The four sentences that carry a salary conversation

You do not need to be good at negotiating. You need four sentences and the discipline to stop talking after each one.

The first names a number before they do. The second connects it to evidence they already agree with. The third is silence — genuinely, say nothing. The fourth gives them a way to say yes that doesn't cost them face.

In practice the hardest one is the third. In mock sessions, people fill the pause an average of four seconds in, and almost always by negotiating against themselves.

We rehearse this until it's boring. Boring is the goal: the conversation should feel like something you've already had.