One of the most important components of achieving long-term financial well-being is increasing your income. In most instances, this will come in the form of raises to your salary. As you gain more experience and rise up the ranks, you’ll receive compensation adjustments.

But, do you know exactly how to get a raise?

In this article, we’ll discuss how to craft a compelling ASK which you can use to maximize your salary increase. This past year I used these techniques to increase my base salary by 10%!

Look at your work situation objectively

To start the process, you’ll first need to sit down and objectively look at your work situation. Have you been over-delivering on your project requirements? Have you been showcasing your leadership ability?

Sit down and write a list of 5-10 things that you’ve done to add significant value to your organization. If you can’t come up with at least a few things that you’ve done to add value, you may not be ready to ask for a raise.

If this is the case, don’t be discouraged. Use the situation as a motivator to improve yourself. Reach out to your boss and ask for feedback on what you can do to improve. Once you determine your areas for improvement, begin working towards your action items. Once you come up with 5 -10 talking points, it’s time to begin crafting your compelling ASK.

Crafting your ASK

You’ve done all the hard work of delivering results, now it’s time to talk about them. When developing your ASK, it’s important to determine how much of a raise you’d like.

Do you want a 5% raise? A 10% raise?

Be sure to research what an average raise for your position looks like and determine how much you deserve based on your performance. You’ll need to be prepared to justify this amount to your employer when you’re at the negotiation table.

Next, you’ll want to begin structuring your ASK appropriately. Start by thanking your boss for his/her time and express your appreciation for the opportunity to be a part of a great organization. This will help diffuse the situation and give you an extra positive boost when you begin your negotiation.

Next, you’ll want to highlight the 5-10 items on your list that have added value to the organization. It’s extremely important that you express the VALUE you’ve provided because, in the end, that’s what your employer cares about. Use metrics and other supporting data to solidify your case.

Once you’ve explained your positive results, close out by asking your employer for your determined percentage raise. Below, I’ve given an example of what a good ASK would look like:

“Over the past 6 months, my team and I have successfully delivered on project x & y, increasing revenue by $100,000 as well as reducing customer service average wait time by 3 minutes. I plan to continue to set the bar high for myself and my team so that we can continue delivering more results like these to the organization. As a result, I feel that my compensation should be adjusted by x% to reflect my performance”.

Practice your ASK in front of people to get comfortable delivering your request. This will most likely feel awkward at first, but practice can help you gain the confidence you’ll need to deliver. Now that you’ve crafted and practiced your compelling ASK, it’s time to set up a review meeting with your employer.

The Negotiation

Now that you’ve crafted a compelling ASK and practiced delivering it, it’s time to begin your negotiation. Reach out to your employer and request a time to speak with him/her. If you already have a pre-set evaluation meeting, mark it in your calendar.

On the day of the negotiation, show up dressed to impress and ready to kick some butt. When your meeting time finally arrives, thank your employer for meeting with you and sit down to begin your discussion. During the discussion, remember to highlight the VALUE that you’ve created for the organization and focus on the key metrics that you’ve delivered. Once you’ve given your pitch, ASK your employer for your desired raise.

From there, your boss will either accept or reject your proposal. If he/she accepts your proposal, congratulations! You worked hard and deserve every penny of your raise. If your boss rejects your proposal, ask if you could substitute some of your proposed extra yearly compensation with other forms of compensation, such as year-end bonuses, stock options or more vacation time.

Many employers are more lenient with this form of compensation and it may be a great option for you. If your boss still rejects the proposal, ask them if there is anything else you need to do to be considered for a raise in the future. When your boss provides you with feedback, take that feedback and implement it into your plan of attack right away. Once you’ve completed the desired items outlined in your discussion, re-engage the raise conversation.

Bringing it all together

As a high performer and excellent contributor to your organization, you deserve to be compensated fairly for your contributions. Preparing for this important interaction with your employer will not only help you achieve better results in the present, but it can also have a massive impact on your long-term financial well-being.

See Also: How Social Niceties Can Ruin Your Chances Of Getting A Promotion At Work

Pro-tip: Book Recommendation

A good book to read in this scenario is “The Greatest Salesmen in the World” by Og Mandino. Mr. Mandino delivers key selling success strategies through a parable set in ancient Babylon.

I found the timeless lessons he discussed in this book extremely compelling and I enjoyed the story he illustrated to frame these lessons. Learning the soft skills taught in this classic book will surely be of benefit to you in many life and work situations.

Do you have any stories or experiences of asking for a raise? Do you have any beneficial tips or strategies that you’ve utilized in a wage negotiation? I’d love to hear from you.

The post 3 Steps to Getting That BIG Raise at Work appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Whether you’re a solopreneur or a small business owner, if you have an existing email list, you have an amazing opportunity to generate instant business for yourself. The key to a “flood of phone calls email” is having something catchy and compelling that your audience can resonate with.

In this piece, I want to share with you what we did to generate over 35 inbound calls in a matter of 30 minutes- and the calls are still coming in a week later. In case you’re wondering, we’re a law firm that services consumers.

For your mail, it’s important to structure it in a specific way that will engage your audience. This way, they will be more likely to call you by the time they finish reading your email.

These 6 steps will teach you the right email marketing strategy that can give you more calls than you can handle! I hope you’re ready!

Identify your seed keywords

Before starting your writing process, I recommend that you choose a specific keyword that you want to focus on in your email. We knew that we had to send an email out, so the first thing we did was perform keyword research using the Google Keyword Planner Tool. After that, we chose the top 10 keywords that had search volume. We also looked at the “cost per click” as that indicates whether or not people were interested in the keyword.

When you’re looking at a CPC in the keyword planner tool, it primarily notes the cost for an advertiser when a visitor clicks on the advertisement in Google Adwords. The reason this is important is that if an advertiser is spending ANY amount on a keyword, that would mean the keyword is of value to that advertiser and assumes an audience is interacting with that keyword. That audience is willing to and has the intention to look deeper into the keyword.

Do a google “News” search

A great place to look for a newsworthy event to include in your email is on Google News. There are many news articles that you can choose from and write about in your email. As you perform your search, I recommend you look for a SINGLE event to piggyback off of.

In marketing, it’s also known as “drafting”. The event you choose should be interesting and related to what you’re writing about. The more interesting and relevant, the stronger your email will be.

Also, always avoid using old news. If the news you choose to use is not recent, your audience won’t think that it relates to them. If they don’t think the news is relevant, they might think your emails are not applicable to them. I keep my emails fresh to keep my audience engaged.

See Also: 5 Unconventional Google Search Tips for Power Searching

Choose a newsworthy piece with a recognizable brand name

When you’re browsing in google news, you’ll want to look out for events with a recognizable brand name. The bigger the brand name, the more trust the readers will have in the email. In one of our emails, we used a news article about Wells Fargo.

While there were other news articles with smaller brand names, it wouldn’t have been as strong if we used a bigger name. Prior to sending the massive-flood-of-phone-calls-email, we followed the same process 3 weeks prior, sent a similar email and received phone calls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as many as the big brand name email. When we sent out the email about Wells Fargo, we started receiving calls almost instantly.

Write your email with quick spurts and highlights

Emails should not take a long time to read. Your audience wants to read about juicy content and not some wordy lines that are boring. Readers will skip any email that doesn’t sound interesting to them. Focus on the highlights of the news you want to share. Basically, write an abbreviated or synopsis version of the news to avoid weakening the rest of your email.

We broke up our email into 4 sections.

Section 1 is a summation of the bigger issue.
Section 2 is a summation of the news we found.
Section 3 is a short brief on the specifics and how it relates to the audience.
Section 4 is our call to action.

And that was it!

No complicated or overly verbose vocabulary gymnastics. Just short punchy summaries and a very, VERY clear call to action.

See Also: 5 Awesome Tips to Writing Emails That Won’t Be Ignored

Write a strong subject headline to ensure a high click through

While a strong content is important, having a strong subject headline is even more important to bring your audience in. It won’t matter how well-written the email is if the audience doesn’t click on your email.

Think of it this way.Which email would you be more likely to click?

“You can increase your revenue by following these steps.” or “5 Ways That Will Double Your Revenue in 5 Days!”

Originally, our subject headline was something to the effect of:

“Violations to your privacy from unwanted phone calls”

But, after we edited the email, we went back and rewrote the subject headline to be more recognizable and to draft behind a big brand name.

“Wells Fargo settled at $14.8 million…”

I’m glad we made that change

Write a clear call to action and Hit Send

Now you’ve reeled them in with a strong subject headline, quick highlights of your news piece and focus keywords that people are interested in. All you need to do is make your call to action a strong and clear statement.

In our call to action, we restated the problem and the solution that our customers are looking for. We knew the readers were looking for ways to stop getting robocalls (the problem) and we restated how we could make that happen (the solution).

When we started using these steps, more people called in. It’s as simple as that.

Now go forth with this email marketing strategy and conquer your email list! May the inbox be with you!

The post 6 Steps To Get A Flood of Phone Calls With One Email appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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