How to Negotiate Your Salary and Benefits as a Pharmacist
Alex Barker talks about why pharmacists should negotiate their salary and benefits, benefits of negotiation, and two practical negotiation tips.
About Today’s Guest
Alex Barker helps pharmacists create fulfilling careers and lives. For a time, he was a burned-out clinical pharmacy specialist. Now, he is the Founder and Head Coach at TheHappyPharmD.com where, alongside his team, he creates classes to help over 750 pharmacists find and create new career paths. The Happy PharmD’s goal is to help 500 pharmacists transition into new jobs by January 1st, 2022.
He recently published the book Indispensable: The Prescription for a Fulfilling Pharmacy Career. When he’s not working with pharmacists, he spends time with his wife, Megan, and two lovely girls, Izzie and Addie.
Summary
Alex Barker, the Founder of The Happy PharmD, is back on the show discussing salary and benefits negotiation. He talks about why pharmacists should negotiate their salary and benefits, the benefits of negotiation, and two specific tips that you can use when having those difficult conversations with your supervisor. Alex also shares some insight from his e-book, “A Pharmacist’s Guide to Salary and Benefit Negotiation.”
Through the discussion, Alex breaks down the four benefits of negotiating. Your salary determines your future. Your salary can control, to some extent, when you retire. Your benefits depend on negotiation. Lastly, your salary now affects salary negotiations at future jobs.
Alex walks through some of the eight steps for negotiating salary and benefits listed in the guide. Pharmacists should do their research and document it. Research salary and benefits internally, externally, regionally, and for specific skills. Alex also suggests that pharmacists discuss compensation after the offer is made, and once you receive the offer, you do not have to act right away. Alex shares a typical response for negotiating a higher salary. In his example, the candidate expresses thanks to the hiring manager for the offer then takes some time to reflect. With some time to evaluate, you will be better able to discuss salary and benefits that you feel you are worth, based on your experience and the value that you add to the company.
In closing, Tim Ulbrich shares two real-life examples from the YFP Facebook Group, and Alex provides his advice and guidance for each.
Mentioned on the Show
- YFP Planning: Financial Planning for Pharmacists
- Book a free Discovery Call with YFP Planning
- Get Your Free Copy of A Pharmacist’s Guide to Salary and Benefit Negotiation by Email: [email protected]
- YFP 205: Current State of the Pharmacy Job Market
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Pharmacists
- Join the YFP Facebook Group
- The Happy PharmD
- Glassdoor
- Indeed
- Mercer Salary Surveys & Pay Data
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss
- YFP 166: Why Negotiation is an Important Part of Your Financial Plan
Episode Transcript
Tim Ulbrich: Alex, welcome back to the show.
Alex Barker: Tim, it’s always a joy being with you, buddy. Thanks for having me again.
Tim Ulbrich: Absolutely. Glad to have you back as this time, we’re going to dig into salary, negotiation, as well as other things to negotiate beyond salary. But this is a good segue from our last conversation on Episode 205, not that long ago, where we talked about the pharmacy job market and considering the current state of the market, which we’ve talked about before, Alex, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a decrease of about 10,000 pharmacist positions between 2019-2029. Some folks may hear that data point, may have listened to our previous conversation and be thinking, negotiation? What negotiation? Is that even possible? So let’s start there, Alex. Why should someone listening, you know, resist the urge to throw their hands up and say, ‘Not worth trying,’ right, considering the supply and demand changes that we’ve been seeing over the last several years. Is this even a relevant topic?
Alex Barker: I think it is. We put a post the other — a few months ago now on LinkedIn asking, ‘Do you feel comfortable negotiating your role, salary, or benefits?’ And obviously it was just geared at pharmacists. Vast majority of people said, ‘Absolutely not. No way.’ And I don’t think I blame them. You know, I’m actually working on as of this recording, we’re working on our Quarter 2 job market report. And things have kind of taken a downward turn, and I think it’s because of the COVID pandemic kind of wrapping up the hiring sequence as I think we all were predicting. And I think the tone of the market, particularly with newer grads and students is, ‘I’ll just take anything. Please just give me anything.’ And you know, you’ve been at a couple of universities, you’ve taught at different places. I don’t believe salary negotiation is taught.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s correct.
Alex Barker: Yeah. And there’s also this mindset of a residency is a major career pathway. And that role is non-negotiable in most cases. Most people I think enter the market now with this expectation of the market’s tough, so I’m just going to take whatever I can get. And whatever it is, I’m going to be happy because I’ll be able to pay off my loans, I’ll not be indebted, I don’t have to claim bankruptcy, you know, whatever the worst possible case scenario people go through in their minds. Why is negotiating important? It’s because you have value. And the pharmacy market is — yes, it’s in flux. But you have a doctorate or the equivalent of a doctorate for those BS pharms listening. And you are going to provide a lot of value to a company when you are offered a job. And you should be able to negotiate for the things that you want. And recognize as well that this is a long-term game. This is not, ‘I need to demand for the things that I want.’ Having this discussion in the beginning when you’re offered a position is laying the seeds for the things that you want for your career in the future.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s right. That’s right. Alex, I think that’s spot-on, right? You’re laying the seeds for what lies ahead, you’re initiating some of this conversation, the expectations. And we’re going to talk about other reasons and benefits to negotiation. Alex, I remember — I’m going to date myself a little bit here but 2008, graduated from pharmacy school, took a residency position, which as you mentioned, was non-negotiable, for a whopping $31,000. And thankfully, salaries have come up a little bit since then in residency, although not a whole lot. And then took that first position for an even $100,000. And it’s interesting, you know, here, we’re talking about 2021. You mentioned the Q2 report coming out here soon, which is showing that continued trend. Well, this was a different market in 2009. And I did have leverage to negotiate. But I didn’t know that. I wasn’t comfortable with that. I didn’t have the school, I didn’t have the skills, I didn’t have the tools, I didn’t have the mentorship, right? And I was excited. It was the first offer. The answer is yes. But as we’ll talk about here in a moment, remember, this is the starting point. And this is so important. It’s not just about the dollars. It could be benefits, it could be some of the confidence, the self-worth, the positioning, the value that you’re bringing to the organization. So some of these I think are very tangible monetary benefits and some of them may not be tangible monetary but very important, in some cases more important. Alex, you mentioned the LinkedIn post, right, and the answer was, ‘No, like I’m not comfortable.’ And I think this topic is one that folks either say, ‘You know what, I’m not comfortable.’ Maybe it makes folks a little bit uneasy. Maybe they squirm when they think about that conversation with their supervisor. It could be awkward, it could be overwhelming. Why is that the case? Is this unique to pharmacy? Or is this just something overall? Like we’re not comfortable, fear of rejection, lack of self-confidence, like what’s the why behind that?
Alex Barker: All of the above, I think. In pharmacy in particular, if you were to do an analysis of our personality as a profession, we would be the people that like avoiding conflict. We would like to be the people who everyone’s on the same team, we’re all working together towards the same goal. And so conflict is not something we’re typically taught in our education, conflict resolution, conflict management. But by and large, I think in most western societies, honestly, our value is placed on a dollar amount. And getting told that you make a certain amount is a reflection of self-worth and to change that, to think about negotiating for that self-worth when you may not feel like you are worth that, is a problem. So if you don’t feel confident in your ability to do that, then you’re probably not going to take actions towards that end. In fact, there’s quite a bit of growing research on this concept called professional identity in pharmacy in that pharmacists have a weak professional identity, which essentially means that we don’t tie ourselves strongly to the identity of a pharmacist. This has all sorts of consequences for our profession. One of the main ones — don’t want to deviate too much on this — but is the fact that our role is changing. You know, pharmacy, we’re trying to change our perception of who we are and what we do. And unfortunately, this just creates confusion for us as pharmacists. What do we do? What is our value? Are we just dispensing automatons? Or are we prescribers? We don’t know. And because we don’t know, that creates a lack of confidence in what we do. And that lack of confidence translates into, again, what we kind of talked about earlier, we’ll just take whatever we can get. I can relate to your story, by the way. I did the same exact thing. I remember the phone call. I was working a clinic, they gave me the call, and they said, “We’d like to offer you the position.” “Oh! Well, OK. Great.”
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Alex Barker: Yeah, tell me more. “Well, it’s $115,000 a year.” And dead silence on my end. “Oh, yeah. Of course.” You know? I’ll take three times my salary. OK, what’s next?
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah.
Alex Barker: It’s so foolish, but if you’re not informed, if you’re not trained to kind of handle that situation, why wouldn’t you take that?
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and I think, you know, one of the thoughts that comes to mind, Alex, as you were just talking about — of course we’re overgeneralizing — but when we talk about some of the personality of a pharmacist or folks that may not be comfortable negotiating, I would have put myself in that bucket, especially early in my career. I think we need to be careful that we’re not pursuing an outcome of avoiding conflict or avoiding an uncomfortable conversation because while that may feel OK in the moment that you don’t have to be in that uncomfortable conversation, if it leads to resentment down the road or you feel like you’re undervalued, that can have significant ramifications, right? We’re not just talking anymore about dollars and am I making a fair market value? But do I feel valued as a part of this organization and do I feel like I’m advocating for myself? I think that’s a part of negotiation that often gets overlooked for a variety of reasons of which we probably all individually struggle with for different reasons of which is a different discussion but I think is important that we really, honestly evaluate and reflect of why might we be avoiding this conversation? What’s behind that, right? Let’s peel back the layers of the onion a little bit to inquire further. Alex, so your guide, “A Pharmacist’s Guide to Salary and Benefit Negotiation,” and folks that are interested in receiving that guide, 29-page e-guide that you put together, great resource — we’re going to hit some of the high points here on this episode, certainly not go into the full details of that — folks can get a copy of that for free by sending an email to [email protected]. Again, that’s [email protected]. Let him know you listened to this episode, get a copy of that. One of the things you start out with, Alex, is four benefits of negotiating. I think some of these are obvious but some maybe not as obvious. And we’ve alluded to a couple of these. But talk to us about what are these benefits of negotiating, laying the groundwork for why we think this is important before we get into the strategy.
Alex Barker: Yeah. You’re going to love them because you’re Mr. Money Man. So your salary, it determines future raises. Right?
Tim Ulbrich: Yep.
Alex Barker: If you start off at $100,000 versus $110,000, every raise you get thereafter will be more if you are at $110,000. This is obvious. But over time —
Tim Ulbrich: Compound effects.
Alex Barker: Exactly.
Tim Ulbrich: Compound effect of that.
Alex Barker: Yeah. It’s huge. You know, I remember starting that job at $115,000. And I think the year before I quit, it rose to $127,000. Now I worked at a very bureaucratic, very rule-driven, union-driven organization. So this may not be as negotiable in terms of salary as other organizations. But whatever you start with often determines the future. So if you’re thinking about a career transition, if it’s your first job, you need to understand you have to negotiate — you should negotiate because it’s going to determine what you get paid in the future. Depending on whatever strategy you take, the next reason is that your salary often determines when you retire. You know, I know you’ve talked about different retirement strategies on your podcast a lot. I’m in your community on Facebook and I see a few people wanting to follow the FIRE movement. So this may not be relevant, depending on how I guess driven you are to retire early versus later. But obviously a higher salary, if you decide early on in your career to save the majority of that, can help you retire earlier if you choose to. And one of the things that I think most people look at — because when you think about I guess like the salary aspect of pharmacy, there’s a lot of hullabaloo about it. I polled 500 people on LinkedIn, and over 76% I think said that they think salaries are decreasing. Now the data is actually contrary to that. The data actually suggests there’s a very small increase, if not over time flattening, of our salary. But the rumors obviously are more popular than data. A lot of people focus on it, but benefits matter too. If you don’t negotiate for those benefits, you could be missing out on some really just life-changing and lifestyle things. One of the best things I ever did during my pharmacist career working as a clinician was getting the change to the four-day work week.
Tim Ulbrich: I remember you doing that.
Alex Barker: Yeah, back when you and I both were working day jobs.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, I couldn’t believe you pulled that off, actually, because you know, within the organization — that’s challenging if there’s not precedent for it.
Alex Barker: Absolutely. Yeah, so just full disclosure, I used to work at the Veteran Affairs. I don’t represent them obviously now. Never did, really, before online. But I loved the three-day work week. And it just felt like even though the days were longer, yes, and I did miss out on quality time in the evening with my kids, that three-day weekend was just so perfect. It’s so wonderful. Negotiating for your benefits can just make a huge lifestyle difference. And I know for me personally, when I had that, it made me significantly happier about what I was doing at my day job. And then lastly, the main reason why you want to do this is that this job that you take, whatever it is, it will probably not be your last and final job. All trends right now point to people changing jobs more frequently than ever before.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s right.
Alex Barker: And whatever salary you end up taking at this next job likely will influence the next job salary that you take because you want to use that, whatever your previous salary was, as evidence for your value, the contributions you make at your company, and you can use that as fodder for your next salary negotiation.
Tim Ulbrich: And Alex, so good. So you talked about four different things there: your salary determines your future, your salary determines when you retire, your benefits can depend on it, and then it affects salary negotiations at future jobs. And you know, I’m not going to get out the nerdy investment calculator, but I’ve talked about on the show before just one really tangible example beyond what this means for the income that’s coming into your bank account after taxes and all that. You know, take a simple employer match on a retirement account, right? If you’re making $110,000 because you’ve gone through a negotiation or $120,000 instead of $100,000 or $105,000, whatever that difference would be, it may not seem large. But that additional match on that benefit, you know, is going to have a compound — significant compound effect over time. And that doesn’t even account for your point, which is a really good one, you know, if you’re going to be changing jobs, which likely you’re going to be doing many times throughout your career, often your current position is the jumping point for that next position. And you’ve got typically pretty good leverage there if that organization really wants you in that role. And I’ve got a really tangible example of this when I made the transition from Northeast Ohio Medical University to my faculty role to The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and overseeing the Master’s program in health systems pharmacy administration. At that time, I really was enjoying my role at NEOMed. I loved what I was doing. Interesting opportunity came up at Ohio State, love that institution, the people that work there. The opportunity was there, but there wasn’t really that pressing need to make that move. And you know, that’s probably one of the better strategies of negotiation is if there’s a recruitment that’s happening and you don’t necessarily have that need, obviously you’ve got some leverage. But using current position and salary obviously becomes — for me, it was and it becomes for many people — that jumping point to that new role. So it’s not just the first offer that you take that has the implications. For those that are listening, maybe they started a position five, six, seven years ago and have seen marginal increases in their salary that probably haven’t kept up with inflation, if they’re thinking ahead to that next jump, like it’s not just at the job offer. You can also negotiate while you’re along the way. And you should be having those conversations, right?
Alex Barker: Absolutely. You know, just on a quick point there, one of the reasons why I feel like a lot of people can’t negotiate or feel like they can’t is something you said previously. When they offer you the job, they want you. It means that they don’t want other people. They’ve made decisions collectively as an organization to give you the job, not someone else. This may not be true for every organization. You know, there may be some devious nature to some offers, which I know there are those kind of practices. But in general, major organizations in particular, when they give you that offer, when they say, “We want to offer you the position doing this and it’s for this much,” that means this is an offer to you, and this is where a lot of your practice negotiation strategy will come into play where you’re able to wrestle with that, hopefully it’s an offer that you love so there’s not a lot of conflict. But if you’re negotiating and what you’re asking for is reasonable, they’re going to work with you because they’ve already made the decision to commit to you. I have not heard horror stories nor actually does any research indicate that negotiation for the offer more often than not ends in the person’s offer being terminated. What happens actually more often is that offers are made to pharmacists and for whatever reason, budgetary restraints most commonly happen where the job is let through. It is not because of negotiations.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, I agree. And I’ve been on the other side of these conversations, Alex, in several instances. And even if, even if there’s not a huge gap in preference between candidate 1 and 2, what often happens is when that offer goes out, that organization starts to envision that person in that role and what they bring to the table, right? So they’re starting to affirm the strengths that person is bringing, the opportunities that they’re bringing, and they’re starting to see that person in that role. And there’s a risk to the organization — so if I’m offering you a position, Alex, I’m waiting for you to hear back and let’s say you try to negotiate. And if I’m the employer and I’m like, “No, no, no, we’re going to make an offer to the second person. Just we can’t budget-wise do it,” like unless that number is way out in left field, like there’s a risk I now lose both of my candidates as the employer end. So flip the script. I think this is sometimes where we’ve got a lot of self-confidence challenge and issues and obviously this is a very individualized, you know, assessment and hopefully where some good mentorship can provide value, what do you bring to the table, why are you unique for that position, how are you different from other candidates, but really great advice there. Alex, in the guide, I think it’s in Chapter 3, you start off by talking about mindset and the connection between mindset and negotiating. And you write that your strategy doesn’t just start at the negotiation table. It starts with your mindset right now. What do you mean by that?
Alex Barker: Well I think the quote that I put at the beginning of the chapter fits it perfectly. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. You know, a lot of people think the biggest struggle in the process of getting a new job is the application, the interview. And most people put the majority of their effort when looking for a new career in those things. And the idea of success, the idea of getting an offer and negotiations often doesn’t even come into play when making this consideration. And so in most cases from what we’ve learned from talking with thousands of pharmacists is they don’t even plan for this. There’s a lot of pessimism about our job market, there’s a lot of pretty negative analysis and posts about it, and so why would you plan for success? In their mind, I think. And if that’s the case, you know, whether you think you’re right or wrong, you’re probably right. I was thinking as you were talking about this guide, when I first made it, I did a ton of research. Not only did I help people increase their offers by thousands of dollars, but I spoke with negotiation experts. I interviewed them. I talked with hiring managers, executives, I talked to them about this issue, and I talked with them about what the best practices were, and I gathered up all this research and information. And I thought, this is really valuable, this guide. And I remember thinking, OK, well, I’m looking to see what other businesspeople are doing out there about negotiation courses, books. And I thought, I could sell this. I could legitimately sell it. And it did make a few sales but nothing near where what I had hoped. And I just learned that after talking with people and presenting this, people were like, why would I pay for this? I’m not going to be able to negotiate anything. So I was like, what? Like, there’s such a low level of mindset around this issue that people aren’t even believing that this is possible.
Tim Ulbrich: Yep.
Alex Barker: So now we just, hey, we just give it away for free because we have multiple reports of people using this guide, following the steps, and getting thousands of dollars more from the initial offer, which of course compounds over time. But this is why I feel like mindset is so important, it’s why I’m hoping that people kind of see the stories that we’ve posted online to social media and say, “OK, other people are doing it. Maybe it’s possible for me.”
Tim Ulbrich: Absolutely. And I think you do a nice job, Alex, in the resource, which is really valuable and I hope people will take a look at it, where you give some tangible strategies, eight steps to negotiate your salary and benefits. And we’re not going to talk through all eight of those. I want to hit just a few of them that I think folks can walk away with some very specific ideas and perhaps skills that they can take to those conversations that they’re going to have with their supervisors. So let’s walk through a few of these. First, Alex, is document your salary and benefit research. Tell us more about this one.
Alex Barker: Absolutely. So if you don’t know what’s going on in the salary world in pharmacy, you’ve got to get up. We’ve got a guide on our website, it’s very thorough. I recommend you check it out. But you should be doing your research in really three main areas. Internal research, meaning looking at what your company is paying people, what published information they have. External research, seeing what other companies are paying. Specific skill research, so if you have something specific to your career, residency, certification. Those are easy examples. You should understand what value that trans — how that translates into into the market. The reason why you want to document these things is because when negotiating, you want hard evidence, proof of the value of what you’re going to do for that company. Because you can’t just say in the negotiation, “We want to give you” — let’s say the hiring manager says, “We want to hire you as a clinical pharmacy specialist managing this HIV clinic. And we want to pay you $115,000.” You could just say, “Absolutely. Yes. I’ll take anything. Just give me the job.” Or what you could do is do your research. So look in the city and state and look to see what is the average pharmacist pay for that kind of job? There are of course information on our website, TheHappyPharmD.com, but there’s plenty of other resources as well like GlassDoor, Indeed, Mercer Job Salary Report.
Tim Ulbrich: Some state associations do some of this too. Not all.
Alex Barker: Absolutely.
Tim Ulbrich: Yep.
Alex Barker: Yeah. And with that, you’ll be able to tell easily like what is an average. What’s the median? What could you expect even before you are offered the position because it’s becoming less and less common now for job postings to say — particularly for professionals — what is the salary reach. You want to have that evidence so that when the offer comes, you’re able to gauge whether or not this is something that you would want. Also, if salary isn’t the thing for you, like let’s say $115,000 a year is an acceptable salary for what your life expectations are and let’s say that you know that on average, this position gets paid $120,000, well that’s $5,000 difference. You could negotiate for that. But you could also negotiate for other benefits. “Well, because I’m not getting what the average is, and the average is this, here’s what I would like to ask for in return.” This research is so critical because it can lay a solid foundation on what is true because the company cannot dispute these external resources.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s right.
Alex Barker: I mean, they can certainly say no. But they can’t dispute what evidence is collected.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, it’s not Alex’s made-up numbers, right? This is data. Yeah. I think too, Alex, the other thing I think about here is if I’m in a position let’s say I’m getting an offer for say $110,000 and I really think because of my research and because of x, y, and z, I really think that should be let’s say $118,000, right? And the answer is no. Now there’s some strategies for how you navigate that conversation and there’s very specific techniques that you talk about in the guide. “Never Split the Difference” is another great book that talks about some of those techniques where you’re really trying to get to that yes and it’s not just that initial no and how do you approach that. But let’s just say for the sake of this example the answer is no but you’re really interested in that position, you think it’s a good fit. I think one of the thoughts I have here is if I’m that candidate, my next follow-up is remember, we’re laying the foundation. You talked about that earlier. What can I do? Like what can I do over the next 6-12 months to get to $118,000, right? What are some of the goals that I can work towards? What are some of the opportunities? Because if I’m a hiring manager and I really like a candidate and they say, “What can I do to get to whatever that number is?” like that starts to really become the road map of the objectives for that individual and perhaps some even opportunities, depends on the organization of course, the company you work for, of what are some things that they might be able to do that either is or is not in their job description to be able to earn up to that income.
Alex Barker: Absolutely. Hopefully by that point, when the offer is given to you, you’ve asked the right questions in the interview to have a really good understanding of what the position is and where the company or the department, pharmacy department is going in particular. This is a great place for you to provide even more value during the negotiation process. One example that comes to mind was a client we worked with who was wanting to get into academia — no prior experience, no residency — and wanted to run a clinic, something that this person hadn’t done before. The offer came, and what was offered was a lot lower. And they based this on the idea that ‘Hey, you don’t have a residency, you’ve never done a position before.’ It was quite a pay cut for this person. So what this client did was brilliant. They knew that what this college was struggling with was getting new sites. This was a relatively newer school, and they were struggling with that aspect. And obviously, if you don’t have the number of rotations, you can’t get always accredited. It’s a huge problem. You can’t market your school as well, which is becoming increasingly important for colleges. So what this person was able to do was twofold. Because the offer came in, they were actually able to renegotiate their position to where they were doing more of the kind of work that this person enjoyed, which was doing more experiential education management and getting more involved in that department, talking with more people, getting more sites on board, with certain guarantees that they were able to negotiate for. And in turn, this meant less clinic time, which this person still loved. But she was a kind of pharmacist who enjoyed a large variety of tasks. So being able to negotiate in the moment, knowing the company’s priorities, being able to get more of what you want — and ultimately, she was able to negotiate a salary change as well — is a brilliant strategy. Don’t think that no means no.
Tim Ulbrich: Yep.
Alex Barker: In this case. In this case alone.
Tim Ulbrich: Alex, that too is a good example of like understand your environment. You know, I believe negotiation can apply to everyone, but understand your environment and where you may have more flexibility and leverage. So that example, an experiential education individual, there is not seven of those at a college, right? There’s typically a director of experiential education. So if I’m the department chair, I’m the dean, and I working with that person, I have some more flexibility of which is true just in that environment overall. But through things like administrative stipends, through how we split time, through other things that I’m not as concerned with like I’ve got 10 people that are in the same role and I have to have them all within this range, right? Because obviously that’s something that an employer might be thinking about. So I think understanding your environment — and I would even point to that position, that’s a really hard position to both recruit and retain. It’s one of the hardest positions to retain in a college of pharmacy is an experiential director because of the challenges and the stress that can come with it. So an experiential director is listening out there, like you’ve got leverage, right? Understand the leverage that you have. So good stuff. Alex, I want to fast forward to the offer. And again, there’s lots more in the guide. You go through eight specific strategies, but one you talk about is the offer moment, right? So this is what we’ve been waiting for, the offer is on the table, we can react to something. Talk to us about some negotiation tips after receiving an offer that folks can consider employing in their own situation.
Alex Barker: Practice, practice, practice. Practice with your spouse if you’ve got one, practice with your parents, practice with a friend. Role play the event. This is by far the best advice I can give you. It isn’t hard because most people have had a job. Most people have gone through this experience. While probably the majority of your friends and even parents are not managers and have actually done this, you can put yourself in that situation and script your response. You do not need to accept right away would be my first encouragement. You don’t need to say absolutely yes, no, or even negotiate in this moment. For me, I’m a very emotional person and so having — making decision in an emotional state often leads to not the greatest results. Hence, both probably your and my first job offer. Right? “Oh yeah, I’ll take it 3x my salary! Of course! That’s a great thing!” That was a great moment, but making that decision in that moment may not reflect really where you want to take your career. So be willing to say, “Thank you for the offer. I’m so happy to be able to have the opportunity to work with you. But I want to think about this, I want to talk with my spouse, I want to review my research and make an informed decision.” Having another call is not unexpected for people because everything they share with you about the offer — and by the way, get more than just the salary. Make sure that you understand the benefits package, make sure you understand the demands, make sure that you understand what their goals are for you in this role.
Tim Ulbrich: What you’re saying yes to, understand that.
Alex Barker: Absolutely. I think everyone has had an experience where they took on a job and didn’t realize everything that they were going to be asked to do. In fact, every time I talk about the offer with people, I often kind of get that response of, what happens when the unexpected happens? Like they tell me that I’m managing this now and I’m doing this and I’m doing this when that wasn’t a part of the offer. Well, that’s a whole other discussion. And my final recommendation to you is even when the offer is better than what you expected, still hold back your yes and ask yourself, what do I really want? Take that time before and during the offer to really consider is this everything that I want? Or is there something more can I get? Heck, even if it’s just $500 for an education fund. Something as simple as that can just make that much better and it also can create a better relationship with the team that you’re working with.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and I think sometimes, Alex, you know, it’s monetary. Sometimes it’s things that are maybe not in the form of salary but could be professional development-related. It could be carved out time to work on certain initiatives or projects, for some folks it could be an administrative role that are pretty easy to create from the employer side. So you know, those are often, again, you’re setting up future opportunities and leverage and then there’s other areas you can get into like maybe they can’t — because of how that position is classified, maybe there’s limitations on salary for that position, but if you have something else like an administrative position, you’ve opened up like stipends and other things that can be different ways that they classify income. So there’s certainly some strategy here to be thinking about. But great wisdom in that recommendation of take some time to think about it, right? And express the gratitude of the offer. Express, you know, some of the interests that you have in the position. But I think that pause is incredibly important, not only to give yourself space to think about it but again, flip the script, right Alex? So if I’m hiring and I’ve got Alex applying and I’m like, ‘I’m really excited about what Alex can do for this organization,’ I’ve got the offer out there, I’m starting to envision Alex in that role. When Alex says, “Hey, Tim, really excited about the position, the company, the direction what you guys are going. I’m grateful for the offer. I really need 48 hours to think this through and really evaluate how this fits in with my goals and talk this over with my wife, think about it for our family, like now I want you more, right? Now I want you more because you’ve created that space and you’re opening up the door for me to expect a follow-up conversation. And I would encourage folks, like in that follow-up conversation, if there are things that you are genuinely excited about as well as maybe some reservations, concerns, or questions, articulating some of that, giving the space for them to talk, is going to even further open up that door for some of the negotiation. And you talk in the guide, Alex, about some strategies that folks can read up to learn more about the use of silence and mirroring and active listening and again, this is something that you can read and I think apply in practice certainly so that you’re ready for that situation. And Tim Baker and I also talked about this on Episode 166, about why negotiation is an important part of the financial plan. And we talked through some of those strategies as well. So again, folks, check out the guide. We just hit a couple of the high points. You can get a copy of that guide by sending an email to [email protected]. Again, “A Pharmacist’s Guide to Salary and Benefit Negotiation.” Alex, I want to wrap up our time with a couple of comments that we had from the Facebook group, in the YFP Facebook group. And I said, “Hey, I’m going to be recording with Alex, upcoming episode on salary negotiation, give me your thoughts.” And two really that stood out to me, one that I want to get your reaction on based on everything we just talked through, what are you hearing as why that might have been a successful negotiation and then the second one is someone who’s got some questions around some difficulties that they’re having with the negotiation process. So you up for that?
Alex Barker: Hopefully my responses are adequate. Let’s go for it.
Tim Ulbrich: Alright, here’s the first one. And this comes from someone that put in the YFP Facebook group says, “I”m a recent graduate who is hesitant to negotiate, but I’ve been with the same company for 5+ years and knew I owed it to myself to at least counter once I got the job offer to move to full-time staff pharmacist. I was able to get $250 more per hour on top of the initial offer and build a great relationship with my boss to help reach my future goals as a pharmacist. Biggest things I learned throughout this process: No. 1, it’s not offensive to ask for more. Know your worth. No. 2, the company already likes you, so don’t freak out about taking back that offer. You’re now trying to reach an agreement that works for both parties. And No. 3, my biggest selling point was that I would be saving the company time on training for the day-to-day things since I was a pharmacy tech and intern, so not having to reorient, re-onboard somebody in that role.” What are your thoughts to that, Alex?
Alex Barker: Super smart kid. I shouldn’t say kid. But just that simple having that belief that they’re worth that value and demonstrating that through evidence earned this person $5,000 more a year. You know, I don’t know how much prep this person did, and I’m sure it was stressful, as most people think negotiations are. But that little bit of effort earned him $5,000 more dollars that he would not have made had he not made the effort. I love the angle of him deepening that relationship with his manager.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Alex Barker: That’s the thing. As you were talking before this example, I was actually just thinking that this kind of feels like dating all over again or like the phase before dating where you’re like, ‘Ooh, does she like me?’ You know, and your hands touch for the first time. You’re like, oh my gosh, electric jolts go up yourself and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is so, so awesome. But you don’t know if they like you. There’s definitely a misconception of yeah, they like you. They want you. And if you’re able to demonstrate with evidence, with proof, and with a strong agreement commitment to what you’re going to do for them, then they’re more than willing to likely give you what your value is.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah.
Alex Barker: And it would be great to teach that in pharmacy school. It would be great to say, “Here’s the value of what you bring. Here’s what — for example, one pharmacist, here’s what they’re able to produce economically for a business, hospital, community pharmacy, whatever,” so that you have an understanding of it isn’t like the company is just throwing money at you and not getting anything back, right?
Tim Ulbrich: Otherwise that wouldn’t make sense. The position wouldn’t be there.
Alex Barker: Right. And salaries wouldn’t be at where they’re at if a company wasn’t making money.
Tim Ulbrich: Yep.
Alex Barker: So $5,000 in the grand scheme of things to the company is not a lot of money to keep someone happy and retained because the cost of retention is higher than probably what you think.
Tim Ulbrich: I was just going to say that, Alex. For anyone who’s listening and has worked with an organization for a period of time and know that you’re an awesome employee and ambassador of the organization, go do some research on the cost of retention and I think that will give you a lot of confidence and feeling comfortable of why and employer wants to keep a valued and key employee. It is significant, not only in the cost of time of retraining but what that means for the culture of the organization, the time that’s spent, all of those things. And it can be underestimated, as you mentioned. Alright, next one I have here is a little bit of a hey, help me out here, what should I do? So this comes, again, from the YFP Facebook group. It says, “I don’t negotiate for salary and benefits because my employer doesn’t really discuss compensation at all.”
Alex Barker: Yikes.
Tim Ulbrich: “There have been two times that I have asked for a raise because I had taken on more responsibilities, so someone else who had left, grew metsync, implement of vaccinations, other clinical services, started diabetes prevention program, etc., etc. Both times, the boss essentially said, ‘I’ll look into it.’” And goes on to share another example where boss was paying a company to do something that she had been working on and so asked, “Hey, what can I do to earn that money instead of us using that money to hire somebody externally?” That ended up of her getting some raise, not the full amount, and so the question here is how can one more effectively negotiate with someone who really doesn’t seem interested in wanting to have that conversation?
Alex Barker: Yuck. It sounds like this kind of manager is the person who sweeps problems under the rug and doesn’t want to handle conflict themselves. So that is definitely an uphill battle. I do — I sympathize with you. But here, I would say at the core of all of this, is actually a word that Tim, you used earlier: agreement. Employee is an at-will agreement between yourself and the company. You are not forced to work that job. You have the right, the choice, to make that decision. And agreements change over time. They have to because the market changes, demands change, and clearly, you — I’m assuming everything you’re saying here is true and obviously we only have one side of this story — but I’m assuming that you’ve been providing consistent value over time and you’ve had two attempts without success. So my old ID mentor used to tell me, “Two points don’t make a trend, but three do.” I think a third conversation is warranted. And I think you need to say with great certainty what your value is, what you’ve produced for the company, and what your expectations are moving forward, letting them know what you’re willing to decide if a decision isn’t made. You know, the whole ‘Let me think about it,’ or ‘Let me work on it,’ response kind of — it reminds me of my children asking me to play with them throughout the day as I work from home, you know? Like, “Dad, we want to play! Let’s play! Let’s play!” “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll do it later. We’ll do it later.”
Tim Ulbrich: “We will. We will.” Yeah.
Alex Barker: And it pacifies them knowing that I’ll eventually get to it. And I do. At the end of the day, I do. I fulfill on my promise. I play with them. This person hasn’t fulfilled. And they’ve done that now twice. That’s evidence for you. Now, you need to be willing to come to a decision about what it is that you’re going to be doing should they not give you a raise. And this is hard because, you know, one of those decisions obviously is ‘I’m not going to work for you,’ or ‘I’m going to work less,’ or ‘I’m going to look for a new position.’ And you’re well within your rights to negotiate for that. There is nothing forcing you to continue working for this company. And you can point out very clearly that they have not fulfilled the request that you made previously for negotiating your salary. Hold yourself to that high standard and elevate them along with you. You know, this shouldn’t be a us v. them, right, kind of battle. It should be about hey, you’re on my side. And this is what’s happened. Here’s the value of what I think I’m worth. And how can we move forward? Before you start suggesting or demanding what your actions are, try to understand what the limitations are. Maybe they did look into it and they ran into a roadblock and they’re too afraid to tell you of what that roadblock is.
Tim Ulbrich: Yep. Yeah, and I think the lack of communication here probably — you know, we don’t know the full story — but probably can lead to resentment, just like it does in any relationship.
Alex Barker: Oh, sure.
Tim Ulbrich: Right? So I think, you know, even if the outcome isn’t desired, I think the conversation can be really valuable. This also feels — and Alex, I might be wrong — but as I look at this question again, this feels like maybe an independent environment when somebody talks about what they’ve done to grow programs, some MedSync, diabetes prevention, stepping in for another pharmacist. So back to my comment earlier about leverage, if I’m an independent owner and I have a key employee of which probably not only developed these programs but probably of which these programs depend upon to run and maybe the owner doesn’t even necessarily know how to continue them and they’ve had a good impact on the pharmacy for both patient care and bottom line, like understand the leverage, you know, that you have in this situation, not to abuse that but to understand what you have as you’re coming into the conversation to really show and communicate the value. Alex, great stuff, as always. Appreciate having you on the show again. I look forward to these episodes that we do every so often. And this one certainly didn’t disappoint for me. So thank you so much for taking the time. And again, to the listeners, make sure you get a free copy of “A Pharmacist’s Guide to Salary and Benefit Negotiation.” And you can get that by sending an email to [email protected]. Alex, thanks again.
Alex Barker: Thanks for having me.
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