Making Offers Stick

You have the upper hand in the hiring process until you make the offer. Then, control passes to the candidate. Your key tactic is to know as much as possible about the likely outcome once you make an offer.

Don’t underestimate the pressure your candidate feels during the interview process. Recall how you felt – the fears you experienced – if you’ve contemplated saying yes to a new home and goodbye to close friends at your last company. No matter how much the candidate wants to leave, there are pangs of fear and guilt about abandoning their responsibilities.

Use a gentle and diplomatic approach when presenting an offer.

Assuming you’ve settled on the person you want to hire and invited them back to extend that offer, ask:

• What’s changed since the last time we spoke?

Most of the time, nothing has changed. If something has, you should know before you make your offer. Perhaps responsibilities have changed, or there has been a pay increase. Maybe there’s an offer from another practice. Find out what’s changed so you can recalibrate your approach. If you sense a counteroffer coming, you may want to step back and have the candidate reevaluate their motivations for considering your position.

Make sure that money is the only issue left to address:

• What final questions can I answer to help you make an informed decision?

Keep asking – and answering – until money is the only thing left.

Test how prepared the candidate is to accept your offer:

• If we were to extend an offer to you, when would you like to start? How much notice would you need to give?

Anything more than a reasonable delay as a professional courtesy should be a red flag that the candidate isn’t as ready to respond to an offer as you might have thought.

By now, you know what you’re going to include in your offer. Before you lay your cards on the table, do one last test:

• I’m going to make an offer. Before I do, I want to confirm that you’re prepared to provide us with your answer by ________.

A week should be plenty. The higher the level of the candidate, of course, the longer the process leading up to the offer, and the more discussion that follows the offer. This doesn’t change the fact that once you get to the subject of money, the decision should require very little time.

Do not move forward without a response. Here is one more chance for you to test whether your candidate is waiting for another offer. If that is the case, probe to learn how you rank against the other offer so you can decide whether you wait out the timing or move on to other candidates.

It is not to your advantage to extend an offer without specifying a response time. Beware of the tendency to think “it’s better if the candidate takes the time to consider both opportunities”. If your candidate hasn’t thoroughly considered your opportunity by this point (to say yes or no), it’s unlikely that a delay will make much difference.

Everyone uses arithmetic in the process of deciding the amount of an offer: Chargeable hour expectations? Billing rate? When you make your offer, walk the candidate through that arithmetic so you position yourself for “push-back” to  increase the offer.

If the candidate hints about—or asks for—more, repeat the arithmetic and ask:

• Tell me how we may have underestimated you?

This question prompts the candidate to focus on value, rather than simply relying on subjective arguments such as “I think I’m worth more” or “I don’t think that’s the market rate for my position.”

Taking an approach that is sensitive to your candidate’s normal fear of change will serve you best in the long run. Provide plenty of information during the interview process. Encourage due diligence so that money is the final piece of the puzzle. Making an offer shifts the power to the candidate. Don’t give away that power prematurely, or without strings attached to let you know when you can expect an answer.

The problems you may encounter at the time of an offer are foreseeable and preventable. A little attention can pay big dividends in helping you get the talent you need to grow your practice.