Keeping a fallback offer
I have an offer from a consultancy. I normally avoid these because they burn and churn their staff and those gigs tend to dilute your personal brand. In this case it's OK fallback as it's project manager which is a well defined role and it's ERP which is still a good speciality in IT. Money is mid six figures. Kind of the bottom end of good in my local market.
I have 3 other interviews this week. All bigger companies or better money. I have lined this up by telling Consultancy want 4 weeks notice. My current gig requires two weeks notice. I have never shopped around before.
Any advice on options how to play this?
I thought this would be a good jumping off point to discuss typical power moves HR make. Like: trying to set an early starting date which could burn bridges for you. Putting in probation clauses that effectively mean zero notice period. And the evergreen coming back with a lower figure than you agreed up front and saying it's because of banding/relativity and their hands are tied.
So your goal would be to keep the consultancy "warm enough" until you finish those other 3 interviews?
Generally speaking, I'd always recommend this to play it without burning any bridges or do anything that would make people go "that was an asshole move".
That, in turn, often means to be "as honest as possible" -the Machiavellian version would be to sound as honest as possible-.
So I'd play it like this:
1. Honestly say during the interview you have several opportunities
Which both increases your value, and sets the ground for gaining time later on, without having to lie.
2. Once they extend an offer, say it's on the low end
Something like:
That sounds interesting, but I gotta be honest, the offer is on the low end to what I'm used to.
Let them reply, and that by itself will buy you time.
3. Once they reply and/or increase their offer, ask for some other perks or ask to increase it a bit more
That, again, will buy you some more time
4. When they come back with a better offer, say that "OK, now we're getting closer, give me until X date"
If a better offer comes up, say "thank you so much. As I had said in the beginning, I was interviewing and in the meanwhile I received this better offer on my table now. It's always truly unpleasant to have to reject an offer and displease someone, especially after we've been talking this long and you guys have been so kind. However, the reality is still that I have two offers now, and one is higher".
And, if you can, recommend someone you know to them.
Or you may even end the email saying that "you'd be happy to stay in touch and invite them for lunch".
That way, you end on a high and for small money you get to make a friend and keep a door open.
Thank you. Great advice and good timing. They have come back with a lower offer than we discussed so that gives me a natural starting point.
The one odd thing I do find in Australia is that any time you mention other opportunities seems to blow up the deal. Like they auto reject. Annoying because often all the interest comes at once. So they seem to think you re working them when really you re saying you want to work with them but they need to move quickly. Hiring seems to be a real power trip for managers here. You have to do a lot of power protecting. The other weird thing is they ask you a lot of questions then don't seem interested in the answers and want to talk a lot themselves. So next interview I m going to talk as little as possible, keep them talking and make small agreeing noises and keep telling them they re wonderful. Nothing urgent in my personal situation in job plenty of cash in bank so I want to try different ways at interviews and get some SOPs and tactics bedded in.
Quote from Transitioned on August 31, 2022, 12:40 amThank you. Great advice and good timing. They have come back with a lower offer than we discussed so that gives me a natural starting point.
Yeah, such a poor move.
But they're doing you a favor, and also now you can feel more empowered to treat it as a fallback option: they went sneaky first, so...
Risky but it did bounce my way. Told my boss how much I love my job. Asked him for 3 MTH extension on my contract. Secures me 7.5 MTH work which will generate plenty of cushion at bank. Got it in writing. Contract pays 40k more PA and gives me 18 MTH at this work which is ok contract stint and experience in retail. Normally I monkey branch close to end of contract to keep income continuity. But because they ve been decent I will finish it out or really close to and let the chips fall.
Only PITA is I will have to do a lot of study and get some fresh IT skills ready for the market later coz I m an old dog to edge out the competition.
Whatever nice words I say probably burnt the other company because I negotiated them so hard but their HR played a lot of hardball too and chiseled their original offer so won't lose any sleep. Mid sized consultancy and in different market so I can't see a burnt bridge killing me.
Interesting chat with the HR lady. She was telling me I only wanted 3k extra and not to risk the deal. Great chutzpah after they d already low balled me! I said very innocently "yes I guess that is something you guys might want to think about". After we agreed a couple of my demands I joked "look on the bright side, if I am like this imagine how tough I will be for you guys with the vendors". She laughed and said my husband is the worst he always kills me with silence.
So my take out is as long as you combine a tough negotiating stance with warmth and telling them how wonderful they are you are not risking as much as you might think.
Great stuff Kevin, glad it turned out that well!
Quote from Transitioned on September 3, 2022, 1:14 amAfter we agreed a couple of my demands I joked "look on the bright side, if I am like this imagine how tough I will be for you guys with the vendors". She laughed and said my husband is the worst he always kills me with silence.
So my take out is as long as you combine a tough negotiating stance with warmth and telling them how wonderful they are you are not risking as much as you might think.
Great one.
To make a joke or a lighter comment in the midst of tough negotiations or tense exchanges is a fantastic technique to alleviate the pressure and maintain warm and rapport even while still pushing hard.
As a matter of fact, I made a note on this some time ago and wanted to give it a name and add some examples to "officialize it" as a technique (haven't seen it described anywhere albeit it's relatively common among socially effective folks).