How do you ask for a pay rise and get a yes?

Andy Bell:

Most people ask for a pay rise the worst possible way. They walk in, say they've worked hard this year, name the number they want, and then they hope. I do this for a living, and almost everything about that is wrong — starting with what you're actually asking for. So let me show you how to ask for more money and get a yes. I'm an employment lawyer and I've been negotiating in this space for nearly 25 years, so I understand exactly how this thought process works on both sides of the table.

Start with timing, because nearly everyone gets this backwards. Most people ask at their annual review. It feels logical, but it's too late by then. The budget for your team was set weeks ago and you're fighting over a pie that's already been cut. You want to ask before the budget locks, and usually a few months out. Use those months well, because that's when you build the case that wins it.

The smartest way to think about that comes from Chris Voss, the former FBI hostage negotiator who wrote Never Split the Difference. His idea is simple: don't make the money the ask. Make your value the ask and let the money follow. And that starts long before you sit down. You work out what really matters to the business, the things your boss actually gets measured on, and you go and quietly deliver on them. So by the time you're in the room, you're not making a case for what you might be worth. You're walking in with proof. Here's the value I've already created, and here's my plan to create more. And that's pointed straight at where the company's trying to go. Do that, and the money almost asks for itself. Here's what I've delivered. Here's what's coming. Let's make my pay match it. You've handed your boss a business reason to say yes instead of a favour to grant you.

One rule on that. Make it about their business, never your own life. The requests that are easiest to refuse all sound the same. My rent's gone up. The cost of living's brutal. Fair enough. But none of that is the employer's problem to solve, and they know it. The ones that land sound completely different. I brought in the two biggest accounts this year. The system I built saves a team a day a week. One's about you, the other's about them. Only one gets you paid. So before you book the meeting, write down three specific things you've done that made or saved the business money. If you can't fill three lines, you're not ready to ask. You're ready to go and earn it first.

Then comes the number. And don't give them one number. Give them a range with the figure you actually want sitting at the bottom. If you want a hundred grand, don't say 100,000. Say, I'm after something in the range of 100 to 110. Sounds like a small thing, but there's real research behind it. The moment they hear a range, they treat the bottom as your floor, not your target. So they stop trying to talk you down and start picking a number inside what you've offered. And no boss wants to be the one who scrapes in right at the bottom and looks cheap. So they nudge up off it. You land a little higher and you come across as easy to deal with rather than pushy. Just set that bottom number somewhere you'd actually genuinely be happy, because every so often that's exactly where you'll end up.

Finally, have a plan for no. Sometimes the money genuinely isn't there this quarter, and that's real. A no isn't the end — it's the start of the second conversation. Ask, okay, what would need to be true to get there, and by when? Then go after anything else that might be on the table. Extra leave, a better title that might make you worth more in your hunt for your next role. Get a firm date in writing to revisit the number. What you never accept is a vague let's see how it goes. That's not a promise. That's a polite no. Pin it to a date.

So ask before the budget locks. Bring proof of your value and a plan for more value instead of asking for money. Put your number in a range with your target at the bottom. And if it's a no, get a date to review. Do that and you're negotiating your pay like someone who's done it for a living.

If you want to see these same moves when the stakes are higher, watch my next video on what actually happens in a settlement negotiation. Same tactics, bigger numbers. And tell me in the comments — what's the biggest pay rise you've ever negotiated, and how did you ask?