The 3-step process for navigating a physician compensation agreement is mindset, market, and making it happen.    Let’s talk about the market piece and how it impacts your negotiations. There’s actually a wide variety of pay scales and many different variables that play into it.    This is why we need to do our homework.    Market data gives us an idea of how much people are willing to pay for our clinical skill set, our leadership, and the value we bring. It empowers us to make a more educated decision when we find the right job.    If we want our value to be recognized, and to negotiate a package we'll be thrilled about, we can’t skip this critical step.    How can we gather reliable information about the market? How can you create a stretch goal for how much you want to earn?    In this episode, I share how to use market data as you navigate your deal. Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode  The best market data we can get One of the best and most accurate ways to get more information on market data is actually having multiple offers. There’s nothing better than having 4 or 5 offers in hand and knowing what different people will pay for the same skill set.    Why we need to set our compensation goal before negotiations When we let a specific offer dictate our decision making, everything is going to be in comparison to that one figure. That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Independently decide what your goals are before an offer is in hand so you won’t get impacted by an artificial focal point.   How to come up with a compensation goal The number you need to focus on in your negotiation is your high expectation number. That’s the number that gets you close to where you want to be. It needs to be a stretch goal, a bold figure that makes you slightly uncomfortable. That’s the number that demonstrates the value you want to be reflected in your contract.