Here is my scenario: * Company A has offered me a salary of $150K (a market level salary). * Company B has offered me a salary of $100K (33% below market). * The jobs are otherwise similar. * If the salaries were comparable, I prefer to work at Company B. Strategy 1: I could tell Company B that I have an offer for $150K, and see if they can raise their offer to match. Strategy 2: I could tell Company B that I will only accept a market salary, and see if they raise their offer. Assuming they do, I would wait a couple days, then tell them I have an offer for $150K, and see if they can raise it again. With Strategy 1, my thinking is that they might be willing to raise the offer only once, but would be unwilling to raise it a second time for fear of being seen as "weak." So, I would use all my ammunition at once and see how high they can go with a revised offer. With Strategy 2, my thinking is that $50K is such a substantial gap that there's no way their revised offer would go as high as $150K. So, I would use the "below market" argument to ask them to raise the offer, then use the competing offer to ask them to raise it again. Which strategy (or another strategy) would result in the best offer from Company B?
A few thoughts on this, that might help you in your decision:
1. I would challenge your assumption, that "the jobs are otherwise similar". Something must be different between the jobs, so start off somewhere else: Where will you learn more? Where will you be the happiest in your everyday life? If it makes you miserable to leave 50k on the table - which would be totally fair - then go for A.
2. If B has a valid reason for the lower offer, or they can offer you something else (bonus possibilities, profit sharing, options, education), then go for that.
3. Thinking experiment: If you offer B, that you would work for them for 150k, and they say no - would you feel happy working for A. Would that be equally interesting?
33% below market level is a lot, so I would understand, if accepting such a low offer, would create some negativity in you. If B can not offer higher, it takes some greatly interesting future opportunities from them to make up for the lost salary. So no matter what, ask B for more, but be ready that they could say no, and take their offer away.
Given the information I would say, that it is really a question of your preferences. If you would like to discuss it more, so you become more aware of your preferences, give me a call.
Good luck with your decision.
Best regards
Kenneth Wolstrup
Answered 8 years ago
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