markhanna930

Advice on negotiating offer after current firm countered

I was offered an AE role last week and the deadline to accept is approaching. I told my current company about the offer and they countered by offering a higher base (making the OTE about equal to my current offer).

Current company has less stability, a "cooler" product, and I've been with them since series A funding, so perhaps my attachment is tied to seeing it grow. Any advice on how to get a higher base from the offer? If it bumped ~10-15k on the salary I'd sign.

I feel there must be other posts on this but can't seem to find a relevant one.

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goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

Never accept a counter. If they wanted you to stay they would have paid you. If you wanted to stay you wouldn’t have applied and interviewed elsewhere.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

And it will always be in your head...the "what if" won't stop.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

It also says that you're willing to leave in their minds. It'll create a subconscious rift

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Absolutely this as well. 💯

roftheyear

Opinionated

Account Executive

exactly. too late now

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I do know somebody who did this successfully and is still at the original company after accepting the counter. However, in a fairly small world of similar solutions, the bridge is now burned at the company where the offer was accepted, signed, and had a start date - and the rep let them know at the last minute that a counter offer had been tendered and accepted. That rep will not get a position at that company in the future, nor will others who know what happened put that rep forward for a position in the future. Small world, and actions have consequences. Don’t burn bridges on either side. If the offer is better and you like the change, take it. If you’re leveraging the offer to get a better deal at your current company, just don’t sign the other offer unless you are willing to forgo a chance at working there in the future. You can certainly use the offer as a way to negotiate even more at your current role if you like (they offered me even more, but I’d love to stay if you can come up $x more), but as others have said, you were looking for a reason.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Are you so bold as to leverage your counter as a means to gain the compensation you want externally? Risky, especially if you’ve indicated that the company you are at is unstable or not meeting your needs.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

You should NOT be making a decision based on $10-15k. It’s not worth it.
And if you are hoping for counter offers, be ready for them to just cut bait and let you go.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

id think really hard about accepting a counter offer. how will they view you going forward? do you REALLY want to stay at a company that didnt do what they could to keep you?

starson

Good Citizen

Senior Sales Manager

To be fair. At the moment we all only see one side of the coin. Your current company. I feel there is a lack of background info.
Why did you negotiate with the other company? Why did you then tell your existing company about it? Desired outcomes?
How are both sides preventing that this becomes a repeat exercise if you stay?
I would treat this like any negotiation. Have a plan for the future. Figure out your negotiation bandwidth. Discuss more than just salary. Then pick the one that is best for you personally.

Juancallclose

Catalyst

Director

I'd never accept a counter. They will be looking for your replacement soon.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

I recommend you to stay and ask them to get another increase to be able to kill the other offer totally!

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

is money or current company being unstable the main factor for the switch ?

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

I would just be transparent, current company made an offer and now looking to get a bump to make the switch. Put it in their hands and make them show you how much they want to you.

Side note, why did you start interviewing, was it the money or another reason?

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Based on the current market...

I'd lean towards staying. You're familiar, they value you (because of the pay bump), and you know the product.

What does less stability mean?

How sure are you the new company has better stability?

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

Enterprise AE

You won't notice a $10k difference in salary after taxes on your paycheck.

Leave on good terms, if the new company doesn't work out you can always go and join back and ask for the salary requirements you're looking for. Lots of people "boomerang" back to companies to get a new title/higher pay - breaking out of the internal pay band caps.

Tireless

Contributor

CRO

If you have gone so far as to negotiate an offer, you are unhappy with your current job. Also, you must not have a lot of confidence in yourself as a rep if you are making a decision based on 10K base!

DefaultSalesDude

Executive

Director

A calculation I did to increase my OTE was to understand the OTE cost of hiring someone externally (which is often higher than what I was currently being offered), average length of time it takes to hire someone and thus loss of sales through that period, and avg expected time period until that new hire reaches full productivity. I've been blessed to be a consistent presidents club achiever so I was pretty comfortable with my numbers. Talk to your friends that are now hiring managers to get the latter numbers. Just know that they will still likely baulk even at the enormity of that number despite how accurate it might be.

LeadMachine

Opinionated

Sr. BDR

Take them both. I worked w/an AE who was working for 9 different companies repping complimentary technologies so as to not have conflicts of intetest. He was setting records at each company. When they all found out, only 2 of the 9 fired him! Why not the other 7 too? He was the best rep they had ever had. Period! Hopefully this changes many folks perspectives on what a typical work environment should be, as opposed to living in fear you'll lose your (1) job. So.......act accordingly.

ForgivenAll

Sales Engineer

After 17+ years working for in a highly-compensated Sales Engineering position (100% commission), I started seeking other employment. I had tried buying into an ownership position, worked ownership and coworkers trying to make the situation better but continually found myself complaining outside of the office to friends and colleagues in a mastermind group. They challenged me to look elsewhere and I struggled to bring myself to believe there was anything that could be as good as what I currently had. In one lunch meeting with an outside colleague where I was hoping he might know of a potential spot for me in our field of work. Surprisingly, he said, "Come work for us!"

After negotiating back and forth and signing their offer, I informed my employer I was giving my two-weeks notice only to hear, "Oh, man! I never knew. Wow! You're dropping all this at my feet! Why didn't you come to me?

My verbal response was, "How do I come to you without having another position sewn up and express my desire to leave AND have it work out well for me?"

My non-verbal thought-response was, "You still don't get it. Me laying this at your feet ISN'T my problem anymore. This is EXACTLY why I'm leaving is because you won't accept fault at shift it to me."

That's when he and other owners asked, "What can we do?" Which is a question far too late. They had hints but didn't heed them. Although I probably didn't need permission, out of respect for my boss' position as an owner, I requested permission to contact the other owners so they could hear it directly from me and not thru the grapevine. Three of the owners in the home office drove up to thank me for my years of service (and probably see why I was leaving).

Over lunch I told them, "If anyone asks internally, I'm telling them, 'Ya know, I'm old enough where I probably only have enough years in me for one more career change and if I don't do it now, it probably won't happen.' but I said to the other owners, "You have other sales guys like me in the organization and although I don't know their compensation agreement, here is a list of sales DE-motivators that I've been experiencing and maybe could be affecting others." Then I listed off three grievances. The two owners looked at each other then turned back to me saying, "Wow... we didn't know that!" I responded, "Yeah, I figured but how do I rat on my boss (one of the owners) to you guys and yet maintain a working relationship with him?"

So, long story longer, my last words out of my mouth were, "Guys, I've given my word to my new employer but I want to leave here on such good terms that if ever you were to have me back that the door would be open to me." The answer was ABSOLUTELY!

If they would have sweetened the pot by $X or Y%, I still couldn't have stayed. I knew that I had an open door to someday possibly go back but if I stayed now, I would not be closing a door but KICKING the door closed forever with the new employer. The only way I would have considered staying is had they made way into ownership. And that would have required a come-to-Jesus meeting where we all knew the playing field and the rules.

So, I agree with the others. Accepting a counter-offer at this stage is temporarily advantageous but possibly more detrimental than you think.

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markhanna930

Advice on negotiating offer after current firm countered

20 comments

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