Career Negotiations Podcast

Salesforce Salary Negotiation - How to Navigate a Salesforce Offer Negotiation

• Brandon Bramley

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Are you about to negotiate a Salesforce job offer? In this episode, I break down compensation at Salesforce, then walk you through my proven step-by-step Salesforce salary negotiation strategies and highlight some common mistakes to avoid during a Salesforce offer negotiation.

That way you have salary negotiation tips that are based on hundreds of salary negotiations and actually work.

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WHO AM I

I'm Brandon, the Founder and Lead Negotiator at The Salary Negotiator®. As a former corporate negotiator, I now help employees increase their compensation. Through hundreds of salary negotiations, I've helped career professionals secure over $200 million in additional compensation. My expertise is backed by more than 150 five-star reviews from career professionals on Google and Trustpilot.

Why Salesforce Pay Is More Than Base

Brandon

Salesforce provides competitive compensation and parts of their employees, but how do you know if you're getting a job offer that's competitive before accepting it, right? In this episode, my goal is to cover everything you need to confidently navigate a Salesforce salary negotiation. I'll first cover the compensation structure at Salesforce so you know more about Salesforce's base salary, their bonus, their equity package, and their sign-up bonuses in the job offer. That way you know exactly what to expect before you get one. Then I'm gonna walk you through my five recommended steps for negotiating a Salesforce job offer that are proven through real Salesforce salary negotiations that I've led for my clients. That way you can filter out some of the bad advice out there and use salary negotiation strategies that are actually gonna work with Salesforce. And I'll close out the episode by highlighting three common mistakes you should avoid in a Salesforce salary negotiation. That way you don't risk the opportunity and you do actually secure competitive compensation before you start with our team. So let's get into it. Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Brandon Bramley and I'm the founder of the Lead Negotiator at the salarynegotiator.com. I provide professional job offer negotiation coaching, salary negotiation courses, and tools to help professionals like you navigate the negotiation process and secure competitive compensation. I'm not just one of those career coaches or recruiter out there giving out generic salary negotiation advice. There's already enough bad advice floating around online. Instead, I've actually led hundreds of salary negotiations across various roles, helping my clients secure hundreds of millions more in additional compensation. My background is actually in strategic negotiations, and my goal is to debunk some of the bad advice out there and give you proven salary negotiation strategies that are actually going to help you earn more of your careers. So if you are a career professional looking to earn competitive compensation, subscribe here for actionable tips. And when you're ready to take your negotiation to the next level, visit thesalarynegotiator.com for coaching courses and tools that are designed to help you negotiate the best possible offer at your role. Now, before we dive into how to negotiate a Salesforce job offer, let's first talk about the compensation components. It's really important to understand that there's differences between the base salary and the total compensation because too many people focus on only the base salary for a role. But that's really just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to pay at Salesforce. Okay, so when you're considering a move to Salesforce, you need to look at the whole picture, your total monetary take-home pay, which is known as your total compensation. At Salesforce, this is gonna include your base salary, your annual bonus, the value of your besting equity each year, and then any sign-on bonuses you might get at the beginning. Now you're gonna find four core compensation components in a Salesforce job offer that I just shared. But first, there's gonna be that Salesforce base salary. Okay, this is your consistent guaranteed pay that you'll see in every paycheck. It's only gonna change with promotions, merit increases, and it's always a set rate. It's a pretty standard component, so I'm not gonna spend too much time since you've seen that in most of your roles. Second, though, at Salesforce, you're gonna have an annual performance bonus, okay, which is a percentage of your Salesforce base salary. It's typically ranges from about 15% or more depending on the Salesforce role and level. It's gonna be based on performance each year and it's gonna be paid out annually, so it can fluctuate. While the bonus is tied to your base salary, note that it's really not negotiable. The only way to negotiate this is if you negotiate your base salary up, your bonus is gonna increase because it's a percentage of that. So keep that in mind. Third, you're gonna receive equity at Salesforce. This is huge, okay? So your initial Salesforce equity package comes in the form of RSUs, which are restricted stock units. These represent ownership in Salesforce, and these RSUs are subject to a four-year Salesforce ving schedule. This means that the Salesforce equity is gonna venture over a four-year period in equal increments, meaning that you're gonna receive 25% of your RSUs in year one, 25% if you work through the end of year two, 25% in year three, and the final 25% in your fourth year. Okay, you don't get it all up front. Now, while you don't get the value of the equity up front, you do share in the fluctuations over that period. So hopefully, if sales for a stock continues to go up, so does the value of your equity based from the beginning, right? But the flip side is if the stock price drops, your equity and your total compensation is gonna decrease as well. So you need to keep that in mind. And then the worst thing is if you do actually leave Salesforce before your equity vest, you are gonna forfeit those unvested portions. So keep that in mind. Finally, there's a Salesforce sign-up bonus. This is a one-time cash payment that's typically paid out 30 days after you start or with your first paycheck. It's usually designed to offset loss incentives or equity from your previous company and as an incentive to join the team. Note that Salesforce sign-up bonuses are not always gonna be included in the initial offer, so they usually require negotiation. Luckily, I've had great success securing them for my climates, so you should always push for these, but obviously in a friendly and professional way. The other compensation component that you might find, since there is equity included in the offer, are gonna be Salesforce annual equity refreshes. Okay, these are stock refreshes that usually happen every year, but at Salesforce, they're typically only there for top performers, so not everyone gets them. So it's definitely worth asking your recruiter about these items to see what might exist in this position for stock refreshers. But note that I want to include this in your total compensation calculation since there is an unknown and not everyone gets them. Now, these four main Salesforce salary components, your base salary, your bonus, your equity, and your sign-up bonus are gonna make up your total compensation at Salesforce. To help you visualize this, we have a total compensation calculator on our site. It lets you input your base salary, your bonus percentage, your equity grant, and your sign-up bonus, then shows you your estimated compensation over four years, both in total and on an annual basis. You can find this free total compensation calculator at thesalarynegotiator.com, and I'll also link it to it in the episode notes so you can use this free tool to calculate what your pay is in your salary space. Pause that last sentence. You can find our free total compensation calculator at thesalarynegotiator.com, and I'll also link to it in the episode notes below so you can use this free tool. Alright, now that we've covered how Salesforce compensation structure works, let's discuss the Salesforce salary negotiation steps. These are the strategies I've actually used to successfully negotiate many Salesforce job offers, and I'm going to recommend you all follow them to navigate your next salary negotiation with Salesforce once you have an offer in hand. Now, once you have a Salesforce job offer, the first step I recommend to negotiating is to make sure you understand the compensation components and the benefits in your Salesforce offer package. The biggest takeaway from this is understanding your total compensation before you negotiate with Salesforce. It's very important because then you're going to know exactly how much your pay package is worth and you're going to know everything that you should be able to negotiate. So don't skip that. The second step is going to be what I call doing your due diligence and asking strategic questions. This is where you review the Salesforce offer and come back with a list of questions there for your recruiter. This is not only going to help you clarify any questions you might have about the offer, but it also is going to allow you to strategically ask questions that are going to actually build leverage in the negotiation. So don't skip this, okay? You're going to count all out items where it might not be as competitive as your current company or what some of their competitors offer. And if you need ideas on this and why it's so big, feel free to go ahead and grab our list of questions on our templates page. That way you know what to ask. Because I don't want you to skip this step. Even if you think you understand the offer and you know everything they're including, it's very important for your negotiation leverage because it shows you're doing your research, it shows you're doing your due diligence before you send a counteroffer. That way, one, your counteroffer is not going to come out of left field. They're going to take it as more legitimate, as well as you might secure any freebies that are on the tables that Salesforce might use as trade-offs later on if you don't get them out of the way early. So keep that in mind. And the third step is to do your Salesforce compensation research. Okay, you want to find the base salary and the total compensation ranges for the specific role, the location, and the level at Salesforce. You can use various online resources to find this data, but make sure you're using multiple sources and averaging the results. What we're trying to do here is try to identify the compensation ranges so we can see where your initial offer sits on that range and how much more room there is for improvement so you can take a database approach. Because Salesforce, like a bunch of other tech companies, try to hire their employees at the low to mid end of the pay bands. But I'm always going to suggest that you push towards the top end of the pay range because you should be paid as anyone else doing that role. So that's where you want to target, but you want to make sure it's obviously realistic, okay? Because remember, this is publicly reported data and it might not always be accurate. People might report higher equity than a new hire would get at Salesforce due to stock appreciation, or they might not have uploaded the compensation correctly. So what you want to do is make sure your apparition is those results. And if you need help, feel free to go ahead and use our compensation research comparison tool on our templates page, or check out our course that's actually going to show you exactly how to do this compensation research so you can prepare for your Salesforce counteroffer. Once you have the Salesforce compensation research done and you've got your answers to your questions, you're now finally ready to draft your Salesforce counteroffer. Okay, this is the big step and where we kick things off. Okay, we're gonna take a database approach and we're gonna craft a Salesforce counteroffer to send to the recruiting team. We'll present the top end of the range you're targeting based on your research and call out any items that weren't competitive based on your due diligence questions. I'm gonna highly suggest that you actually do this by email instead of over the phone because it gives the Salesforce recruiter everything they need to advocate for you and you can simply send your points to the comp team. Instead of hoping that if you jump on a call with them, they're gonna note down all those questions. Because if you think about it, Salesforce recruiters negotiate offers every day, and unfortunately, you don't. So they're gonna cut you off on the phone, they're gonna steer you in a different direction, and they're gonna throw a lot of objections at you verbally. So that's why it's better to get it all out in email and then have a follow-up call if needed, just to re-push on those points to hopefully get that counteroffer into the decision makers' hands. And with that, that leads me to the final step. Because after you do send a Salesforce counteroffer, there's usually gonna be some pushback from the recruiter. It's almost guaranteed that you're gonna get pushback because the Salesforce recruiters are trained to deter you from negotiating and try to get you to accept the initial offer. So by being prepared for this, you know actually how to overcome these objections and get them to take these concerns back to the comp team. Essentially, what you're gonna wanna do to essentially overcome an objection or overcome pushback is ask the Salesforce recruiter to take back your concerns to the comp team one last time. It's going to take overcoming a few objections and some of their no's to get them to agree to take it back. But if you do this correctly, nine times out of ten, they're gonna take it back and come back with a better Salesforce job offer. So if you need additional help on actually how to handle this, you can grab our objection handlers from our templates page, a quick download, or you can find the entire section in our course to give you the exact strips of what to say to the recruiter or your future hiring manager when they do give you pushback. Because from here, honestly, the Salesforce recruiter is either gonna come back with a better offer that fits your needs, or it's lower than your initial ask. And at that point, you're either ready to accept, or you might need to send an additional counter offer before you do accept the offer. Just note, and I cannot highlight this enough, is that negotiating salary is not like you negotiate at a car dealership. Okay, there's not gonna be a lot of back and forth, and you usually don't want to send more than two counteroffers to Salesforce. Otherwise, you're gonna come off as aggressive and you might jeopardize the relationship. So stick to these strategies. Think you're not at a car dealership and make sure that you're pushing on data-based evidence on where the comp should be and something that's realistic that they might accept. Now, the last thing I want to cover is a few Salesforce salary negotiation mistakes that you should avoid before you decide to negotiate a Salesforce job offer. The main item I'm gonna always recommend against, regardless of the company, is don't share your salary expectations or your current pay with the Salesforce recruiting team. It's usually only gonna work against you because if you think about it, right, if you throw out a number that's lower than what they could offer, you're likely gonna get a less competitive comp package at the low end of their pay range, or you're gonna run the risk of being down leveled, which is very common at Salesforce as well as other tech companies. So it's not a good strategy. And on the flip side, if you think, hey, I'm gonna go ahead and throw out a big number and that's gonna get me a competitive offer, what this can do is one, they might say, shoot, we can't afford this person, let's go with a different candidate instead, and you might not even get the offer. So it's not usually a good strategy. So always keep it databased, don't share your salary expectations and stick to the negotiation once you get the offer. Because once you do get the offer, that's when you have the flexibility. And at the end of the day, the recruiter knows exactly what they can pay in that role at Salesforce. So there's no reason to do that, and you always want to turn the question back on them. My second tip or mistake to avoid is making sure you are realistic about what you should ask for in your Salesforce counteroffer. Way too often do I see people ask for way too much in their counteroffers, and you're either gonna get laughed at by the recruiter or it's gonna come off as aggressive, and it can sometimes even lead to the offer getting rescinded. Okay, so you don't want to use that strategy. You want to make sure you're taking a data-based approach. So make sure you're doing that comp research both on a base-solid basis and a total compensation basis, and use some of our tools on our website if you need help doing that. And finally, don't be worried about negotiating with Salesforce. Okay, most people are gonna feel nervous, especially when you're coming out of the interviews and you finally got the job. You don't want to do anything to jeopardize the opportunity. But as long as you're following salary negotiation strategies that are proven and you're taking a kind and professional approach, there's nothing that would risk your Salesforce offer through the salary negotiation. So keep that in mind because more than likely, if you do it right, you're gonna end up with more pay and you're gonna be a lot happier when you start. Alright, everyone, this wraps up the episode on Salesforce Salary Negotiation. I hope this breakdown of Salesforce compensation structure, our proven salary negotiation strategies and steps and negotiation mistakes to avoid is gonna help you feel much more confident in these discussions with the Salesforce team. But if you're serious about getting the best possible offer with Salesforce or any company for that matter, I highly suggest you don't go into the salary negotiation alone. Head over to the salarynegotiator.com (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/) to either work with me directly as your salary negotiation (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/services) or check out my salary negotiation courses (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/courses) and tools (https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/salary-negotiation-templates). That way you'll have everything you need to ace the salary negotiation and get paid more. You're gonna find all the links in the episode to my notes below. And if you found this episode helpful, please be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, and share it with someone who could actually use this advice in their career. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time. Happy negotiating. SALARY NEGOTIATION TOOLS MENTIONED • Salary Negotiation Coaching: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/ • Salary Negotiation Courses: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/courses • Salary Negotiation Templates: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/salary-negotiation-templates • Counteroffer Example: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/store/counteroffer-examples • Salary Negotiation Script Guide: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/resource-center/salary-negotiation-script-strategies-for-job-offer-negotiations • How to Negotiate a Job Offer Guide: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/job-offer-negotiation-course • How to Negotiate a Raise Guide: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/salary-negotiation-course • Total Compensation Calculator: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/total-compensation-calculator SALESFORCE SALARY NEGOTIATION RESOURCES • Salesforce Salary Negotiation Guide: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/resource-center/how-to-negotiate-a-salesforce-job-offer • Software Engineer Salary: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/software-engineer-salary • Product Manager Salary: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/product-manager-salary • Software Engineer Salary Negotiation: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/resource-center/how-to-negotiate-a-software-engineer-job-offer • Product Manager Salary Negotiation: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/resource-center/how-to-negotiate-a-product-manager-job-offer • Video Guide: https://youtu.be/CnpFwgvhMNc

Brandon

Salesforce Software Engineer Salary: https://www.thesalarynegotiator.com/salesforce-software-engineer-salary 

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Brandon Bramley

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