You get da case already. You been carrying da bigger work since March, you know roughly what da market pay for um, and you wen settle on one figure. Only ting left is da email, and you wen rewrite dat email six times already.
Version one was three lines and felt too blunt. Version six stay four paragraphs, open up by apologizing for da length, and bury da actual request somewhere near da bottom.
Version one was da right one. One opening email no stay da argument, it stay da door. Its only job is fo get one real conversation on da calendar with your number already showing, so nobody gotta spend da first ten minutes of dat conversation figuring out what you like.
Four lines do dat. Da topic, da number, one reason grounded in da work, and one date you like da answer by. Everyting else you wen write is prep for da meeting, not content for da email.
What I supposed to write in one email asking for mo money?
Four lines and one subject line dat name da topic. Line one say what dis about, line two give da specific number or change, line three give one reason grounded in da work instead of how you feel, and line four ask for one reply by one date.
Here da whole ting, and you welcome fo take um.
Subject: My compensation for 2027
Hi Dana, I like talk about my compensation before da planning cycle close.
I asking for one base of $118,000, up from $104,000.
Since March I wen own da billing migration and da two integrations dat wen come with um, which was da work of da role above mine, and da team been running without one lead since Priya wen leave.
Can you let me know by Friday da 14th if we can put twenty minutes on da calendar next week?
Read um back. It stay under one hundred words, it stay easy fo answer, and it neva make da reader guess what you like.
Why four lines beat four paragraphs?
Cause one short email stay cheap fo answer and one long one stay expensive. Da person reading um get one full inbox, and every extra paragraph raise da odds dat your message get moved to later, which in real life usually mean never.
Length leak too. One wall of context read like somebody arguing with demself in public. It invite da reader fo argue back with your justifications instead of answering your actual request, and every reason you add is one mo ting dey can disagree with. One reason, grounded in someting you can see in da work, stay way mo hard to brush off than five reasons stacked up all defensive.
Get research underneath dis. In one study of email negotiations reported by da Program on Negotiation, da people who wen do da best was da ones who handle da medium on purpose: dey make dea expectations explicit, dey stay in close contact, and dey make offers covering mo than one issue at one time. Clarity is da whole advantage of writing someting down. Spend um.
One caution, cause short no mean cold. Four lines read curt if you strip out every human word, so keep da greeting, keep one warm sentence at da end, and let da shortness live in da middle where da request stay. Short and warm is da target. Short and clipped just make da reader brace up.
I supposed to put da number in da email or wait for da meeting?
Put da number in da email. Leaving um out so you can "discuss um in person" sound polite and mostly cost you, cause den da odda side show up with dea mind already made up about what range stay on da table, and you show up with nothing anchored at all.
One specific figure in writing do two useful tings. It set da reference point dat da rest of da conversation adjust from, which is what da research on anchoring keep finding, and it let your manager do da unglamorous inside work before you meet: checking da band, asking finance, finding out what stay genuinely possible. People say yes mo fast when you wen make um possible for dem fo prepare.
Precision help too. $118,000 land better than "around $120,000," cause one precise number read like da result of one process and one round number read like one opening bid waiting fo get cut in half.
What I write in da subject line?
Write da topic. "My compensation for 2027" or "Rate for the next project" or "Follow-up on the scope change." Never "quick question," and never anyting dat hide what da message about.
One subject line dat hide da topic make da email feel like one ambush da moment it open, and it start da conversation with da reader little bit on guard. Naming um plain do da opposite. It file da request as one normal business item instead of one personal favor, and normal business items get calendared.
Send um in da morning of one mid-week day if you can pick. Not cause of any trick, but cause one Tuesday morning inbox get room in um and one Friday afternoon inbox no mo.
How I follow up when no mo reply?
Wait till da date you wen name pass, den send three lines: your request restated in one sentence, one new fact if you get one, and one new date. No accusation, no "just circling back," and no apology for following up.
Most no-replies not rejections. Dey one person who wen read your message in one hallway, wen mean fo answer um, and wen get pulled into someting else. One follow-up stay doing dem one favor by putting um back on top of da pile.
If two follow-ups get you nothing, change da medium instead of writing mo. Ask for fifteen minutes. One ting nobody like put in writing is plenty times one ting dey going happily say out loud, and dea reason for da delay is usually information you can use.
Keep one copy of what you wen send. Six months from now, in da next planning cycle, da useful object not your memory of da conversation. It's da dated email where you wen lay out da number and da reason in your own words, before anybody wen discuss um.
Da email is da door, not da room
None of dis replace preparation. Deepak Malhotra's point in Harvard Business Review is dat da most expensive mistakes in one negotiation happen before anybody sit down, and one opening email is just da visible tip of decisions you should be making on one quiet afternoon: what you asking for, what you would sign today, and what you going do instead if da answer is no.
So write da four lines tonight and read um out loud once before you send um. Anyting you no would say to da person's face get cut, which in practice remove da apology on top and da hedge on da bottom. Den close da laptop, cause da drafting stay pau and da next useful ting is not one seventh rewrite. It's settling your three numbers before da meeting and getting enough sleep so your voice stay steady when you say da first one out loud.
You allowed fo want plenty here. Asking clear is not aggression, it's one courtesy to da person who gotta decide, and da most clear version of your ask is also da most easy one for somebody fo say yes to.
Sources
- Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Facing an Email Negotiation? Take a Proactive Approach
- Harvard Business Review, Control the Negotiation Before It Begins
- Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, What is Anchoring in Negotiation?