The Do’s and Don’t of Asking For a Raise

February 20th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under • by admin

Raise your hand if you’d like to earn money! Just as I suspected. We’d all like to get an increase in salary, but very few of us are willing to swallow our doubt and ask for a raise. Instead we just go to work every day, do what we’re supposed to, and hope that the next time we get a performance review that we might end up with a few extra dollars when all is said and done. Be bold, and ask for a raise. Here are the do’s and don’ts of asking for a raise.

Do give a hard look at your performance. Consider how you have either saved the company money, or made more money for the company. These are the only two things that matter when you boil it down to the essentials.

Do compare your performance to the industry standard. If you are performing better in sales, or in efficiency than the standard, you should be compensated more than the industry standard of salary.

Don’t compare yourself to your coworkers. Your boss will already know exactly where you stand compared to the people in your firm. The last thing you need to be doing is making yourself look good and your coworkers look bad.

Do use facts and figures. You should be able to provide with numbers how you have made your company more efficient, how much time you have saved people from working, how much money you made the company and the like.

Don’t talk about why you need the money. Your boss doesn’t care about your family problems or that you have a lot of credit card debt.

Do pick the right time to ask for a raise. Ask for a raise right after you receive an award, after you close a big deal, your department wins an award, or after the company has had a very good financial period.

Do dress for success. When you ask for that raise, you want to be on your best. Make sure you took a shower in the morning and are dressed the best you can. Nobody wants to be sitting across a table from someone who smells bad and looks like crap.

Don’t threaten to quit your job. Often times you will be shown the door right away!

Do explain how you plan on improving your performance. You have to be able to show that you will be worth more money in the future and show that you have a plan to become more valuable to the company over time.

Don’t ask for an answer right away. Once you have the conversation with your boss, give him or her time to process it. After a week and a half, send them a friendly email asking if they have any information in response to your question.

Hopefully these tips will help you to ask for a raise in a manner that’s appropriate and in a manner that will help you get a raise. The only way to get a raise is to ask, don’t anticipate that your boss will naturally assume that you are worth more than you currently are.