How to negotiate salary (with a scored example)

The moment of leverage is after they have decided they want you, not while they are still comparing five people. If they ask for your number early, you can give a researched range and park the real negotiation until paper exists. Once the offer is in writing, reply the same day to book a call — do not send the counter as a novel. The call is where you hear whether “fixed” means fixed, or means they hoped you would not ask. People who accept in the email and “negotiate later” discover there is no later. The yes already spent the leverage.

“I was hoping for something in the seventies” is how you get 70. Name the base: the figure, the currency, the effective date. Then evidence. Market data from two sources is useful. The scope they described in the loop is better — if the role is broader than the posting, say so. A competing offer is only a lever if it is real and you are willing to take it. Do not invent one. Do not lead with rent. They are buying the work, not your bills. If equity or bonus is the only flex, say what base still needs to be true for you to sign.

Hiring managers are trained to say the band is tight. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is the first sentence of a conversation they expected to have. Acknowledge the constraint, then return to the number. “I hear the band. For this scope I am asking for £78,000. What would have to be true for that to work?” If base is truly closed, move to start date, bonus, title, or a six-month review with a number attached. A review without a number is a smile. Do not match their discomfort with a discount on yourself just to end the call.

Hiring managers will test whether you have a floor. If you invent it in the chair, you will invent it low. Write three figures the night before: the number you want, the number you will accept, and the number at which you politely decline. When they ask what would make you walk, you do not have to answer with the walk-away. You can repeat the ask. The walk-away is for you, after the call, when the written revision arrives or does not. People who skip this step accept a “final” offer that is only final because they were tired.

A verbal “we can do 76” evaporates in an approval chain. End the call with who will send the updated offer and by when. If they need a night, that is fine — the date is the point. Do not start giving notice at the old job on a handshake. Do not post on LinkedIn. The negotiation is not done until the letter matches the sentence. If they come back lower, you are still allowed to say no. Relief is not a reason to sign. If they go quiet for three days, one short chase is professional. A daily chase is how you look like you have already accepted the first number in your head.

Accepting in the first email because you are relieved. Apologising for asking. Naming a range so wide they pick the floor. Bluffing a competing offer. Threatening to walk before you have heard a no. Negotiating only by email so they can stall you in a thread. Practise the version where they like you and still push. Warmth is not the same as flexibility. If you can hold the number with a friendly hiring manager who says “pretty much fixed,” you can hold it when it is real.