Handle a candidate's counteroffer or competing offer
A plan to understand and respond to a counteroffer or rival offer without overpaying or losing a strong candidate.
The prompt
Help me handle a candidate who has a counteroffer or a competing offer.
Our offer: [base, bonus, equity, benefits, title, work model, start date]
What they told me about the other offer or counteroffer: [DETAILS - and how confident I am in them]
Why they started looking in the first place: [REASONS]
What they care about most: [RANKED if possible]
Our room to move: [approved flexibility, band limits, internal equity concerns]
Deadline: [WHEN they need to decide]
Give me:
1. Questions to uncover the real decision factors (not just the numbers) and the candidate's timeline.
2. A side-by-side comparison table of the offers on what they value, with total compensation and non-pay factors. Mark unknowns as [CONFIRM].
3. For a counteroffer: talking points that respectfully revisit their original reasons for leaving, without pressuring or disparaging their current employer.
4. Whether and how to improve our offer: options ranked by cost and impact (e.g. sign-on bonus, start date, title, remote days), plus internal equity risks to raise with the hiring manager or compensation team.
5. A walk-away point and how to exit gracefully if we can't compete.
Keep it honest - no false claims about the other company or our offer.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore HR & Hiring prompts
What to fill in
- base, bonus, equity, benefits, title, work model, start date
- DETAILS - and how confident I am in them
- REASONS
- RANKED if possible
- approved flexibility, band limits, internal equity concerns
- WHEN they need to decide
- CONFIRM
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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