How to Get a Counteroffer

OK. So you’ve decided you’re underpaid. A few of your team mates are making considerably more than you.
You know you’re as good (if not better) than them, so what gives?

You really do like your job. The company Christmas party is off the hook! The drive is less than 5 minutes and your best buddies work there too…….but you keep seeing jobs all over the internet paying more than what you're making and it's starting to weigh on your mind......

So what can you do about it? Call a recruiter? Well, maybe…..

But you know what happens next, right? If you’re so good- you’ll be going on an interview next week. Then another. Pretty soon you’ve got yourself an offer. More money!!! Woo hoo!!

But wait! Now you’ve got to resign. And you don’t really want to do that, do you? You’ve got to go through with this, though…….right? The recruiter is calling you night and day making sure you’re “on the same page” and you’ve already reluctantly agreed that he can accept an offer on your behalf. Who knows – maybe he already did…?

This isn’t what you really wanted, is it? To leave all your friends? To bail out on the awesome project you’ve been working on the past 2 years? It’s just about ready to go into production. All your hard work – and you’ll never see how happy your customers are……bummer……

I’ve got a solution for you. All you really want is more money. Heck – we all want that. So let me help you do just that without dragging a few other companies and that nice recruiter through the mud.

Wear your best suit into work tomorrow. Look better than you have since you interviewed there to begin with. Let your boss know you need the afternoon off. She’ll ask you why. Just let her know “It’s personal” and try to seem a bit apprehensive about it.

Next week you’ll need to take a whole day off. Again – let your boss know it’s personal. You might jokingly say “I’m not going on any interviews or anything” and then throw in something about your grandma not doing so well and she lives quite a distance away. Again – keep it somewhat vague.

Hang in there. You’re almost done Just one more step. This is the important one. You now need to tell your boss you need a few minutes. She’s already thinking something is up and this will confirm it. Her suspicion will be that you’re leaving – and she can’t have that happen now. Not at this critical time!

When you’re in her office let her know you just want to get a better idea of where you’ll be in the next few years. Ask about your chance of promotion. Let her know you feel like you need some more responsibility – but NEVER let on that you’ve been “interviewing” – just make it appear as though you’re at a crossroads and “might” be looking elsewhere. She’ll suspect this. She’s been here before. Trust me.

She’ll be on the phone with HR in a matter of minutes. Within a day or two you’ll find yourself in a meeting again. This time she’ll be happy to let you know that she’s been thinking of your career plan there – and while
that all shapes up – there is also a salary increase she’s requested for you. There you have it. You’re in!

Simple. No hassle. No bitter recruiter. No other company involved. Just you, your company and your new, phatter paycheck.

Good luck!

Comment by Maureen Sharib on October 16, 2010 at 8:05am: "what's in one's best interest" <--This is an interesting subject. I wonder how the readers of this string would vet in on this subject.

Is working in one's own best interests the best way to get things done?

Think about this one before you answer -it's a subject that holds promise to be explosive. I'll go out on the limb here and state that I think working in one's own best interest is the better way to conduct business and I'll stretch out further on the branch and say I believe that's how most successful companies work.

What do you think?

Comment by bill josephson on October 16, 2010 at 8:44am: I think what SURESH VENKATARAMAN said was telling. He's ready to pull the plug on any employee holding, or possibly holding, him hostage with 2-3 candidates "waiting in the wings."

This IS the precise reason candidates use Recruiters to better themselves. An employee of Suresh would be canned if using the process to better themself. So instead of doing so nakedly, they'd wait till they have an offer. If Suresh cans them, they take the job offer. They're unlikely to take the risk in this jobs market to walk in PRIOR to having an offer in hand. Way too risky.

Those espousing "straightforwardness" in getting more money are correct in a utopian world. Problem is we live in the real world where there are few Saints, but many acting in their own interest where usually a person leaves their spouse when they already have another relationship lined up.

Just my 30 years of recruiting five cents............

Comment by SURESH VENKATARAMAN on October 16, 2010 at 9:00am: As Vice President Managed Services I had no options. I have an approved Budget for a Year for my team of 50 SAP Consultants. I cannot keep moving my Budgets based on Market values for consultants. Also every Employee cannot think he deserves the Market Rates. I have had team members whose communication rating was 5/10 and who needed coaching and support from others to deliver goods to HP.

Comment by Paul Alfred on October 16, 2010 at 10:21am: I think recruiters need to realize that a qualified candidate will get a counter offer and you can and must head off this possibility by dealing with counter offers the minute the candidate walks through your door to discuss the role ... One needs to ask candidates will they accept a counter and be prepared to tell the candidate that you or not prepared to submit him or her to your client if you are going to accept a counter and explain what happens when a counter is accepted ...

Does this mean that you will not get counter acceptance - no - but you have covered it and this forces the candidate to think long and hard about the role even before they go out to their first interview with your client.

The candidate takes you seriously and realizes you are not a push over and you can't be used. Your client realizes that you are not wasting their time and yours as you have covered the counter offer issue, your client is also prepared ahead of time that the candidate could get countered, (Which is not always a bad thing - money wise :) ) You have covered your self with a backup candidate as well...

I tell all rookies I have trained or managed if your not prepared to stop the interview if the candidate says they will accept a counter then you have not closed the candidate before he/she meets your client. ( that conversation could sound like .."so if your Employer offers you 5,10, or a $20k salary increase you would still leave" - this is believe it or not part of the closing technique as you need to drill down early as to why the candidate wants to leave current employer ( Perhaps a blog on closing is necessary) )

Your counter offer acceptance ratio to hire should drop tremendously if this is adopted as apart of your initial interview with your candidate ... Sorry Jerry I did not want this to be blog about how to deal with counter offers before they occur .....

Comment by Barbara Goldman on October 16, 2010 at 12:01pm: Counteroffers haven't been as much as a problem with the economic downturn. I tuly believe that as soon as the economy picks up, we are in for a real fight. Thanks for the post. Candidates aren't savvy, and if confronted with a counter offer are many times unprepared for it emotionally. I always have the candidates ask for what they want from the employer before we start the interview process. This is a good tactic. If the candidate gets what he wants, then I haven't wasted my time. If the candidate is turned down, we have a wonderful place from which to start interviewing.

Comment by bill josephson on October 16, 2010 at 12:12pm: My candidates are prepared for counter offers. Maybe mine are better sociopaths than yours, or maybe far more naive. Either way, intentionally or unintentionally they get a counter offer eradicating their reson for looking using my generated offer. If it doean't work out, they show up on their start date.

My point is qualifying and getting a commitment from all is how we're trained. I'm saying that the "commitment" aspect from the candidate seems to be, from my experience, passe.

And as for when the jobs return the market will be roaring? Yes, except God knows when that will be based on the inordinate number of head winds we've had in the corporate sector for almost 10 years due to offshoring, H-1's, doing more with less technologically, and onerous corporate taxes, government mandates, and regulations combined with tax incentives to send work overseas. A Chinese worker makes 1/10 the wage of an American with a lower cost of doing business there.

Comment by pam claughton on October 16, 2010 at 12:43pm: I've found two good ways to avoid counteroffer issues, have the counteroffer conversation in the first interview and make sure that money is not their only reason for looking. If it is, these are the folks who will take a counteroffer, so the easy solution is to find that out in the first phone call and if it is all about money, consider making the seemingly difficult decision to not work with them at that point, because we all know that if the candidate is outstanding, the money that was initially said to not exist, will miraculously be found and offered to them, and if that's their only issue, they'll take it.

Comment by Ken Forrester on October 16, 2010 at 3:11pm: Based on most of the comments so far, I believe that counteroffer is more of a problem for corporate recruiters than agency recruiters. Corporate recruiters are pretty happy to just to find a quality resume from all the junk resumes coming from career sites, social networking sites, job postings, SEO tools..etc…. And not having to pay a placement fee is icing on the cake. So, they’ll hurry that candidate through the interview process and very often the end result is a turndown. Most likely a counteroffer. Just as simple as Jerry can spot a counteroffer issue early in the process and avoid that candidate all together or Paul and others will use anti-counteroffer measures to diffuse that time bomb-because they only earn a placement fee if the candidate leaves one employer and starts employment with their clients. It is the recruiters who have to rely on candidates coming to them who are more at risk in wasting valuable time with candidates on a counter offer mission. Bottom-line: It is the active candidates that you need to watch pretty closely.

Comment by Kevin Womack on November 1, 2010 at 4:29pm: Maybe a good follow up article could be the story of candidates that accept counteroffers, then get fired by their employers once that "critical project" is completed.

Just a thought.

Comment by Jerry Albright on October 18, 2011 at 9:30am: Just had to go through this one again. I was just on the phone with a customer and the discussion reminded me of this from last year. Good stuff!