I've been lucky in that I haven't needed to negotiate as much in the past few years, but about five years ago, I had one of those moments. I was between direct supervisors, temporarily reporting to a vice president. I was happy to be with the company, but unhappy with salary and the pace of my professional growth. When it came time to sit down with my new boss and discuss goals for the year, I put him on the spot: "I want to become a senior programmer/analyst and I want to make X amount of money. What do I need to do to make these things happen?" He listed out the things that I needed to to learn to add to our overall department skill set, and projects that I would need to complete. I did all of those things and more. It was really a great outcome on both ends, because I got the promotion and the raise, and they got a more productive employee. It's the way that things should be.