Many job candidates in the construction industry fail to negotiate when they receive an employment offer. Failure to engage in employment offer negotiations typically stems from an applicant’s lack of negotiation skills, fear of rejection, or worry that attempts to negotiate will anger a hiring manager. Construction and engineering professionals should arrive at the negotiating table armed with current salary data and a summary of their special skills. Below are five tips designed to help professionals in the construction and engineering industries successfully engage in employment offer negotiations.

1) Do your research. Arrive at the negotiating table armed with the latest statistics and salary trends in the construction or engineering industries. Make sure that the data you reference possesses the following attributes:

• Citing data from the past twelve months will help your case.
• Statistics and salary data that you cite should correspond to the position you seek and your qualifications.
• Cite data from credible sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2) Have your brag book on hand. Do not be afraid to remind employers of your accomplishments, awards, and notable projects you managed. You should also reference any contributions you have made to your local community. Summarize your professional achievements and activities in an organized format that will delight employers and enhance your odds of securing your dream offer.

3) Highlight your special skills and certifications. When you negotiate for additional compensation or job-related perks, you need to be ready to justify your value as an employee. Examples of relevant certifications or special skills that would help your negotiation efforts include the following:

• Certified Construction Manager (CCM)
• Certified Professional Construction Certification (CPCC)
• Construction Engineering Certification

4) Be prepared to compromise. Ideally, you will succeed with your negotiations. However, there is a chance that an employer will reject your request or present a counteroffer. Remember to respond gracefully regardless of the news that you receive.

5) Follow up. It is unlikely that you will receive a confirmed offer immediately after you finish negotiating with a potential employer. In most cases, hiring managers will require time to finalize a decision and prepare an updated offer. In the interim, follow up with the employer to express your appreciation for considering your request.

Do not enter employment offer negotiations without a strategic plan. By following the tips above, you can increase your odds of success at the negotiating table and receiving the employment offer that you deserve.

The more proper amongst us prefer that it be referred to as “the Road Show.” Whatever it is called, it is one of the most demanding, exasperating and truly frustrating experiences that any entrepreneur will be called up to participate in.

The tension comes from several fronts.

First, this is the hour that truly may make or break your company.

As if that weren’t sufficient, it is also a time when you will be expected to meet and entice a set of total strangers.

It is the time when failed equipment or misspelling in the overheads can spell disaster.

Most importantly, it is the time when the venture capitalists judge YOU. Your idea has already been presented, probably in a well-constructed financing proposal. Something in that proposal caught their attention – you may or may not know at this point what it was that caught their attention.

There are things that you can do to make this harrowing experience work. For instance:

1. Do your homework on the venture capital firm.
Find out everything that you can about this group: its focus, its members, its recent investments, its successes, and its failures.

Research the background of the key players. What boards of directors do the members currently sit on? What is each one’s specialty?

Have any partners recently joined or left the firm?

Has a new investment fund been announced?

What has been the investment trend of the firm over the past 2-4 years?

2. Incorporate your knowledge of this group into your presentation.
If, for instance, one of their portfolio companies would be your supplier or customer, show that name in the flow chart.

If your company’s success is dependent on recruiting from top universities, use the names of the universities that the partners attended as examples.

One young entrepreneur recently asked me why he should mention these names, insisting that the partners already knew this information. Yes, I said, they do know it, and they need to know that YOU know it. Let them know that they are important enough to you that you have devoted a fair amount of time to learn about them.

3 Break away from a PowerPoint presentation.

Don’t get me wrong – I personally think PowerPoint is the greatest piece of presentation software ever invented. I have used it – a lot. And so has everyone else.

Do you have any notion how many PowerPoint presentations your audience has sat through? Mmmm. That’s nothing I would want to do.

So demonstrate your creativity and show your product/idea in a different way. A prototype. A diagram. An image that builds item by item as you talk. Do a brief PowerPoint at the beginning, then break away into a different kind of presentation.

4. Make sure you respond to any questions that members of the group may have.
It may not be possible to bring all your team members to the presentation, but it must be possible to have them standing by in case you need to call for a clarification on a particular issue.

A good technique is to give a “short” response immediately, then promise a more complete follow up. This gives you a definite reason to contact the firm again.

5. Make sure there is a plan for follow up.
Don’t leave the room with issues dangling, or with no clear path for re-connecting with the investors.

Odds are, they won’t offer this re-connection, other than to say, “We’ll be in touch.” It is up to you to provide the steps for follow up. “I understand you would like drill down information on the 2nd and 3rd year projections. I’ll have that to you within 24 hours.” Then do it.

Like most things in life there is more than one way to achieve it, this is as true with presenting as anything else. Each year we create a huge variety of presentations all of which have different briefs and outcomes; therefore we approach every presentation differently applying our own style to each.

However there are recognized PowerPoint design methods, I’m going to talk briefly about 3 of them and describe their benefits.

The Takahashi Method

This method uses only text or an image on each slide. Each slide will only contain two or three short words in very large text or a full screen image. The aim is to deliver a very clear impactful message in a short amount of time, which forces the audience to listen to the speaker since the slides alone do not give insight into the content of the presentation.

Although the presenter will have a lot more slides than usual, the time spent on each slide will be relatively short.

The Godin Method

The result of this method is to let the speaker do the talking and the slides do the showing. The aim is to focus on selecting compelling images to enhance your messages and to better convey thoughts and ideas. When you use this message you are using the image-centric slides to add clarification and significance to engage the audience more in your presentation.

The relationship between your content and imagery will have emotional benefits and lasting impressions.

The Monta Method

This method takes it inspiration from the Japanese game show host Monta Mino. Presenters use a simple question and answer format on their slides. Questions are posed to the audience and are kept hidden on the slide until answers are put forward. This is a very interactive method of presenting; it’s highly engaging and will add emotional connections between you and your audience.

This is a very sociable method of presenting and may not be appropriate all the time or for use as a whole presentation, but can be used occasionally during the course of your presentation to break things up and get the audience involved.

As you can see a there are a variety of methods all with great benefits to presenting, and everyone has there own presentation style and methods to help make your next presentation memorable.