Counter offers and how to prepare for them weeks earlier

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

A candidate accepts, resigns, and telephones two days later sounding uncomfortable. Their employer has offered more money, a new title and the flexibility they had been asking about for a year. They are, they say, going to stay.

The agency now attempts in one call to undo a decision made under considerable emotional pressure, and usually fails. In a market where replacing people is difficult, counter offers are the normal response to a resignation, and the work that prevents them happens weeks before anybody resigns.

1. Counter offers and how to prepare for them belong at the start

Raise it early, not at resignation.

Discussing the possibility during the first conversation, when it is hypothetical, allows a candidate to think about it calmly. Raised for the first time after they have resigned, it sounds like an agency protecting a fee.

2. Understand why they are really leaving

Money is rarely the whole answer.

Progression, a manager, workload, recognition, boredom or the direction of the business. A candidate leaving for reasons that money cannot fix is far less vulnerable to a counter offer, and knowing which you have changes everything.

3. Get them to articulate it in their own words

The technique that matters most.

Asking a candidate to describe what would need to change for them to stay, early in the process, produces a statement they will remember when the counter offer arrives. Their own words are more persuasive than anything you can say.

4. Ask directly what they would do

Rehearse it in advance.

Putting the scenario to them explicitly — if they offer you more, what happens — surfaces the uncertainty early. A candidate who has already decided is considerably more robust than one encountering the question for the first time in their manager's office.

5. Prepare the resignation itself

Where much of the pressure builds.

A short, unambiguous resignation, delivered without a negotiation, and a plan for what to say when pressed. Candidates who go in willing to discuss are usually still there a month later.

6. Prepare the client too

They have a part in this.

Speed between acceptance and start, contact from the new manager, a welcome, and any flexibility on the start date. A client who leaves a candidate unattended for six weeks is contributing to their own loss.

7. Be honest about what counter offers usually mean

Not a scare tactic if it is accurate.

Money offered to retain somebody who resigned is frequently found later to have brought forward a review, and the relationship with the manager has changed. Presenting this as something to consider, rather than as a warning, is what makes it credible.

8. Do not argue when it happens

Recover the position instead.

Pressing a candidate who has already accepted a counter offer confirms that you are protecting a fee. A calm conversation asking what changed, and leaving the relationship intact, is the better play, and a proportion of them contact you again within a year.

9. Track how often it happens and to whom

The pattern is informative.

Which clients, which seniority, which consultants. Frequent losses at one stage or with one type of role point to a specific weakness in the process rather than to bad luck.

Stay in contact with candidates who accepted a counter offer. A meaningful share leave within a year anyway, and the consultant who behaved well at the point of losing them is the one they call.

Conclusion

Do the work weeks before the resignation, because the conversation afterwards rarely succeeds.

Raise the possibility early while it is hypothetical, establish the real reasons for leaving rather than assuming money, have the candidate articulate their motivation in their own words, ask directly what they would do if offered more, prepare the resignation itself, keep the client engaged during the notice period, be accurate rather than alarmist about what counter offers usually lead to, avoid arguing when it happens, track the pattern, and stay in touch afterwards.