So you just got a failed negotiation email from a company you really want to be a part of and have no idea what to do? Don’t worry! We are here to help you understand how you can accept a job offer after a failed negotiation.
Salary negotiations are a part and parcel of any job offer. In fact, most employers expect some form of negotiation from the prospective employee’s end while making the job offer.
PayScale research showed that 75% of the people who negotiated for a raise were financially compensated in some way or another.
But what about the rest of the 25% of the people? You guessed it right, they are the ones who might receive a failed negotiation email or call.
What if a salary negotiation fails?
While negotiating a salary, it is very important to keep in mind that although there is a possibility that the company will accept your counter-offer or offer you other benefits, they are equally likely to reject your negotiations.
How to respond to a failed salary negotiation?
1. Do not take it personally
One of the first things you must take a look into is to not take the failed negotiation personally. There are literally tons of reasons why your negotiation didn’t go through. And many of the reasons could be outside of your control. It could be because of something as simple as the budget constraints of the company.
So, rather than taking the rejection personally, take a moment to soak in what has just happened and then think about the next steps you wish to take.
2. Try to negotiate other benefits
Besides monetary benefits, there are so many other benefits you can try to negotiate. It could be bonuses, annual leave, or health insurance.
You could also try to ask for flexible hours or opt for work from home on specific days. If a company agrees to these other benefits, it would also increase your total compensation package. This can also be a motivating factor for you to accept a job offer after an initial failed negotiation.
3. Ask if there will be any reconsideration in future
So what if the salary negotiation didn’t work for now? You can ask the employer if they will be open to considering and addressing this salary issue at some later point in time. This time period could be 6 months or 9 months or even a year after you join the company. And since employers are willing to retain employees, chances are that they might agree to give you the incentives at some later point.
In such cases, you may want to accept a job offer even after a failed negotiation as you can be assured that the matter would be taken up later.
4. Don’t react immediately
You have the negotiation mail in front of you or the HR is on a call with you right now, do you give them your answer straight away?
Well, we would suggest not giving the answer immediately if possible.
Even if you have made up your mind about accepting this offer or moving on to another job, do not rush to respond.
Rather politely let them know that you would need some time to think about the offer. It is advisable to specify a time frame of either 2-3 days for responding to the mail or call. Be sure to send in your reply within the time frame decided by you and the employer.
Here is an example of the email that you can refer to if you want to accept a job offer after a failed negotiation:
Dear Riley,
I’d like to thank you for offering me the post of Content lead at XYZ solutions. Upon careful consideration, I have decided to go ahead with the offer and would like to formally accept your job offer. I am excited to be a part of the XYZ team.
As per our last discussion, I understand that the contents of the initial job offer remains unchanged and would like to thank you for guiding me through the policies of the company during the call. I am glad to know that XYZ solutions would be reviwing the terms of my compensation in the coming 6 months.
I appreciate XYZ’s standard of servcie and am beyond thrilled to be a part of the team and look forward to growing with the organization.
Regards,
Joshua
How to accept job offers after successful negotiation?
Let’s assume you asked the company for other benefits while putting in yet another counteroffer and this time the company has agreed to your negotiations. In such cases, send in a message showing your appreciation for the company and your enthusiasm to be a part of the team.
The emails you would send post acceptance of successful negotiation would be different depending on whether the offer was accepted verbally or in writing.
Once you are through your interview and negotiation and have accepted the offer verbally, try to understand when you’ll be receiving the written offer. According to the general rule of thumb, it is ideal to wait for about 1 week but not more than 2 weeks before following up on the verbal offer.
Post your verbal acceptance, you can send a thank you mail to the employer to show your appreciation and enthusiasm. Thank you emails are not deal makers per se, but it does help in creating a great impression in front of the employer.
In case you’ve received a formal email or letter saying that you have been offered the job, you can accept the offer by sending in a mail or letter that looks something like this:
Dear Henna,
I’d like to thank you for offering me the post of Project Manager at Experteasy . After thorough discussions and careful consideration, I am delighted to share with you that I have decided to formally accept your job offer. I am excited to be a part of the team.
As discussed, my starting salary at the company would be $40,000 along with a flexible work model and private health insurance after completion of my probation period.
I look forward to joining the team on 29th September, Monday.
Do let me know if there is anything else required from my end. Looking forward to working with you soon.
Regards,
Kelly
Can I accept an offer and then reject the job?
While it is okay to accept a job offer and then reject it, you must make sure to take a look at any employment agreement form before doing so. If you have already signed certain documents that legally bind you to not reject the offer, then it might be a little challenging for you to do so.
However, if you accepted the offer verbally, it would be okay to accept it and then reject it. Yet there are a couple of things you must keep in mind while doing so:
1. Think it through
Before you accept or decline any job offer, it is very important to think it through. Making any decision in haste or casually can later have repercussions that you might have to face. In order to avoid going through any such issues, try to think about every decision very thoroughly.
2. Be thorough with your contract
As discussed, if you have signed any official documents, make sure that you know all the clauses and possible areas of concern before rejecting the offer.
For instance, if you have signed a contract with a company where the contract states that you are bound to provide services to the company for the next 6 months. Then, in such cases, you might have to get your hands legally dirty.
3. Don’t push it to a later date.
The day you know that this isn’t the company you want to join, let them know about it. Even after accepting the job offer, one thing you need to be clear about is to make your decision known to the employer.
When you reject an offer before joining the company, it is beneficial to the employer in that they can simply start looking at other prospective candidates from the pool of candidates. It also saves them the cost of onboarding an employee.
4. Choose the right form of communication
When you are communicating about such serious matters, it is important to pick out the right medium to communicate. In cases of rejecting an offer, a one-to-one conversation, virtual meeting or call are the most ideal forms of communication.
It is also equally important to communicate not when it is convenient for you alone but also when the employer can take time out to discuss it with you. This is what we call the environmental mood. An often forgotten aspect of non-verbal communication, an environmental mood is the understanding of the mood or setting which will be conducive to carrying out the conversation in question.
To know more about environmental mood as an aspect of non-verbal communication, check out our video below:
5. Express your gratitude to the employer and the company
Lastly, make sure to express your gratitude towards the company and towards the employer who has been guiding you throughout the process.
How to turn down a job offer after negotiation
As seen, turning down a job offer would require you to be clear-headed before deciding not to join a company. It would require you to inform the company at the earliest. Besides that, you must communicate effectively your concerns or reasons for not continuing and show your gratitude towards the company and the employee at the same time.
How to decline a job offer due to another offer
While getting into too many details of why you are declining a job offer is not advisable, you may want to share with the prospective employer your reason for not joining the company. And if your reason happens to be because of another counteroffer, you can let the employer know about the same. They may try to tweak their offer if they see you as a worthy candidate and if it fits their budget.
But if you have decided in your core that you don’t want to continue with this organization even after they make a counter offer, you can reply to them by saying something like
I appreciate the counteroffer, but I have already accepted another job offer and cannot in good conscience go back on my word.
How do you respond to a declined job offer?
It is very less likely that a negotiation mail would lead to the decline of the job offer. However, at times, companies may actually realize that your expected salary may be much outside of their budget. Or they might have found someone who may be willing to accept their initial offer. The company may also decline your offer if the project you were supposed to work on is kept on hold or if they have received any guidelines from senior management to not take more employees on board for the moment.
Whatever the case may be, you are free to ask the company for the reason why they are declining your offer.
If you feel that you might want to work for a company later in the future, consider sharing your thoughts with the employer. You can send them by mail, showing your deep interest in the post at the company and showing your willingness to join at any point later if required by the company.
Despite how disappointed you may be, try to avoid using any foul language either in the mail or on-call. Maintain your composure and try to be as polite as you can, especially if this conversation is happening in person.
Lastly, do not be demotivated, it is just another job offer, not the only one in the market!
How do you respond to a disappointing job offer?
At times, after chipping in so many hours into preparing and giving interviews, you may realize that the job you were eagerly giving interviews for offers far less than what you had in mind.
And we are not just talking about the financial aspects here. It could be that the job is in a state you are not willing to travel to or that the leave policy in the company is not as exciting. In such cases where you receive a disappointing job offer, you will have three options to choose from:
If the job offer is extremely disappointing for you to even think about any further, you might want to consider declining the job offer.
But what if the company is actually the one you want to work for?
Should you accept a lowball job offer?
Well, if that is something you are okay with, sure you can do that. But negotiating job offers is a must. If the recruiter accepts or rejects your offer Whether it should not be your concern at this point.
Do recruiters expect you to negotiate a salary?
Recruiters pretty much expect you to negotiate a salary with them. You can showcase your research skills here by checking out what the average pay is for your post and years of experience. You may also want to show your skills and the projects you have worked on, i.e. things that would make them believe that you are the ideal candidate for them.
Should I follow up after a negotiation call?
Following up after 1 week is advisable. However, try to follow up within 2 weeks. Prolonging your mail may show an email lack of interest on your end, which may lead to them finding someone else for the post.
Can you get rejected for negotiating a salary?
Mostly, no one gets rejected for negotiating a salary. But you may get rejected for the way in which you negotiated. So, if you are being very arrogant, dominant, or authoritative, it may be seen as hostile behavior and no company would want to deal with that in the future. Thus, the company might end up rejecting you.
To sum it up
Failed salary negotiations are not the end of the world. So instead of taking it personally and being disappointed by it, try to take a moment before thinking about your next steps.
You can either accept the job offer as it was, decline it or try negotiating for other benefits like flexible work or health insurance. You can also try to check if the employer is willing to reconsider your terms at some later point in time post joining the company.
When accepting any job offer, make sure to reflect your gratitude for the employer or the company and to show your enthusiasm. And lastly, congrats on getting the job!
