How to ask about a raise: preparing your case
The raise conversation you're dreading starts weeks earlier, when you build the file. Here's the prep work that makes the conversation survivable.
The raise conversation has a phase before the conversation. It’s the preparation phase, and most people skip it entirely, then wonder why the ask didn’t go the way they hoped.
Walking into a comp discussion without preparation is like walking into a job interview with no knowledge of the company. You might land it anyway, but you’ve made your own job harder than it needed to be.
What preparation actually produces
Preparation for a raise conversation does three things. It gives you a clear number to ask for, which prevents you from softening it in the moment. It gives you evidence to support the number, which transforms your ask from a personal plea into a business case. And it gives you confidence in the room, which changes how the ask lands, because managers read self-assurance as a signal of someone who has done their homework and is serious.
The unprepared version of this conversation sounds like: “I feel like I’ve grown a lot and I think I deserve more.” The prepared version sounds like: “I’ve led three significant initiatives this year, taken on expanded scope, and I’m below market for my role. I’m targeting [specific number].” Both are asking for the same thing. One is dramatically easier to say yes to.
What your manager is trying to do
When you bring a raise conversation to your manager, they are simultaneously evaluating whether your request is justified, figuring out whether they have the budget to act on it, and estimating whether you’re a retention risk if they don’t. Good preparation addresses all three.
Evidence of outcomes and scope tells them the request is justified. Market data frames the conversation around external reality, not internal loyalty. A clear ask tells them what it would take to retain you. Give them all three and you’ve made their job of deciding significantly easier.
The four things to have ready before you ask
Your outcomes, in writing. Pull everything from the past 12 months: your 1:1 docs, your status updates, any written feedback or praise you’ve received, project results. From all of that, extract four to five outcomes that have concrete impact. Not tasks, outcomes. “Completed the onboarding audit” is a task. “Completed the onboarding audit, reducing ramp time for new hires from six weeks to four” is an outcome. The metric is what makes it portable into your manager’s conversation with their manager.
Your scope gap. Write down what your job description said when you were hired and what you’re actually doing now. If those two things don’t match, the gap is your primary argument. Comp bands are built around role definitions. If your role has grown past the band, the band should grow too. Document the gap explicitly: “When I joined, this role did X. I now also do Y and Z.”
Market data. Use Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and Levels.fyi. Benchmark your exact title, years of experience, and city. Find the median and the top of the range. Know where you sit relative to both. This is public information you’re entitled to have and use. Bringing it into the conversation reframes the ask from “I want more” to “the market has moved and I’m below it.”
A specific number. This is the step most people never complete. They do the research, build the case, then walk in planning to say “something in the range of what’s fair.” That version doesn’t work. A specific number closes the loop. “I’m targeting $X” is a request your manager can evaluate. “Something in the range of fair” is a request they have to interpret, and they’ll interpret it conservatively.
The prep document
You don’t need to show this to your manager. It’s for you: to organize your thinking before the conversation and to stop you from retreating when they push back.
Fill this in before you request the meeting. Review it the morning of the conversation. Don’t bring the doc to the meeting unless you’re specifically asked for it.
A note on timing
Preparation is not an excuse to delay indefinitely. Pick a window, build the file in the two weeks before it, and have the conversation. The trap is using “I need to prepare better” as a reason to never actually ask.
The case doesn’t have to be airtight. It has to be good enough that your manager can carry it forward. Good preparation makes it good enough, and that threshold is lower than most people imagine.
Further reading
Filed under: Compensation , Career Development
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