Rate Renegotiation

[GB9]

One thing that might work in your favour is whether or not the market rate for your skills has risen. If you were taken on at £420 18 mth ago but they are taking people with your skills at £500 now, you may stand a chance.

Of course they may be desperate to keep you because you work below market rate and if you ask more you become just another bum on seat.

[Lloyd1981]

Hi all,

Thought I would reply to my own thread as an outcome occurred. Although not the one I wanted

My London agency "claimed" they sent my rate increase request over a month before the current contract expired, however I figure they left it till last minute . Anyway the end client basically said no chance!! So looks like I'm not that desperately required after all.

I'm gonna put it down to maybe lack of experience on my part too as I've been contracting 4 years now and probably went in way too high....should've asked for 6-10% like someone here suggested. Oh Well!

Still, not all bad news.....got another 3 month contract.

Cheers all, LG

[northernladuk]

Hi all,

Thought I would reply to my own thread as an outcome occurred. Although not the one I wanted

My London agency "claimed" they sent my rate increase request over a month before the current contract expired, however I figure they left it till last minute . Anyway the end client basically said no chance!! So looks like I'm not that desperately required after all.

I'm gonna put it down to maybe lack of experience on my part too as I've been contracting 4 years now and probably went in way too high....should've asked for 6-10% like someone here suggested. Oh Well!

Still, not all bad news.....got another 3 month contract.

Cheers all, LG

So you ignored all the advice given and now realise you should have put a figure in that happens to be almost exactly what a number of posters advised.

[Project Monkey]

So you asked for something which was refused and that's it? Not much of a negotiation.

[Lloyd1981]

Northernlad - Yes....doofus I know!! Still I will learn by my mistake.

Project Monkey - Yeah bad timing though...because when I first raised the request I had two other potential gig's on the cards with a similar or better rate.

Was hoping to get offered one.....however neither came to fruition as other contractors were "supposedly" more available. Hey ho...

LG

[Brian Potter]

Northernlad - Yes....doofus I know!! Still I will learn by my mistake.

Project Monkey - Yeah bad timing though...because when I first raised the request I had two other potential gig's on the cards with a similar or better rate.

Was hoping to get offered one.....however neither came to fruition as other contractors were "supposedly" more available. Hey ho...

LG

Oh well...at least you secured another gig. What's your specialism?

[Lloyd1981]

Yep that's the main thing - Keep on invoicing eh.

Specialism is Software Asset Management/Licensing....in particular Oracle/IBM/Microsoft.

Good area to be in....cos no bugg$r wants to do it or even understand it :-)

[Project Monkey]

Northernlad - Yes....doofus I know!! Still I will learn by my mistake.

Project Monkey - Yeah bad timing though...because when I first raised the request I had two other potential gig's on the cards with a similar or better rate.

Was hoping to get offered one.....however neither came to fruition as other contractors were "supposedly" more available. Hey ho...

LG

My point is, have something to negotiate with next time and either be prepared to walk or have a face saving backout up your sleve in case they refuse to budge and you decide to stay.

In my experiance, rate increases either just happen (offered out the blue) or are very hard won.

[Peter Loew]

You got to ask

I just had a contract extended to end of year, but a month prior I requested a rate rise. I initially asked for a £100 addition to my rate as I had originally agreed to sign this contract at a very low rate. They came back and said no, but they offered a 50 rise instead.

It would have been easy to accept the 50, but I didn't. I went onto itjobsboard.co.uk and justified my request. Given that I have inside knowledge of the client budgets I am surprised they offered me any rise at all.

Anyway, I got back to them declined the 50 offer, and said I will settle on 75, and the end of year extension. 'Let me know asap, please'.. The agent was reluctant to do this, but had to anyway. 2 hours later, and after a mention from my direct report that they were discussing my rise internally, I got a confirmation call from the agent. He said to me, 'well done, you don't ask, you don't get'.

Although I can still earn more elsewhere, for the time being I like it where I am and I am being exposed to new and interesting things, rather than just standard stuff. I'm happy and now at least my rate is semi-decent!

P

[lukemg]

Good advice given here I think. I usually pitch for a rise after 12 months and would not be happy if I didn't get a few percent but anything over 5% is usually optimistic.
Only time I have kicked in a big request is because I was happy to leave and only a big raise would change that so had much less to lose.
They said no but tried to talk me round, I left but hit the bench for 5 months !
Unless agent is robbing you blind, this means a chat with client and you can look like a cheeky f**ker with a big request AND they will have to justify it up the chain and look like they can't manage budgets. Won't make you any friends when they choose who to bin later on...
Oh - beware the agent saying ok will ask, then coming back the next day saying sorry, client says no without even talking to them...
GLA