Promote yourself! Here are 3 steps for successfully promoting yourself in a negotiation. We all want to believe that everyone knows how hard we work, how many hours we’ve put in, and how great that last project was. The truth is, many do not know all of your accomplishments and the extent of your achievements. I know, our boss has to know, they’re the boss, that’s their job, right? Wrong! You have to promote yourself if you want those around you to know your accomplishments!
You need to promote yourself whether it’s to your boss at your performance review, a potential employer in an interview, or selling to a new client. Promote how amazing you are! As much as we wish it could, our work doesn’t speak for itself – we have to speak up about it! The resume doesn’t say it all, we have to create the narrative. Even though we wish and hope our boss knows all our accomplishments, we can’t forget that everyone is deep into their own stuff, including us, which is all the more reason why promoting is not gloating, it’s simply necessary. Don’t be shy, get over being bashful. Promote yourself just like you deserve!
Promote Yourself Step 1: Identify Your Value and Unique Skills
The first step to successfully promote yourself in a negotiation is to know your unique skills. If you don’t know what your unique skills and what traits you excel in, how will anyone else? First, identify your unique skills.
Ask yourself: What unique skills do I have? What do I do better than anyone else in the organization? Which skills do I exceed industry norms? What is my expertise? What do others come to me for because I do it best? Name skills that come naturally for you.
Now, write it out. Make it tangible. Make a list of all your unique skills and keep adding to it. Whether it’s a word document, excel sheet or a notebook page, write it out. Don’t be afraid to add the small stuff. It all adds up. Are you amazing at writing professional emails? Add it! Are you the first person to greet a new client when they enter the building? Add that too. Write down the soft skills and the hard skills that you possess that add value to the company. It all counts!
Soft Skills and Hard Skills
Soft skills include items like your savvy communication skills, your adaptability in tight situations, your emotional intelligence and intuition at reading people, how well you work on a team, your consistent work ethic, your reliability with deadlines, how you naturally lead and mentor others, your excellent problem solving and conflict resolution with coworkers and clients and everything in between.
Hard skills include measurable capabilities such as technical skills with tech programs, analytical skills you possess, presentation skills, management and marketing skills and more. Both soft and hard skills are worthy of being on your list of unique skills as they both add immense value to your position and organization.
After you have identified your unique skills, pick out the ones that bring the most value and you consistently portray. Keep on honing and enhancing those skills as well as those you want to keep acquiring. Your unique skills are part of your unique value. Don’t undersell yourself. Keep adding more value.
Want even more negotiation tips? Then you might be interested in:
- Top 5 Negotiation Tips for a Smoother Negotiation
- Can I Make the First Offer in a Negotiation?
- Should I Negotiate Right Now? 3 Recession Resources
- 3 Powerful Negotiation Tips No One Tells You
Promote Yourself Step 2: Illustrate Your Value and Unique Skills
The next step to successfully promote yourself in a negotiation is to be able to illustrate all the value your unique skills bring. This brings your unique skills to life.
Ask yourself: How do I utilize my unique skills? How are my unique skills illuminated in a typical day? In what way do my unique skills shine in a typical week? How do I support others with my skill sets? How do my unique skills support the organization? What successes have my skills brought to the organization? What successes can they continue to bring in the future? Highlight the impacts and examples your unique skills bring.
Keep an ongoing list of specific examples of how your unique skills have added value. Choose a form that works best for you. Do you collect ideas best in a notebook, an excel sheet, through notes on your phone, in a planner or journal? Make sure you keep track of them. Examples of your unique skills happen frequently and as time goes by, you can easily forget all the goodness you and your skills have brought those around you.
Having specific examples to demonstrate the value you add is vital. These are your talking points in your negotiation conversation. Have specific examples of how your unique skills have benefited the organization, your boss, your colleagues, the greater good, etc. Have examples of how good you did with that last client, the amazing review from the last job you completed, the excellent service you provided, the last project you aced. List out all the positive results that came from your diligent work and unique skill set.
Quantify Your Contributions
Can you quantify what you’ve contributed? Numbers are powerful. Knowing the value you add and being able to quantify it is a powerful component within a negotiation. Quantify what you’ve contributed. Use all your resources and all your wins you achieve along the way and turn those into numbers. When your negotiation collaborator asks how you add value and why you are worthy of more money, you will have a relevant, quantifiable list ready. Use valued skills as evidence of why you are worth your asking price (and more).
Keep track of positive results, feedback, and improvements you’ve contributed. Turn those contributions into quantifiable numbers.
Some jobs are more (easily) quantifiable than others, but all are quantifiable. Did a customer send you a message to thank you about excellent service? Save it. Track all feedback and turn it into the percentage of positive feedback out of overall feedback from customers. Now you have your value quantified. Use what you have, and use it in your favor.
*(Pssst): Your worth is unquantifiable. It would be impossible to quantify all you give back to your company, and all your worth – it is absolutely unquantifiable. Quantify the metrics you can for those hard headed managers and bosses who can’t as easily see your unquantifiable worth.
Promote Yourself Step 3: Promote Your Value and Unique Skills
This is the big one. The final step is to promote yourself in your conversations and in your negotiation. You can work as hard as you want and be an expert within the field and and an expert of a craft, but no one will know that unless you promote yourself! As much as we want to tell ourselves and believe that the people around us know all the good work we are doing, the truth is they don’t. Your boss and your colleagues do not know all the excellent work you are doing. They can’t possibly because they aren’t with you 24/7. You have to take that last step to let the people around you know.
At this stage, you have identified your value and unique skills. You have a list and can illustrate it with a few dozen examples. Now, show it off! Tell your superiors, your colleagues, your network. If you are in a negotiation, this is when you tell your boss or your negotiation collaborator all about your unique skills, the value that you’ve added and all that you deserve.
Publicize Your Good Work
So, go. Promote yourself! Publicize all your good work. You are your own best advocate! It is vital to promote your value and unique skills in the negotiation process and all the time. If you feel timid, take time to practice in the mirror, to the cat, to your friend, to your mom, to your partner, etc. Practice, then promote yourself.
Promoting yourself will demonstrate the value you add in order to support your negotiation to receive your full worth.
3 Easy Steps to Successfully Promote Yourself in a Negotiation:
- Identify your value and unique skills.
- Illustrate your value and unique skills.
- Promote your value and unique skills.
Promote your damn self. No one is going to do it for you.
If you want weekly motivation and negotiation tips, sign up for blog posts and for daily inspiration follow @negotiatethis on Instagram. You got this. All you need is a little negotiation inspiration!
Disclaimer:
While the contents of this post and blog come from research and personal experience, each experience, situation and/or person has their own unique circumstances. This is not negotiation, financial or any other form of legitimate or official advice from an expert. Each individual should do their own independent, comprehensive research. Negotiation, career and all other decisions are the sole responsibility of each individual or party. Details found on the blog and in individual posts are opinions and should be treated as such for entertainment purposes only. Read further disclaimer information in the footer and on the Disclaimer page.
