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> Here's an idea: compensation agents who negotiate the compensation package on your behalf. Athletes and actors have them, why not everyone else? I'd definite

> Here's an idea: compensation agents who negotiate the compensation package on your behalf. Athletes and actors have them, why not everyone else? I'd definitely be willing to pay for something like this. Make it commission based (pay as a percentage of additional salary negotiated) and the incentives between the negotiator and client will be perfectly aligned.

dsp1234 10y ago
the incentives between the negotiator and client will be perfectly aligned. I'm not sure that this is the case when talking about such low amounts. Taking hints from a similar "agent with percentage", think real estate agents. Unless an agent is working with pretty high level homes, the 3% they are getting is not significantly effected by a something like 20k up or down on a $300k house. It's an extra $600, but often their time is better spent getting the deal closed as quickly as possible for as many people as possible. If that $20k for the client takes an extra few days the haggle, the agent could have been working with another client on another $300k house deal. In both cases, the thing that throws the agent and client out of alignment is the fact that the deals come through very infrequently, thus from the agent's perspective, they need to keep clients hustled through the door in order to be able to keep their own cash flow going, and working extra hard for a minimal gain isn't going to generally effect future gains. Most engineers would just use the same agent regardless unless the agent was spectacularly bad. (and there are way more rules for real estate agents than there would be for a hypothetical engineer's agent)
- mindslight 10y ago
  A better compensation structure would take into account that the majority of the price is a given, and compensate say 30% of the price over $270k. But that would require realtors to give accurate and competitive assessments of property values, distracting from their primary hustle which is getting their client to sign an exclusive contract.
- bryondowd 10y ago
  Could still be room for a win for people who are just exceptionally bad negotiators. Non-confrontationalists who can't bring themselves to ask for more and the like. Basically, a half-assed job by a professional, minus a significant cut, could still be significantly better than just taking a first offer or meekly saying 'Is that the best you can do?' and getting a token 1/2% bump. Not sure if that would pan out, or that's a large enough target audience. Just a thought.
ghaff 10y ago
And the agents for athletes take in the ballpark of 10% or so of their total compensation.
- pc86 10y ago
  Total compensation is the important part here. Everyone talking about how great an agent would be are forgetting that under the current way every agent works, they'd be writing off 10% of their paychecks in perpetuity to that agent (or at least along a defined timeline).
pc86 10y ago
> pay as a percentage of additional salary negotiated So many things wrong with this. Agents typically negotiate fixed-term contracts for athletes and entertainers. Agents take 10% of the entire pot, not "additional salary negotiated" whatever that means. You don't know what you would have been able to negotiate so there is no "additional" amount, only what they got you. Are you willing to give 10% of every paycheck to your agent?
- lewisl9029 10y ago
  Not sure why you're assuming I wanted something analogous to agents for athletes and entertainers. Those work full time and have a lot more responsibilities and provide many more services than simply doing a one time negotiation for a higher salary, none of which I'm actually looking for. I'm looking to pay someone to negotiate a salary raise on my behalf in exchange for a cut of the additional salary negotiated. It's a one time deal, that should take a couple of emails and a couple of phone calls at most, not a full-time job. It has the potential to pay very well considering the minimum amount of effort required on the part of the "agent" as far as I can see. Of course, I'm not denying that there could be something I'm missing that could make this arrangement infeasible (in fact, other replies have already mentioned many such factors), but I'm not sure how your post about agents for athletes and entertainers was in any way relevant to the discussion.

dsp1234 10y ago

the incentives between the negotiator and client will be perfectly aligned. I'm not sure that this is the case when talking about such low amounts. Taking hints from a similar "agent with percentage", think real estate agents. Unless an agent is working with pretty high level homes, the 3% they are getting is not significantly effected by a something like 20k up or down on a $300k house. It's an extra $600, but often their time is better spent getting the deal closed as quickly as possible for as many people as possible. If that $20k for the client takes an extra few days the haggle, the agent could have been working with another client on another $300k house deal. In both cases, the thing that throws the agent and client out of alignment is the fact that the deals come through very infrequently, thus from the agent's perspective, they need to keep clients hustled through the door in order to be able to keep their own cash flow going, and working extra hard for a minimal gain isn't going to generally effect future gains. Most engineers would just use the same agent regardless unless the agent was spectacularly bad. (and there are way more rules for real estate agents than there would be for a hypothetical engineer's agent)

mindslight 10y ago
A better compensation structure would take into account that the majority of the price is a given, and compensate say 30% of the price over $270k. But that would require realtors to give accurate and competitive assessments of property values, distracting from their primary hustle which is getting their client to sign an exclusive contract.
bryondowd 10y ago
Could still be room for a win for people who are just exceptionally bad negotiators. Non-confrontationalists who can't bring themselves to ask for more and the like. Basically, a half-assed job by a professional, minus a significant cut, could still be significantly better than just taking a first offer or meekly saying 'Is that the best you can do?' and getting a token 1/2% bump. Not sure if that would pan out, or that's a large enough target audience. Just a thought.

ghaff 10y ago

And the agents for athletes take in the ballpark of 10% or so of their total compensation.

pc86 10y ago
Total compensation is the important part here. Everyone talking about how great an agent would be are forgetting that under the current way every agent works, they'd be writing off 10% of their paychecks in perpetuity to that agent (or at least along a defined timeline).

pc86 10y ago

> pay as a percentage of additional salary negotiated So many things wrong with this. Agents typically negotiate fixed-term contracts for athletes and entertainers. Agents take 10% of the entire pot, not "additional salary negotiated" whatever that means. You don't know what you would have been able to negotiate so there is no "additional" amount, only what they got you. Are you willing to give 10% of every paycheck to your agent?

lewisl9029 10y ago
Not sure why you're assuming I wanted something analogous to agents for athletes and entertainers. Those work full time and have a lot more responsibilities and provide many more services than simply doing a one time negotiation for a higher salary, none of which I'm actually looking for. I'm looking to pay someone to negotiate a salary raise on my behalf in exchange for a cut of the additional salary negotiated. It's a one time deal, that should take a couple of emails and a couple of phone calls at most, not a full-time job. It has the potential to pay very well considering the minimum amount of effort required on the part of the "agent" as far as I can see. Of course, I'm not denying that there could be something I'm missing that could make this arrangement infeasible (in fact, other replies have already mentioned many such factors), but I'm not sure how your post about agents for athletes and entertainers was in any way relevant to the discussion.