Wanted to throw in my $150,000 advice, since I don’t play around with 2 cents anymore.
Interviews can be nerve-wracking, but negotiation is all about perception.
Someone once told me “You get out of life what you expect.” Dude, it sounds like you’re the man, and the right person for the job! Why’s that, you ask?
A. Big 4 experience - You’d be lying if you said companies would kill for those hires. For a startup, this is invaluable. B. Risk taking - by jumping to a different role, FOR A STARTUP, it shows that you are not afraid of risk. But not foolish risk; no, you have calculated the potential gains, you’ve gotten insider info on the company, and you feel that, despite the company being new, you can not only increase their worth but make a personal killing while doing so C. Leveraging your network - people buy from those they trust. You networked into their key players and landed a seat at the interview. Think about it this way: they are so impressed they are setting aside an hour or two FROM A STARTUP, to talk with you. How much money/opportunities do you think they are missing out on in that hour?
In conclusion - get it out of your head that you’re greedy. Sales is about helping others, and making a killing while doing so. Asking for a “high” number (especially after seeing what’s out there) is natural, and if this is the type of company that judges you for asking, DONT WORK THERE.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong approach here. My personal opinion: I stepped away from letting them speak first, to I speak first. Couple reasons:
D. Anchoring. Look that shit up. Whatever number is said first, the outcome is much more likely that the end result will be near that number.
Example: I’m selling a software project that typically sells at $20K. Knowing that, what do I do? “Mr. Customer, these services typically fall around three buckets. $23K, $100K, or $230K. Which one of those do you fall into?” Imagine their shock (which they will be) when they were expecting a near $40K investment and I just said 5x that number. Yeah, they come back with, “OMG, can’t believe you said $230K, we would be more in the $32-36K range.”
Boom. Win-win. Even if they went with $32K, they saved $8K off their perceived sticker price, and I just won a sweet $9K extra.
E. Games - we all play them. But the truth is, my man, at the end of the day you need to do this for you, not a favor to your friend. If the company starts to leverage that relationship as such, then don’t even return their call. That’s already a recipe for disaster, and it’s not even Day 1.