The very best way to ask for a raise at a job is to be able to factually Tell your boss, I have just received an offer from another company. And they have offered me x salary or 20 or 30% more. I like our company, I'd like to stay here. Can you match this offer? I'm not asking you to double my salary. But if you can match the offer, I will gladly stay.

That is a powerful, powerful message. Now, I'm not suggesting you make this up. Bosses can often have a good like most people have a sense when people are lying to them. And sometimes it's easy to check out. And the more specific you can be, the better. Unless you feel like your boss's relationship with that other organization is so strong that he could or she could call them up and get your offer rescinded.

And that doesn't happen very often. Specific. Now, you can't do this unless you are putting out feelers occasionally talking to headhunters, occasionally circulating a resume. Most people don't like to do that they are complacent in their job. But if you can get another job offer, now you've got competition for your services, you have created a marketplace. Because here's the thing about bosses, it's very easy just to tell an employee who wants a raise, you know, now's not a good time.

Let's talk about it again next quarter. It's always easier again, no matter how profitable the organization is, no matter how much your boss respects you, likes you and wants to keep you. The status quo is always going to be the easiest thing now, and that's why they would say let's talk about your rage later next month next quarter, but this also works in your favor. If you have another job offer because that boss is all of a sudden thinking. Oh, if Smithers has to live I've got to start a whole job search. I've got to talk to recruiters, I'm going to have to interview people, it's going to be during my vacation.

Now guess what the status quo is the status quo is trying to keep you there. It is costly for organizations to have to hire new people and recruit new people and vet them and interview them and fly them in depending on where you are in your career and the size and scope of the job. So if your boss does like you, and you are being perceived as doing a good job, and so much of what we're talking about here, today is predicated on those two things. Then your boss now has ammunition he or she needs to go to his boss to justify giving you the raise. Because your boss can say to his boss, Hey, boss, you know, I don't like it, but we're going to lose this Smithers guy because he's got a better job offer for 100,000 At Microsoft, And truth be told, I didn't really want to give them a raise until next year, but it would take six months to find somebody else.

It would cost us $50,000 in time and energy and headhunter fees, let's just give them another 20,000. That's how that that whole conversation could go in your favor. So if you are really aggressive and quite serious about getting a job raise, there's nothing better than having competing offers, show your organization that you are in demand. This is a marketplace. I mean, your name you and I may quibble with it. But there is a reason why top football coaches even at the college level makes $6 million a year is because people are bidding for those services.

They value those services. And they're willing to pay for those services. So there's a there's a marketplace for football players. Which is actually when on a consistent basis. If there's something you're doing in your workplace and your job where you are winning, however, that's defined in your industry, then you only help yourself in terms of your compensation short term and long term by letting the marketplace know of your services, and the way to do that is sometimes by circulating and getting competing offers. Now, if you talk to headhunters or you go on a few other interviews, and you don't get any nibbles and headhunter says, Wow, the industry is really tight, you got a job, keep it, you may have to go back to one of our earlier lessons on timing and realize now might not be the best timing.

So all of these factors feed in on each other. But nothing I repeat, nothing is better for getting yourself a raise, and already having another offer for that race. Now. Your boss could say Hey, congratulations, that's good. We can't match it. Hope you enjoy your new job, you have to be prepared for that outcome because you just never know all the dynamics going on with your organization.

Your overall profits may be going up. Your overall revenues may be going up. But your particular department could have just been told you've got to cut expenses by 15%. You have to cut headcount that does happen even within successful profitable companies. So your boss might have been looking for a way of getting rid of headcount may have even been looking for a way of getting rid of you. If you already have another job.

With the raise, you want it, then you're in excellent shape. So circulate with people within your professional community. Put feelers out that return. Recruiters calls, meet with people if they want to talk about jobs or just to talk about the industry. All of these things will play in to strength in your hand, when it comes time to ask for a raise and ideally, you already have one or even more offers on the table do that and it's going to be much much harder for your boss to say no to your raise request.