The Biggest Mistake Most Women Make in Negotiation
I have helped many people negotiate for higher salaries, better parental leave, more equity, a severance, signing bonuses, and more. The point, is everything is negotiable.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen women make? Not asking.
If you remember only one thing from this post, remember this:
Most women don’t ask for what they want for fear of retaliation or rejection.
As an example, a friend’s daughter’s recently received a job offer and it was a lowball offer in my opinion, and lower than what she was previously making. I told her she should go back and ask for more. She was so nervous. I helped her write the email and I told her - “the worst they can say is no, but they are not going to rescind the job offer on a counter.”
MOST, if not all companies, expect you to counter when they give you an initial offer.
I think she bit off every finger nail once she hit send on her email, agonizing over if she just blew the offer.
The next day they wrote her back and told her they couldn’t budge on the salary but reinforced how impressed they were she pushed back as this showed she had initiative and huge potential (it was a sales role). They did not rescind the offer.
Should you negotiate more salary or equity?
Everyone wants to feel like they are a winner in a negotiation.
But first, you have to stop underselling your value.
They want you.
They made you the offer.
You want to be happy working there.
They want you to be happy working there.
The key is to know your worth and what the market is paying for the role at their particular stage company. (keep reading for the salary and equity bands)
EQUITY
When it comes to equity, you want the standard.
Most companies have a range for equity based on seniority of the role at the stage the company is in (this is called the equity band). Ask what the range is other’s have received.
Equity can come in the form of: Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) most common, Non-qualified Stock Options (NSOs), Restricted Stock, Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), Common Stock, and Preferred Stock. Each has different tax implications. I encourage you to read up on them before negotiating.
Generally speaking, in most cases employees are offered Incentive Stock Options (ISOs). If you choose to negotiate a higher equity band in lieu of a lower salary, just note you have to be there four years for your equity to fully vest (you’ll still vest some); AND if you should leave prior to the four year term, you have to buy those vested shares with cash out of your own bank account.
Second, unless it’s already a publicly traded company, you should treat equity as upside, as if it is going to be worth $0 in the end. Most startups fail and sad to say, but you most likely will not be there four years. In the tech sector the average tenure is shorter at around 2-3 years (source LinkedIn)
Obviously, your number of years experience matter and the company’s revenue range is also taken into account, but this chart below is a good rule of thumb to follow for VC backed startups when it comes to equity.
SALARY
When it comes to salary, it’s important to know what the going rate is in your industry for that stage company. A company will always try to lowball you on salary and equity and use them both as leverage to negotiate with you.
Global Marketing salaries (image source: from AboveBoard). ⬇️
For ‘GM/Head of’ the base is $225,000, which represents 88% of OTE). For VP, the base is $260,000 (which represents 79% of OTE). For CMO the base is $300,000 (which represents 75% of OTE). (OTE = on target earnings, basically your full earning potential).
BONUSES
Bonuses in Series A through Series D should be expected in the following ranges:
VPM: 10%-30% of your base salary
CMO: 30%-40% of your base salary
You can also negotiate for a sign-on bonus as a way of getting extra cash in that first year
Negotiating is not just limited to getting hired
You can negotiate when you’re getting a promotion and also when you are getting fired. You can also negotiate if there are layoffs and you are given more responsibilities. So many places to negotiate.
PROMOTION
When you get a promotion it is the perfect time to not only negotiate your new title, but also anything else. For example, if you are promoted to a VP or CMO you can negotiate a severance (3 month would be standard, but you want 6 or 9 months given the average time it takes to get placed as a VP or CMO currently is 11.5 months.)
In marketing, you want the same title as your counterpart in sales. Otherwise it shows preference of which department is more important. So if there is an SVP of Sales, you want to be the SVP of Marketing. (I’ve skipped levels my entire career, anyone who tells you differently is lying to you).
TERMINATION
Whether you are part of a RIF/layoff or termed, you can always negotiate. No one wants a lawsuit. I once worked with a CHRO who had a 100% track record of employees signing mutual separation agreements — meaning you can’t sue them ever.
HR’s job is to protect the company, not you.
Believe it or not, you can negotiate even during a termination if you fall into a protected class. (female, bipoc, over the age of 40, veteran, disability, pregnant, just came back from maternity leave, etc.)
So for white men under 40, unfortunately, you are shit out of luck. But for the rest of the population in the U.S., the system works mostly in your favor in most states.
ACQUISITION
You cannot always negotiate during an acquisition. If the acquisition is by a PE firm and you are the acquiree, you’re screwed. If it’s a hostile takeover, you’re also screwed. But if it is a regular acquisition, you may have leverage to negotiate to keep your job, a severance, a different role, a buy out.
What’s negotiable? Everything.
You can negotiate for anything.
Literally, anything and everything is negotiable.You have decide what is important to you in the moment. It’s different for everyone.
Sometimes it is cash, and that can take the form of salary, signing bonus, merit bonuses, or equity.
Other times it’s title, number of weeks of vacation, parental leave, mandatory severance, the amount of time you’ll be evaluated in order to be promoted, the amount of time you have to exercise your equity once you leave, or how you’ll work hybrid.
Remember: No one is going to give it to you if you don’t ask for it.
Summary
There is always room for negotiating. Don’t settle for less. Know your worth and ask for what you want, the worst that can happen is someone says no. 💟