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AFM Magazine


How to Handle Coaching Salary Negotiations

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Networking: Make the Most of Every Opportunity
Resume Tips - The Do’s and Don’ts
Dealing With The Media During The ‘Silly Season’
Avoiding Major Mistakes in the Interview Process
How to Handle Coaching Salary Negotiations
Should a Coach Employ an Agent?
A Little Psychology For A Winning Focus In Job Interviews
Asking to get appropriately paid as a new coaching hire or as a succeeding, sitting coach is almost always a difficult personal task for the grateful yet humblefootball coach to handle. Coaches initially do not coach for the money, a factgrossly misunderstood by the media and the observing public.

Most coaches end their careers never having thought too much about what theyhave earned. It is heresy to get your dream job, or even just a good job, andthen to ask for more money. Such thinking is almost too selfish to do in themind of the career coach since most coaches, the obedient servants which theyare, usually take what they are offered rather than to negotiate for more.

In a new job circumstance, what you are paid should be the last thing you discussbefore you say “yes” to accepting the job, no matter how much youmay want it. In expressing sincere interest in any new position, you should havea general idea of what it might pay prior to legitimately continuing the discussion.Find this out from someone besides the person representing the employer doingthe hiring.

Sure, money helps, but it is not the real goal. Money can be made selling insurance,stocks or real estate later on, like many ex-coaches do. This is why an ethical,solid, thinking coach’s agent may actually be good for some coaches despitethe agency profession’s somewhat negative image in the general athleticcommunity. A good general rule to follow is that any job should pay equivalentfair-market salary and compensation package rates. There are reputable athleticincome consultants who can provide you such data. Find one. Do remember and knowthat salary and compensation packages are two completely different things.

Preparing to renegotiate a sitting coaches compensation package should be donewithin the context of the fair market forces as the index, which almost alwaysincrease. Assistant coaches should be raised annually due to faculty COLA’sand inflation. The general circumstance of one-year staff contracts and hopefullyyour good work and success as an assistant also call for annual raises. If youhave a benevolent boss who really cares about you, he should run interferenceon this for you with the AD. On less family-oriented staffs, the “hired-gun,” itinerantassistant coach, sadly, must often fend for himself as a mercenary “outsider.”

Many times, unfortunately, moving is the only way to get a raise. The natureof most organizations is to “pay up” for new people and to simplymaintain with modest raises those who are loyal. Visionary leaders in athleticadministration do know better and act accordingly but most static assistant coacheshave no negotiating leverage. Head coaches are morally obligated to respond tothis but often the AD cannot due to his or her budgetary pressures. The difficultfinancial cycle is endless, hence the need for salary negotiation.

Entering a new job, never talk money until you are sure they want you. In a highlycompetitive market, if you do, you may eliminate yourself to someone nearly asgood as you who had “the cool” to wait and be quiet. At the end ofthe day, the psychology of money is very tricky. Market rate compensation isthe gold standard to which every coach should aspire. If you are good enoughto gain a premium salary, congrats. Just don’t be uninformed, settle fora discount and help establish what is average. You know that “average” isstatistically “the best of the worst.” Do not take average unlessyou are.

Remember some of my rules:

1. Get help
2. Leverage is everything
3. Fair does not just happen
4. Patience and tact can win
5. Be timely and assertive
6. Listen to offers and be decisive
7. The guy who reaches for the last nickel never gets it

Rank, tenure and level are all factors in determining coaching pay. What allof this fails to take into consideration is that the personality of the hiringperson, his personal stake in it and his views about the budget and spending,greatly effects the entire matter of pay. At any level of the game, some folksare generous and some are stingy. It is that simple.





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