For mid-career professionals · Internal raise conversations
You have the numbers. Rehearse what happens when they say “budgets are tight.”
The script is on your screen. You still don’t know what you’ll say when the silence lands.
You’ve pulled market data. You’ve listed the projects that moved revenue or cut costs. The meeting with your manager is Tuesday. What you can’t picture is stating “I’d like to bring my base to $142k” and then sitting there while they pivot to frozen budgets, internal equity, or a title bump with no base change. Kommi puts you in that room first — with a manager who pushes back the way real managers do — so Tuesday isn’t your first take.
The evidence isn’t the hard part.
Every career blog has the same four-step plan: document wins, research market rate, schedule the meeting, state your number and stop talking. You have the spreadsheet. What you don’t have is muscle memory for when your manager says “I hear you, but we’re at the top of band for your level” and you have to decide in real time whether to hold the ask or accept a vague “let’s revisit in Q3.”
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What’s at stake
Accepting a 3% COLA when you’re 15% below market costs $8k–$20k a year — compounding every raise cycle after. One soft conversation can lock in the gap for two years.
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Why you procrastinate
You don’t want to sound greedy. You keep rehearsing the opening in your head but skip the part where they say no and you have to respond without backtracking.
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What scripts can’t do
Salary script builders give you the words. They can’t simulate your manager going quiet for six seconds while you wonder if you asked for too much.
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What a coach costs
One hour with a negotiation coach runs $200–400. You need three reps across the weekend — Saturday night, Sunday morning, Monday lunch — not one polished monologue.
Sample roleplay · 3 minutes
“I hear you, but budgets are really tight this cycle.”
You’re Jordan. You’ve walked through your wins and stated your number. Now your manager pushes back.
You (Jordan)
“Based on what I’m seeing on Levels.fyi and a few recruiter conversations, market rate for my scope at this level is $135k–$150k. I’m at $124k. I’d like to bring my base to $142k.”
Your manager
“I really value what you’ve delivered on the platform migration. I want to be straight with you — raise budgets are tight this cycle. I can probably get you 4%, but $142k is above band for your level. Have you thought about a senior title instead?”
Your move
- → Acknowledge the constraint, then ask what milestones unlock a band exception
- → Separate title from base: “I’m open to scope conversation — and I need base to reflect it”
- → Counter with equity or bonus if base is truly frozen — but pin a revisit date
Each choice changes how your manager responds. The room gets uncomfortable. You practice holding your number without sounding adversarial — or catching yourself when you’re about to accept “let’s revisit” without a date on the calendar.
Then the coach reads you back to yourself.
Not a negotiation scorecard. Not a list of tactics from a book. One observation about what you did, one adjustment for next time, one sentence you can carry into Tuesday’s meeting.
Sample coach debrief
“You stated your number clearly and backed it with market data — strong opening. When your manager offered 4% and a title bump, you immediately said ‘that could work, let me think about it’ and dropped your ask. That signals you didn’t believe the number yourself.
Try next time: Pause after the 4% offer. Ask one clarifying question: ‘Help me understand — is the band the blocker, or is it timing? If I hit [specific milestone] by September, what base is realistic?’
Carry into Tuesday: ‘I’m not asking for a number pulled from thin air — I’m asking to close a documented gap. What would it take to get to $138k by Q3, and can we put that in writing?’”
Questions before you ask for a raise
- Is this for new job offers or asking my current employer?
- Both work, but this page is tuned for internal raises — the conversation where you have less leverage than a competing offer, and your manager cites budgets, bands, and timing. You can practice offer negotiations too inside Kommi.
- I already have scripts from Levels.fyi or a career blog. Why practice?
- Scripts tell you what to say. They don’t prepare you for the moment your manager goes quiet, offers a title without base, or says “let’s revisit.” Kommi is where you hear yourself respond under pressure — and fix the backtrack before it costs you money.
- What if my manager is supportive but says HR controls everything?
- That’s one of the most common paths in the roleplay. You practice partnering with your manager on the business case — asking what evidence they need, what timeline HR uses, and what a concrete “yes if” looks like instead of an open-ended maybe.
- Is $11.99/mo worth it for one raise conversation?
- One percentage point on a $130k salary is $1,300 a year — every year after. A single hour with a negotiation coach costs more than a year of Kommi. You also get unlimited sessions across every scenario we ship: performance reviews, peer conflict, hard talks outside work.
$11.99 a month.
A coach with a calendar runs two hundred dollars an hour. Kommi runs roughly forty cents a day — and is awake when you can't sleep, which is when most of these conversations are actually being rehearsed anyway.
We don't have a free tier, a team plan, or a premium upsell. One price, no pricing page riddle. If we add tiers later, we'll do it because users asked — not because a growth deck did.
About forty cents a day.
- Two free sessions, no card required
- Then $11.99 a month — about forty cents a day
- Unlimited sessions — any conversation you can describe
- A coaching read after every session, and your progress over time
- Cancel in two taps; we'll remember you if you come back
One conversation you’d have talked yourself out of is worth years of this. Or just sleep better on Wednesday. Either way.
Run your first rehearsal — free, no cardUS only at launch. We'll get to the rest of the world.
The conversation is on Thursday. Begin tonight.
No card. Three minutes. Then you decide.