Job Offer Negotiation: New Company

Question for all Savages here:


After the gauntlet of interviews and you finally arrive to job offer, can some of you share some tips and tricks to professionally negotiate for the comp package (i.e: non-recoverable draws, sign-on bonus, restricted share units).


Would love to get some ideas and get some strategies on how to help our fellow sales people.

1
broette
Contributor
1
Enterprise AE
1) Never share your number first: some recruiters call you and enthusiastically say "we're excited to let you know that we're going to extend an offer" then follow up with "but we would like to understand your salary expectations" before sharing offer details. The ONLY purpose of that question is to make sure they don't pay you more than what you'd settle for. I refused to share my expectations with a company just 2 weeks ago and they said they'd put something together without it, only to call me the next day saying "the team has decided to pass" lol. AFTER they had already told me I had the job. I had another offer in hand, so it wasn't a big deal outside of the time I spent interviewing with them. In fact, I was actually happy this happened because companies that play these games and then pull offers when they see they can't lowball you aren't a place where I want to be working anyway.
2) If you MUST share your number first (you love this company, you don't want to lose this offer for whatever reason), then share a range with your lower end being slightly higher than what you'd actually want to make. Aka you want to get $300K OTE, say you're talking to companies that offer $310-$320 OTE. I usually also say the final number will depend on the number of RSUs/stock options and other things like draw, ramp, quota, so they have room to bring the OTE up and justify it. They'll likely try to give you $280-290K to counter anchor, but you can push it up to $300-310K. 
3) Research salaries and talk to other reps currently there or who recently left. Ask why they left. I built enough rapport with a few reps at a company I was interviewing at and they were even comfortable sharing their comp details with me. That's how I knew my offer was actually pretty darn good especially after I negotiated it ;) 
4) If already in negotiations, tell them you have a few more interviews that you are wrapping up at 2-3 other places, but this company is your top choice and all you're waiting to see is how the comp packages compare. If it's truly your top choice, tell them "if you're able to offer $X more, I'd be happy to sign the offer today and cancel the other interviews". Most places that truly want you will budge since waiting for you to finish other rounds is also a risk for them because you might potentially be getting even higher comp packages elsewhere that may be well above that $X extra that you'd asked for.
ARRisLife
Politicker
0
Account Executive
@broette this is really insightful! Thank you.

Follow up question; If you were going for a new role and the offer was actually very good, ie significantly better than your current role and well in expectations of what you'd hope for.  Would you still try and negotiate for something, simply because everything should be a negotiation?
broette
Contributor
0
Enterprise AE
absolutely! In fact, I did get a really good offer and then got another $20k on top of it. I think it should be expected that you'll at least try to negotiate even if you're happy with the original offer. We're in sales - negotiation is one of the most crucial skills we're expected to have. If I were a hiring manager and learned that the candidate did not even try to negotiate, it would be a red flag to me about their skills. 
ARRisLife
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Yeah thanks for the validation, that was my thought exactly.  If a candidate is willing to leave money on the table for themself what will they do when negotiating for the company.

Did you discuss or even have to ask about ramping quarter guarantee? I'm curious if this is industry standard. IE paying out your first quarter while you're ramping to compensate for what you're leaving on table from your last job
broette
Contributor
0
Enterprise AE
Oh yes, I get 3 months of nonrecoverable draw and negotiated my total quota down as well. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
Nice negotiating 🔥
6

Question about offer negotiation for a new role/job.

Question
9
5

New Offer- What're you negotiating?!

Question
7
7

Have you reneged on a job offer?

Question
10
What would you do?
19% Accept the offer and stick with it
49% Accept the offer and renege if you get something better
32% Decline the offer. You've got other irons in the fire anyways.
94 people voted