How to Get the Raise You Deserve
You know that broadway show Hamilton everyone loves and it’s won 11 Tony awards and people who are insane pay $10,000 for a $300 ticket? My girlfriend is obsessed with it so when they recently announced it was coming to Chicago she was definitely getting tickets.
One problem.
The day tickets are going on sale she’s going to be somewhere on the Inca Trail so she asks me, “Can you get them for me pretty please???” And I agree to even though I don’t really want to because I know Ticketmaster is going to be slammed by a gazillion people all trying to buy tickets at the same time.
So my strategy is to do 80% of the work upfront.
First, I start looking into the theater by reading reviews on Tripadvisor and Yelp. And I’m learning that this is the worst theater in Chicago but the consensus seems to be the best seats are either the orchestra section or the first few rows of the mezzanine.
Okay, now prices. An orchestra seat is going to cost $500. And I can’t justify that so I decide to target the first row of the mezzanine.
The day? I know all the scalpers will be trying to buy Friday and Saturday night tickets so I pick a random Wednesday matinee show. Then I write all this down in my notebook so I don’t forget it (I use these).
When the tickets go on sale I pull up Ticketmaster a few minutes before and navigate over to the sales page for the specific matinee show I targeted. Then I watch their countdown clock.
0:03
0:02
0:01
0:00
The page refreshes and of course some random error comes up. Hmm. I hit refresh and get another, weirder error. Really, Ticketmaster?
I hit refresh again and the seat map comes up and every single seat in the mezzanine is wide open. So I add the two best tickets to my cart (front row center) and check out.
Later, I was reading that thousands of people wasted hours of their life trying to buy tickets. Maybe I just got lucky. Or maybe I did 80% of the work upfront and when the time came all I had to do was execute.
That reminded me of how you can get a raise. When you do 80% of the work upfront you make it really easy for your manager to give you one.
Before we get into it, I want to tell you I learned this the hard way. It was only after I was rejected and spent months studying tactics from people like Penelope Trunk and Ramit Sethi did I become successful.
(And if you want to go deep on this topic read Robert Cialdini’s excellent book Influence.)
1. Define 3-5 metrics
A few years ago I decided to ask my manager for a raise. And I was stressed out because what if they said no? Or thought I was being greedy? Or fired me for asking? We were wrapping up my annual review.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, one more thing. I think I deserve a raise.”
“Why?”
“Well, you know, my review was good, and I think I work really hard, and blah blah blah…”
“There’s no money right now. The budget is tight, the economy is bad, and you’re in the middle of the range for this position.”
“Okay.”
Because I was rejected I was mad at my manager instead of being mad at myself for not knowing what the hell I was doing. So here’s what you do instead.
Set up a special meeting with your manager six months before you even bring up a raise. You want to leave the meeting with two things: First, their definition of a top performer, and second, the 3-5 metrics that make you one.
You can use this script to kick off the meeting.
“I love working here, and I really want to be a top performer. Can you tell me what I need to do to become one, both in responsibility and compensation?”
They’ll probably tell you manager-y things like you need to be a leader, increase your sales, take on more responsibility, get more clients, and so on. You don’t want that because you want things you can measure.
“That’s really helpful. But I want to make sure I’m working towards those things. Can you help me quantify 3-5 of them?”
And it’s your responsibility to work with them until you nail down 3-5 metrics. Here are some examples of this.
- Increase sales by 10%
- Take ownership of 1 additional project per month
- Get 5 additional clients
- And so on…
2. Deliver on the metrics
Now that you have your metrics you have to do the work. So every Monday morning ask yourself, “What are the 3-5 tasks I’m going to accomplish this week that will help me deliver on those metrics?” Write them down and do them (I used a sheet of paper).
Provide updates to your manager on your progress. If you meet with them regularly you can do this face-to-face, or you can send them an email every Friday afternoon with what you accomplished that week.
The point of this is to show them your work. To tell them what you’re accomplishing and what you’re planning to do next.
3. Get the raise you deserve
Okay. It’s 6 months later and you’ve been communicating your progress and you’ve delivered on your metrics. Now it’s time to set up another special meeting.
You can open the meeting with this script.
“I’m really excited to talk to you today because six months ago we had a discussion about me becoming a top performer, and changing responsibilities and compensation.”
Spend a few minutes talking about what you did in order to deliver on the metrics. And then tell them about a couple things you’re planning to do next.
“Here are two more things I’m planning on doing. First, …”
You do this because you’re showing them you’re going to keep adding value. And now it’s time to ask for a raise.
“I’d also like to discuss compensation. Based on my research (you can use PayScale or Salary.com), for someone in a similar position with similar experience, I should be paid $75,000.”
Then wait for them to respond, and they’ll either agree or push back. Here’s what you do if they push back.
“There’s no money right now. The budget is tight, the economy is bad, and you’re in the middle of the range for this position.”
“Yes, but falling in the middle of the range is for the average employee. Based on my performance over the last six months I’m not the average employee, and as you know I’m planning on continuing this performance.”
If you’ve done the work of becoming a top performer they’ll give you the raise. Even if all the reasons why they can’t are actually true. Why? Because an extra $5,000 or $10,000 is nothing to them when it means keeping a top performer rather than risk losing you.