You will be able to set and write down a reservation point and a target before negotiating.
The offer arrives on a Tuesday afternoon. The recruiter at the one-north company calls Wei Ling, reads out a monthly salary, and asks how it sounds. She has about three seconds to answer. Whatever she says will come from somewhere, and if she hasn't decided her numbers beforehand, it will come from the number she just heard.
This lesson gives you two numbers to decide before that call: the point below which you'll say no, and the outcome you're actually aiming for.
Your reservation point is the worst deal you'll still accept. Anything worse than it, and you're better off taking your BATNA from lesson 2.1, Your BATNA: what happens if you walk away. It's the walk-away line, set in advance.
The reservation point comes from the BATNA, but it's rarely identical to it. A new offer and your alternative almost never differ only in salary. The commute is different, the hours are different, the bonus works differently, and a new job carries risk your current one doesn't. So you start from your BATNA and adjust for everything that differs.
Here are Wei Ling's figures. They're examples to show the method, not a guide to what marketing roles pay.
Her BATNA is staying in her current job. She earns S$4,800 a month. Her contract includes a 13th month payment, and last year her variable bonus came to about one month's pay. So staying is worth about 14 months of S$4,800, which is S$67,200 a year in cash.
The new job has no 13th month. The recruiter mentioned a variable bonus that usually comes to about a month. So the new job pays roughly 13 months of whatever base salary she agrees.
Then the differences. The commute to one-north adds about 40 minutes a day, and she decides that's worth S$150 a month to her. Leaving a team she trusts, and going on probation again, is a risk she prices at S$200 a month. Over a year, those two adjustments add S$4,200. So the new job needs to pay at least S$71,400 in cash a year before it beats staying.
Divide by the 13 months the new job pays, and the minimum base salary comes to about S$5,492 a month. She rounds it to S$5,500. That's her reservation point. If the company can't reach S$5,500, staying is the better deal for her, and she can say so calmly.
Your own adjustments might be different: hours, travel, the chance of promotion, flexible work, or a bonus that's guaranteed in one job and uncertain in the other. The method is the same. Start with what the BATNA is worth to you, add or subtract what differs, and convert it into the terms of the offer.
The reservation point protects you from a bad deal. It does nothing to get you a good one. For that you need a target: the best outcome you can justify with evidence.
The word that matters is justify. A target isn't a wish. It's the top of what you could explain to a reasonable person using outside standards, like the objective criteria from lesson 1.3, Separate the people from the problem.
Wei Ling looks at current job listings for similar roles on MyCareersFuture, which show salary ranges, and at a recruiter's salary guide for marketing. In her example, the ranges she finds for her level run up to about S$6,400. Her experience is solid but not exceptional, so she sets her target at S$6,200. She writes one line of reasoning beside it: similar listings top out around S$6,400, and she brings three years of campaign results in a related industry.
Set the target before you meet. If you don't, the other side's first number becomes your target without you noticing. Module 4 explains why that happens.
People tend to set targets too low, because a modest number feels safer. A target that's slightly ambitious costs you little if you have to come down. A target that's too modest caps the result before you've started.
Write both numbers down, with the reasoning, somewhere you'll see before the call. Wei Ling keeps a note on her phone: "Target S$6,200, because listings top out at S$6,400 and I have three years of results. Reservation S$5,500, because below that, staying is worth more."
Then don't change them halfway through the conversation. Negotiations create pressure to move your line on the spot: a friendly recruiter, a deadline, a sense that you've come so far. If something genuinely new comes up, such as a guaranteed bonus you didn't know about, that may be a good reason to recalculate. Do it away from the conversation. "That's useful, let me think it through and come back to you tomorrow" is always available.
The activity asks you to write your own two numbers, each with the single sentence of reasoning that would let you defend it.
Write your reservation point and target for your upcoming negotiation, with one sentence of reasoning for each.
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