territories and resettlement packages.
Time off, including 38 [this is not a typo] days of paid leave.
Incentives and allowances, which include:
- Commitment bonus.
- Golden hello.
- Rejoining bounty.
- Get on the property ladder.
Pensions, at very young retirement ages.
And money, with many grades and ranges.

If you had to put a quantitative value – an amount, in other words – to these benefits, the total salary package would far exceed anything you could earn in the best-paying sectors of the corporate world.

The trick to maximising your earnings as a civil servant is to take advantage of as many of the benefits available to you as you can.

Many civil servants aspire to move into the corporate world, believing that salaries are much higher and that there is far more opportunity for advancement. This may or may not be true.

In the same way that corporate Salaryman needs to fully understand what he is worth in the open job market, so does the government employee. To compare like for like, the government employee must begin by having a complete understanding of his or her total salary package. Every last penny must be considered.

If you want to move from the government to the corporate sector, your first step is to calculate accurately the value of your earnings – your salary, bonuses, perks and all other benefits.

Taking annual leave as an example, compare the annual leave you are allocated as a government employee (assume 38 working days), deduct the leave you would get in the corporate world (probably 15 working days) and give the difference (23 days) a monetary value. This is equivalent to roughly one month of your current salary with benefits. Add to this your salary package.

What about pension contributions and medical insurance? Does government pay the whole amount for you, or half? The corporate world often gives you a ‘total cost-to-company’ package, which means that from the package you earn, you pay all contributions to pensions, medical schemes, insurances, and so on. You need to add amounts the government pays on your behalf to the calculation of your current earnings. Only once you have an overview of your total salary package with government can you compare it to what you could earn in the private sector.

If all this calculating makes you nervous, ask someone who is good with finance to help you with the numbers. The last move you want to make is out of the relative security of being a government employee to the cut-throat world of business for less money.

Money aside, there are two other important issues you must consider before you move from government to commerce. One is job security, and the other is the competition factor.

The corporate market is far more in tune with economic forces than government. Consider the global economic meltdown of 2008. Who was to blame? To my mind, bad government policies and the Wolves of Wall Street. But who lost their jobs first? Not the greedy bankers and financiers, not government employees: it was corporate Salaryman. As soon as the market hit the skids, companies started downsizing and retrenching staff. To survive, companies have to cut costs in times of crisis as quickly as they can. It starts with heads rolling.

The public sector is much slower to respond to market forces, and sometimes even immune from them. Sure, ‘Employment for Life’ no longer exists in any market sector, but you are safer in the government sector than the corporate world when it comes to the risk of being retrenched or made redundant.

Governments are slowly changing, some of them even moving to performance-management systems where the salaries of employees are linked to job performance. Ostensibly, a government employee’s income can now carry risk and reward. This is fantastic news for star performers, and a real downer for lazy sods. In moving beyond the devastating genocide of 1994, the Rwandan government has achieved remarkable results in using performance management to rebuild the country, particularly the health sector.

How quickly other governments will move to embrace performance systems is anyone’s guess, but my guess is that it will be slow.

The corporate market is tough. Dog eats dog each and every day. There is a constant struggle to keep your job, to win a job from hundreds – sometimes thousands – of other applicants, to be paid what you deserve and promoted for your performance, to get to the top of the ladder and to stay there.

Spain, as at January 2013, had an unemployment rate for their youth of around 40 per cent. Government is also retrenching, but how many applicants are there now for each job in Spain, as one example?

Even when the economic market is good and companies are expanding, there is never a deficit of job applicants, except perhaps for astronomers or nuclear physicists. People compete vigorously for the higher-paying jobs in good companies. You had better put together a remarkable CV and have some stunning Value Propositions if you want to be ahead of the pack.

VALUE OF HOMEMAKER WORK PER MONTH	AMOUNT
1. Housework or ‘maid’	R
2. Cooking or ‘chef’	R
3. Gardening or ‘landscaper’	R
4. Animal care or ‘pet nanny’	R
5. Caring for sick family or ‘nurse’	R
6. Child care or ‘nanny’	R
7. Child supervision or ‘au pair’	R
8. Child psychologist or ‘social worker’	R
9. Child developer or ‘motivator or coach’	R
10. Mom’s taxi or ‘chauffeur’	R
11. Home-schooling or ‘teacher’	R
12. Homework supervision or ‘tutor’	R
13. School, extramural & sporting events or ‘coach’	R
14. Helping with school events or ‘PTA representative’	R
15. Onsite maintenance supervision or ‘project manager’	R
16. Supervising staff or ‘manager’	R
17. Controlling and buying provisions for home (groceries, gifts, etc.) or ‘stock controller’	R
18. Accounts (recons, queries, paying bills) or ‘bookkeeper’	R
19. Calendar management or ‘time manager’	R
20. Organising special occasions or ‘social planner’	R
21. Travel services (internet research time, making bookings, coordinating travellers) or ‘travel agent’	R
22. Host for business functions at home or ‘maitre d’hotel’	R
23. Family obligations (e.g. tea with mother-in-law) or ‘caregiver’	R
24. Pool cleaner	R
25.	R
26.	R
27.	R
28.	R
29.	R
30.	R
VALUE TOTAL (1) PER MONTH	R

VALUE TOTAL (1)	+ R
Deduct CASH TOTAL (2)	– R
NET TOTAL (3) PER MONTH	= R

NET TOTAL (3)	R
Deduct PACKAGE TOTAL (4)	– R
SHORTFALL (5) PER MONTH	= R

1. Multiply SHORTFALL (5) by 12 to get ANNUAL FIGURE (6)	× 12 = R
2. Multiply ANNUAL FIGURE (6) by number of years you did not work to get REAL SHORTFALL (7)	× ? = R
Copy REAL SHORTFALL (7) from directly above	= R