Salary Negotiation Script Strategies for Job Offer Negotiations
Everyone wants to make more in their career – that’s a given truth. But how do you actually increase your career earnings over time?
One of the most effective ways to boost your compensation is by negotiating your salary every time you accept a new job offer. Why? Because that’s when you hold the most leverage to push for the top end of the company’s pay band. You’ll also often see the biggest compensation jumps during a job transition since different companies value skill sets differently and may pay more than your current employer.
However, simply changing jobs isn't a guarantee of higher pay. Instead, this is where salary negotiation comes in to ensure you receive competitive pay each time you transition.
To negotiate salary successfully, you’ll need a well-thought-out salary negotiation script to guide the compensation discussions at the end of the interview process. In this article, our professional salary negotiation coaching team outlines when and how to use specific salary negotiation scripts throughout each step of the offer negotiation process. That way you have proven salary negotiation strategies to confidently advocate for competitive pay when transitioning roles.
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What is a Salary Negotiation Script
A salary negotiation script is a talk track or email template designed to help you navigate compensation discussions during the salary negotiation process. Since most career professionals don’t switch jobs regularly, these types of conversations often feel unfamiliar and have not been practiced. A salary negotiation script helps by providing strategic phrasing to use in each step of the salary negotiation process. That way you know what to say when negotiating salary.
Think of a script for negotiating salary as a reliable framework that helps you stay professional in these discussions and avoid missteps that could jeopardize your relationship with the hiring team. By using proven salary negotiation approaches, you’ll be better positioned to advocate for a competitive offer package.
Is There a Single Salary Negotiation Script to Use
The short answer: no. There’s a lot of bad advice out there, often from recruiters or general career sites, that suggests you can use one generic salary negotiation script to handle the entire salary negotiation process. But we’ve led hundreds of compensation negotiations, and they’re far more strategic than most people expect, so there isn’t a single quick salary negotiation response that can cover the entire offer package negotiation.
Think about it – you’ve likely spent hours preparing for interviews and showcasing your experience to the hiring team. Why would you then undercut that effort by trying to use a one-size-fits-all salary negotiation script at the end of the interview process to set your comp up for the next few years. That doesn’t make sense and instead you should treat the negotiation with advanced planning and a strategic approach.
There’s no single salary negotiation email template or talk track that will handle every scenario. Instead, the negotiation process includes multiple stages and each stage requires a different salary negotiation script or strategy. In the next section, we’ll walk through the full salary negotiation process and share targeted salary negotiation scripts for each step.
Salary Negotiation Scripts for Each Step of the Salary Negotiation
We’ve led hundreds of successful salary negotiations and we have years of experience with what works and what doesn’t. The salary negotiation scripts we cover below are based on actual real-world negotiations and designed to help you earn competitive pay.
While this article outlines the key salary negotiation scripts and examples, our Job Offer Negotiation Course and 1-on-1 Salary Negotiation Coaching include all of the scripts and strategies needed to confidently navigate every part of your negotiation.
Step One: Understand the Compensation Components
There’s no script needed for this step but it’s still important. Before you start negotiating a salary, make sure you fully understand every component of the offer. That includes base salary, bonuses, equity, and sign-on bonuses. You want to know exactly what’s on the table and in the job offer before making any asks.
To learn more about this step, you can check out our Salary Negotiation article or use our free Total Compensation Calculator to understand your offer package.
Step Two: Ask Strategic Questions About the Offer Letter
This is where your first real salary negotiation script comes into play. Instead of immediately reacting to the job offer by throwing out arbitrary numbers, it’s better to slow down the process and follow-up with strategic questions after carefully reviewing the initial offer package. Simply demanding more money right away can give the impression that your primary focus is solely on just wanting more money and doesn’t demonstrate that you've thoughtfully considered the offer or conducted your own research.
By spending the time to thoroughly review the offer and ask strategic questions, you gain a full understanding of the offer package before you even begin to negotiate the salary. This approach also allows you to build leverage by tactfully probing areas that might be missing or not as competitive as the employer may have initially thought.
For the salary negotiation script in this step, you will want to ask targeted questions (emailing these questions is perfectly acceptable) to the recruiter. For example, here would be a few targeted salary negotiation questions to ask if they apply to your offer:
"I appreciate the 15% target bonus you provided in the offer. Could you provide some insight into the team's performance this year and what the average bonus payout has been for this team over the past few years? I love to understand what is realistic in the position as I review the package."
"I noticed that the 401K matching program offers a lower match than my current employer's program. Is this the standard matching structure for all roles and levels within your company?"
If you are unsure about the most effective salary negotiation script questions to ask in this step, we recommend utilizing our list of Salary Negotiation Questions to build negotiation Leverage. This will provide you with a complete set of salary negotiation questions that you can ask in this important step.
- Build Negotiation Leverage – Ask the right questions to strengthen your negotiation before sending a counter.
- Email & Phone Scripts – Get our list of questions to ask and what to say if the recruiter wants to chat through them.
- Get Here
Step Three: Research the Role Compensation
We will address this step briefly as it doesn't directly involve specific salary negotiation scripts. However, it is an important step in every offer negotiation.
It is important that you take a databased approach to every salary negotiation by researching the base salary and total compensation range for the specific role and company before sending a counteroffer. Compensation research provides you with a clear understanding of where your initial offer sits on those ranges and how much more to ask for to get you to the top end of each pay range.
That way you avoid asking for unrealistic compensation – otherwise, you risk the employer refusing to negotiate altogether or damaging the relationship by coming off as too aggressive.
Feel free to check out our How to Negotiate Offer Letters article for a more detailed explanation of this step or use our Total Compensation Research Comparison Tool to streamline your compensation research process.
- Understand Total Compensation – Use our tool to break down and calculate the compensation in your job offer.
- Research & Compare Offers – Organize your compensation research and determine the right counter amount.
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Step Four: Countering with a Salary Negotiation Counter Offer Letter Script
Once you’ve reviewed the offer in detail, asked strategic questions to build leverage, and completed your comp research to identify how much to ask for, you’re ready to send a counteroffer. This is the step that most people associate with a salary negotiation script.
While this is often the step career professionals focus on when attempting to negotiate a salary, it’s important to recognize the negotiation groundwork laid out in the preceding steps – no single salary negotiation script could navigate you to this point.
The goal of this step is to present a databased counteroffer instead of simply reiterating your qualifications and contributions that you shared in the interviews. Remember – the hiring team has already recognized your value and skills which is why they extended a job offer in the first place.
While you can make your counter over the phone or in person, we recommend using a salary negotiation email template – even if you later walk through it live on the phone with the recruiter. This allows for clear and concise communication of your negotiation points, and you can always use the salary negotiation email as your salary negotiation script if you do decide to counter verbally.
A good salary negotiation script for negotiating salary has three key parts:
A professional opening that expresses appreciation for the offer and the opportunity.
A clear ask that is supported by your compensation research and insights from earlier questions on why the initial offer isn’t competitive.
A collaborative close that reaffirms your interest in the role and assumes you’ll be able to work through the remaining details together.
To ensure you communicate effectively in your counteroffer, you can grab our Counteroffer Scripts and Email Templates for guidance on structuring your counter correctly.
- Proven Counteroffer Templates – Built from hundreds of successful job offer negotiations.
- Negotiate with Confidence – Remove the guesswork with our professionally crafted counteroffers.
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Step Five: Overcoming Recruiter Pushback Salary Negotiation Script
Most professionals are caught off guard when a recruiter or hiring manager pushes back on their counteroffer – but pushback is normal and expected during a salary negotiation. That’s why having a script for negotiating salary during this stage is so important.
The key is to respond professionally and avoid taking their objections as the final answer. You want to acknowledge their constraints while asking if they can take your request back to their compensation team for another review.
Even if they insist nothing will change even if they did take it back, we’ve seen over and over that just asking them to revisit it one more time leads to them coming back with a better offer.
Handling this pushback can be daunting but with advanced preparation they should be easy to overcome. If you need additional support and the right phrasing, you can grab our Recruiter Objection Handling Scripts. They will walk you through how to respond and overcome recruiter pushback.
- Overcome Recruiter Pushback – Proven scripts to handle pushback and keep your salary negotiation on track.
- Communicate Effectively – Use expert responses to get recruiters to advocate for you with the compensation team.
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If the improved offer meets your goals and matches your comp research, you’ll be ready to use a Offer Acceptance Email Script to close the loop and lock everything in.
- Accept or Decline – Expert crafted job offer acceptance email and rejection email templates to share your decision.
- Professional & Genuine Tone – These help you communicate in a professional manner regardless of what you decide.
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Most Common Questions About Scripts for Negotiating Salary
Career professionals often ask us these questions about what to say in scripts for negotiating salary so we’d like to share our insights on salary negotiation scripts with you.
How do you politely negotiate salary?
Negotiating salary should never be aggressive – it should always be polite and professional. Unlike negotiating in business deals or when buying a car, salary negotiations take a more polite and kind approach. The tone in the script for negotiating salary should be in the same tone you'd use when talking with a friend – think of the tone as if you were talking with a friend who is helping you feel comfortable with the move to the new company.
The salary negotiation is still part of the interview process and it gives the company a final impression of how you'll handle tough conversations, work with others, and communicate under pressure. That’s why it’s important to keep your tone polite and professional in your salary negotiation script – just like you did throughout your interviews.
What is an example of salary negotiation dialogue?
Most salary negotiations happen between you and the recruiter but sometimes they can involve other leaders or the hiring manager. The salary negotiation dialogue shouldn't feel like a back and forth negotiation or haggling, and instead it should be strategic and collaborative.
For example, it’s not like negotiating with a car salesperson where you're trading back and forth numbers. Instead, it’s more strategic and focused on asking the right questions first, and then presenting a salary ask that’s backed by solid compensation research. That approach keeps the conversation professional and helps ensure your salary negotiation script aligns with each step of the salary negotiation process.
What do you say during a salary negotiation?
There isn’t one single response that works for all salary negotiations and instead you’ll need a variety of salary negotiation scripts to navigate each step of the process correctly. Salary negotiations are the last part of the interview process after receiving the job offer and should be approached strategically.
For example, what you say during the strategic questioning phase of the salary negotiation will be very different from what you say during the salary counteroffer phase. Each salary negotiation script should be adjusted to the specific negation phase you’re in and the details of your offer package. The key is to respond strategically based on where you are in the salary negotiation process and what you’re trying to achieve.
Salary Negotiation Scripts & Tools
Getting paid at the top end of the compensation range requires more than confidence – it takes a proven strategy, compensation research, and strategic communication. Our Salary Negotiation Coaching, Courses, or Scripts are designed to give you everything you need to succeed in your salary negotiation.
Or leverage our Salary Negotiation Courses and Salary Negotiation Scripts.
Job Offer Negotiation Course
- Get our job offer negotiation strategies, templates, scripts, and guidance.
- Access our step-by-step lessons, compensation research guides, and tools.
- Access Now
Raise Negotiation Course
- Get our raise negotiation strategies, templates, scripts, and guidance.
- Access our step-by-step lessons, compensation research guides, and tools.
- Access Now