The offer call is where a hiring process meets a number. If that number is still being decided during the call, the conversation is carrying work that should have happened before it.
Someone asks for more. The hiring manager wants to say yes. Nobody in the conversation knows what the actual ceiling is, whether it can move, what it would mean for the two people already in that band, or who is allowed to approve it. So a figure gets agreed in the moment and reconstructed as a decision afterwards.
Settle these before you dial
What has actually been approved, and by whom. Not the number you hope they accept — the number you are permitted to reach, and the person who can authorise going past it. If that answer is unclear before the call, it will not become clearer during one.
What you will say if they ask for more than the top of the range. Improvising a no is how people accidentally say maybe.
What is negotiable besides base. Start date, review timing, title, whatever your business has genuinely approved. If the answer is nothing, know that before you are asked.
What the offer means for the people already there. Internal consistency is a decision, not an afterthought — and it is much easier to hold before an offer than to unwind after one.
Who is making the call, and who is on it. A negotiation with two voices from your side and no agreed position is not a negotiation.
Writing those down in advance is the whole point of a preparation sheet. It is not paperwork — it is the difference between a conversation you are having and one that is happening to you.
The part worth being honest about
Here is what this pack does not do, in its own words: no acceptance rate, savings or hiring outcome is promised.
That is worth stating flatly. We are not going to tell you a script closes more candidates or lowers what you pay for them. What a script can do is help you arrive with your position settled, your limits known, and your answers prepared. Whether the person accepts, and at what number, depends on them, your offer, and their alternatives — none of which a document controls.
Preparation resources only. There is no salary dataset, no Excel calculator, no automated email course and no negotiation service in here. Obtain suitable market data separately. To organize and document the inputs you supply, see our Compensation Benchmarking Methodology Workbook — which does not include a salary dataset either.
Compensation Benchmarking Methodology Workbook
What is in the download
One ZIP, five files: the Compensation Negotiation Scripts as an editable Word document with a PDF reading copy, a Compensation Decision Prep Sheet in both formats, and a START-HERE.pdf. The PDFs are reading or print companions; compatible software is required and is not included. $19.99, instant download.
Compensation Negotiation Scripts
Adapt the scripts to the offer, the person and the decisions your business has approved.