Verified against ChatGPT · 2026-08-13
Build a salary counteroffer script anchored to real numbers, not generic negotiation confidence lines
Builds a specific counteroffer script from your actual offer, market data, and leverage, with responses prepared for the likely pushback rather than generic 'just ask confidently' negotiation advice.
The prompt
Ready to copy — highlighted parts are example details you can swap.
Help me build a salary counteroffer script for a real offer I have in hand. I want it anchored to actual numbers and my actual leverage, not generic "negotiate with confidence" advice.
THE OFFER I RECEIVED
Base $118,000, no signing bonus, standard equity grant, title of Senior Analyst.
MARKET DATA I HAVE (do not assume a figure I haven't given you)
Levels.fyi shows similar titles at comparable companies in this city at $125-135k base; I don't have a competing offer.
MY ACTUAL LEVERAGE
No competing offer, but I have a specific in-demand certification the posting listed as 'nice to have' that I have and most candidates for this req apparently didn't.
WHAT MATTERS MOST TO ME BEYOND BASE SALARY
A remote-work day per week matters more to me than an extra few thousand in base, and I'd trade some base ask for it.
Build this in stages:
STAGE 1 — SANITY-CHECK THE ASK
Given the offer and the market data I actually gave you, tell me honestly whether my target counter number is a reasonable ask, an aggressive-but-defensible ask, or likely to read as out of touch with this specific offer — and say so even if the honest answer is that I don't have enough real market data to justify a specific target number yet, rather than inventing a market rate to support whatever number I want.
STAGE 2 — THE SCRIPT
Write the actual counteroffer message or call script, structured as: open with genuine enthusiasm for the role stated specifically rather than as boilerplate, state the ask directly without over-apologizing for asking, back it with the real leverage I gave you rather than a vague "based on my experience," and explicitly leave room for the other priorities I listed if base salary alone doesn't move.
STAGE 3 — PREPARE FOR PUSHBACK
Give me the two or three most likely responses a recruiter or hiring manager would give to this specific counter (band constraints, "this is our best offer," a request to justify the number further), and for each, a response that holds the ask or trades toward one of my other priorities rather than immediately folding to the original number.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not write generic hype language ("I know I'm worth it," "I bring so much value") that isn't backed by a specific fact from what I gave you. Do not invent a competing offer or market benchmark I didn't actually give you to strengthen the script — if I don't have real leverage on a point, tell me the ask on that point is weaker rather than manufacturing false leverage.
End with one honest sentence on what the biggest risk is in sending this counter as written.Customize
Optional — swap in your own details for the highlighted parts above.
Why this works
Generic negotiation advice built around confidence-projecting phrases ("know your worth," "ask with confidence") is weak advice because the actual variable that determines a counteroffer's success is whether the number and the justification behind it are grounded in something the other side finds credible, not the tone in which it's delivered — a confidently delivered ask with no real backing is easier for a recruiter to decline than a modestly delivered ask backed by a specific, verifiable data point. Stage 1's sanity check exists because the single most damaging mistake in a salary negotiation is anchoring on a number the market data doesn't actually support, which can read as out of touch and cost credibility for the rest of the conversation — having the model check the target against only the real data provided, rather than assuming whatever number the candidate wants is defensible, catches that risk before the message is sent rather than after a recruiter has already formed an impression. The explicit instruction never to invent a competing offer or market benchmark the candidate didn't actually provide is the single most important safeguard in this prompt: a fabricated competing offer used as negotiation leverage is not just ethically compromising, it's discoverable and reputation-damaging if a recruiter asks a natural, specific follow-up question about it, and a model that fills in a plausible-sounding number to strengthen a script is optimizing for a persuasive-looking output at the cost of the candidate's actual credibility in a professional relationship they may need again. Building in the Stage 3 pushback rehearsal, rather than stopping at the initial script, matters because the actual point of friction in most salary negotiations isn't the opening ask but what happens after the first "that's not something we can do" — a candidate with a prepared, specific response to that exact moment is far less likely to fold immediately out of the reflexive discomfort many people feel when a negotiation gets pushed back on.
What you get back
Stage 1: your target of $130k is defensible given the Levels.fyi range you cited ($125-135k) — reasonable, not aggressive, especially paired with the certification leverage. Stage 3, pushback 'this is our best offer': 'I understand base is fixed at this stage — given that, would there be flexibility on a remote day per week or a signing bonus to help close the gap?' This holds the ask while redirecting to your stated secondary priority rather than folding outright.
Verified against
ChatGPT GPT-5.1 · 2026-08-13
Changelog
- 2026-08-13 — Initial publish, verified against ChatGPT GPT-5.1.
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