| No other offer? Unemployed for a year? It doesn't matter. Oh, but it most certainly does. It may not affect how you negotiate, but it will certainly affect overall outcome. By the time a company makes you an offer, they're emotionally invested. With the exception of rare cases and poaching, no, they are not. This is not reflective of 99% of job offers. If you have built up a reputation as a superstar that can write their own ticket, then fair enough, you already have a BATNA and didn't even realize it - play hard ball. If however, you are like a vast majority of job applicants, you are really nobody special. Some talent maybe, but not enough to make me drool. In this situation, the negotiation is very similar to every other purchase of goods. You are the vendor and the employer is the consumer. In a land of multiple vendors, the consumer is king. I don't care how much you think your time is worth, I've already got a value in my head that I'm willing to pay for, and I'm going to do everything I can to pay less than that value and get myself a 'deal'. Suppose instead of effort hours you are selling bananas. You and about 20 other banana stands. The first thing I as a consumer do is figure out how the banana market is looking these days, and determine the average quality and average price that the vendors are offering. I'm a savvy consumer now, so I figure that in order to not waste anyone's time, I'll pre-define the quality of the banana I'm willing to purchase (let's say higher than the average, but not the gold standard banana) and publicly state my intention to buy a fixed quantity. Seeing a sale, you (along with others) contact me I take a look at your wares. I like what I see, and I know the market value, so I offer you the average price and see how things go.... Scenario A) You counter 30% higher. That's still in my price range, but I've still not seen the other banana vendors yet. I probably want to talk to them before I just give you that extra 30%. What's the rush after all? Your's isn't a bad offer, but I'm not sure it's the best... Scenario B) You don't really counter, but simply tell me that you only have 50 bananas until next quarter and there's another guy down the street that's already told you he'd give you 20% more for them. He's on the other side of town though, so you don't really want to go out there... In what scenario is the banana vendor in a stronger position to get that extra 30%? If the outcome in this situation is so influenced by said externality, how do you figure it does not equally translate into a job negotiation? A good BATNA can be an existing job, a high degree of skill, or a lot of comfort in your current situation. Regardless, having one gives you a tremendous advantage in any negotiation. |
If this is the type of person you're extending an offer to, it's no wonder you don't care if you lose them. You're absolutely right - if you're not being selective in your hiring, you're not going to mind overly much if you lose a candidate.
On the other hand, why would anyone want to work for a company that's not selective in their hiring? Now that I think about it - if the company won't negotiate your offer, that probably indicates they're full of B-players and you're dodging a bullet.