How to Handle a LOWBALL offer! - Salary negotiation tips

How to handle a low ball offer. Salary negotiation tips. If you've been presented an offer and it's underwhelming, you may be dealing with a low ball offer. Uncompetitive offers may not be worth responding to, but if you feel there's still an opportunity there, here's how I would suggest handling it.

0:00 - intro
1:46 - the offer process
3:51 - know your realistic value
4:45 - geographic region
6:01 - how are your skills?
6:44 - know your bottom line salary
7:17 - express disappointment
7:59 - present value case
8:24 - value of perks
9:05 - be firm
10:02 - if you need more help

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[crestinglight]

My last lowball was $30k under what we discussed. I was very frustrated cause I'd asked another good offer to wait a week. The minute I saw that offer, I called the other company, accepted their good offer, then immediately turned down the low one. They called and tried to negotiate up, NOPE. It's a big issue of disrespect for me. It's insulting.

[slayemin]

The risk of lowballing an employee is that they'll just join your company/team but continue actively looking for jobs. Meanwhile, as a company, you're devoting all kinds of energy and effort training these new hires, incurring a cost, and if six months later they get an offer from another company willing to go above and beyond the going market rate, not only do you lose your new hire, but you also lost the investment of time and money to train them in the company's internal processes without getting much of an ROI. It gets even worse if that low balled new hire is in a senior position and working on critical projects, where if they leave, it would make or break the project.

[TheNoodlyAppendage]

When you accept a lowball offer you reinforce the employers belief that they are offering a reasonable amount.

[kesayo]

I got lowballed with an offer that was 20k lower than my current salary. At that point I even told them what my current salary was just to drive home the point. The recruiter proceeded to berate me by claiming they don't want people who only care about money anyway. I was like, 20k less means my family has to cut down on food. You're a multi-billion dollar corporation who wants to short me 20k, and I'm the one who only cares about money?

[PhanTimo]

From personal experience, a low ball offer is a clear indication of how the potential employer feels about you. Sure they want your experience, but their needs to cut costs come first. I remember being told "you are so rare, its so hard to find Front End Developers these days", and then being offered the chance to start up a department and get juniors / interns a later stage. I was offered a junior salary after all that praise. I immediately rejected the offer with no tolerance for negotiation (the recruiter was very eager). Perhaps I was being brash. But then again, if they offered so little for so much responsibility, what other surprises awaited me if I had taken the role?

I consider this to be a red flag to be honest. it definitely falls under that category but in a subtle way. A good company values your worth and treats you as an investment rather than a means to an end. My second employer tripled my salary (over what I had asked for) after my test results to secure me. That's a clear sign of being valued and appreciated.

[Ryuk-apples]

I recently got an interview, they asked me the salary I was expecting, I said something in the range of 40 to 45k. They said its fair, they where thinking pf giving me 47k even. Then I said ok, when the job pffer came after the second interview, I was surprised they said they wanted to give me 59k. I couldnt believe it, they said they wanted to make sure I got payed enough because they didnt want me to leave after a couple months.
I obviously took it, they are a great company, and that just proved it to me

[mar_man]

After going through 3 rounds of interviews, the recruiter pulled a bait-and-switch and offered me the role at a level 2 titles below what was discussed before the whole process began. I was furious, since it was a waste of my time, as well as theirs. They tried hard to justify this with some fuzzy logic on "years of experience" which didn't even match the titles people internally had (Linkedin shows all this), and I called them out on it (respectfully). Said I wouldn't budge, so she checked with the hiring manager again. Walked away, and wound up at a company with a role 2 titles higher than I was aiming for. So, I netted 4 titles higher than this offer, just two weeks later. Don't be afraid to know your value and walk away.

[griffinina]

“Low quality employers tend to be low quality for a reason.” —> agree

[picklerix]

I did accept a lowball offer because nobody was really hiring during the pandemic and the job was a hybrid position close to my home. I was still interviewing for other positions while I worked my lowball job. The lowball job was fun and I learned several new technologies while working. Eventually, another recruiter was able to find a much higher paying job and I explained to my boss that I wasn’t making enough money for my experience and skill set. They still haven’t replaced me since I left according to my former coworkers.

[kiki]

This happened to me a few years back. Got an offer that I didn’t like, but at the time I was laid off and needed a gig. Luckily I was getting pretty far down the interview path with other companies. So, I accepted the low ball offer, began the background check knowing that if I worked there - it would be short lived.

Fortunately, I got a much better offer from another company and declined the first role. I was transparent and flat out said that the offer wasn’t competitive enough. They weren’t happy but I don’t care. 😀

[lluewhyn]

I've worked in my field for 15 years and am currently in a middle-management role, have a Master's degree, and a CPA license. I also work in a reasonably well-compensated area (Dallas-Ft. Worth). I had a recruiter call me on the way home the other day (completely unsolicited) and excitedly offer me $45k for a position.

I restrained myself from laughing or saying something rude.

[raronen]

In Colorado, employees are required to post the real pay range in the job description. No nonsense, no lying to people, and no wasting everyone's time. NY is putting this into effect shortly as well. This should just be a Federal law so that companies can't take advantage of workers.

[neutronjack]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a great source, if you want pay data for job types and they even break it out by geographic region. I wish I could give this one two thumbs up!

[Matt-wfry]

The worst for me was getting offered roughly half of of the low end range of what I told the recruiter would work for me during the process. During the screening she said what I was asking for was within the range and didn't see an issue. I actually audibly let out a laugh when given the offer and declined, she asked if I wanted to counter and I just said we are way too far apart to be worth giving a counter. Really is disrespectful of a company to do that and I know at that point I did not want to work for them if they pulled this kind of nonsense right out of the gate.

[achimsinn]

I once had a super lowball offer which was about half of my expectation being made in the first interview. When I told the person that the offer is too low, she started yelling at me and was borderline insulting. At that point I just grabbed my resume from her dest, told her to delete my data from her IT-system (where I live there is a law that requires companies to do so, if you request it) and left. She kept yelling something like "I'll make sure you never find a job" after me, but I just ignored her. 2 Months later I got a job where they were happy to meet my expectation despite me giving them an even higher number as I was expecting them to lowball me too.

[tokyosan]

The other day I was in a conference call with some others in my department. A senior engineer left a few weeks ago and they've been interviewing to find replacement. The hiring manager was asked how the search was going and she expressed frustration that the best candidate she spoke with wanted 20k more than her budget allowed, so she had to pass on him. I just thought that was interesting because since the pandemic began, my company has actually done really well. The CEO has mentioned it several times in All Employee meetings.
So I found it intersting that they wouldn't even give a hiring manager the flexibility to hire the best candidates in a senior level position that was crucial to the success of our department.

[HobbyHillsVideos]

I answered an ad that clearly stated that the job paid $27 an hour. Got the interview and a follow up interview and was told that I was the only qualified candidate they found for the job. I got a call a few days later with a job offer with the pay rate of $22 an hour. I mentioned that the ad said $27 an hour. I bluntly told them that if the offer was anything less than $27 an hour I was not interested. We ended the call and less than an hour later got another call from the interviewer's boss with the $27 an hour offer. The interview was through an agency for the employer. I started the job and in less than 6 months later got a promotion and raise to $34 an hour. I have always been blunt and up front about pay when it comes to job offers. I usually get what I want.

[MicahRousey]

This happened once to me, and if you are in a position to negotiate (I was), this is a good negotiation tactic: Tell them it's low, but don't counter with a number. Tell them again what your qualifications are, and tell THEM to go evaluate what you are worth for what they want in the market. Don't say no, don't say yes, just tell them it's wrong and they need to try again.

When I did this, They increased their offer 30%.

[GeoFry]

You can always negotiate down...much harder to negotiate up.

Last time I got low balled I simply said no and let them know what my absolute minimum was since the job was pretty interesting. They eventually offered me that after spending a bunch of time trying to justify the low ball. That killed it for me so my response was to say no again and walk out.

[johnrothwell]

My experience is this: if you're being interviewed by the people you're going to be working with in the department, they will offer you an attractive deal because they will want happy collegues. If however, the budget is being set by someone you don't meet in person and won't be working alongside you...then you'll be lowballed and you just walk away. There won't be any negotiating.