Female Sales Manager takes stock of her options, publicizes her needs and the result leaves her speechless
Liz, a 37 y.o. single female presented to my office because she was feeling frustrated in her professional life. As the sales manager of a medical device company, Liz had been an integral player in bringing her company public. Despite Liz’s contributions to her firm she had not been sufficiently compensated and was feeling undervalued, underappreciated and “pissed off.” Liz had not received a pay raise since she started with the company though did receive a commission based on sales. We reviewed Liz’s options and identified the following strategy:
To gain leverage in her salary negotiation, she decided to interview at some of her company’s competitors and was coached to inform potential new employers that she was considering a change because her sales department had been transformed and she was looking for another challenge.
Liz prepared by doing mock interviews with me during which she was peppered with behavioral interview questions such as tell me about an employee who was underperforming and how you handled him or her, was prepared to communicate the results of her sales team and completed due diligence about the competition’s performance in the marketplace which included viewing quarterly and annual reports.
She made it clear to her boss that she was interviewing at other companies to establish her worth in the marketplace.
Liz reviewed her contributions to the company, e.g., increasing revenue by 500% over the last 5 years and hiring 4 major producers.
Requested a significant pay raise to bring her salary on par with sales managers in her industry.
Liz asked for a significant bonus to not only compensate for not getting a raise since starting with the company and as an alternative to stock options which were only being dispersed to employees in the C suite.
The result of Liz’s hard work netted her two job offers with a 25% increase above her current salary, a commission package that matched current employer’s incentive package and bonus based on sales. When Liz approached her boss with this powerful leverage, her boss in consultation with the CEO, agreed to provide Liz a $250,000 bonus for the 5 previous years, along with the 25% salary increase, same commission package and the option of stocks options which would include a confidentiality clause or $50,000 signing boss and $50,000 annual bonus going forward for meeting sales goals. Liz accepted her employer’s offer with the life changing stock options that she was happy to keep quiet.