Negotiate & close - your three numbers.

Top reps know their floor before negotiation starts. You should too. Walk in with three numbers: what you want, what you'll accept, and the absolute floor. The candidate who knows their numbers wins. The one who improvises gets undersold.

The biggest mistake - accepting on the call

The offer comes through. You're excited. The recruiter says "we'd love to get this wrapped up by Friday." You say yes on the phone.

You just left $10K–$50K on the table. Always - always - say "thank you, I'm thrilled, can I take 24–48 hours to review." Then negotiate.

The candidate who said yes on the phone left money on the table. Always. Without exception.

Your three numbers - write them BEFORE the call

The three-number system

• WANT - what you'd be thrilled with. Top of market for the role + your experience.
• ACCEPT - what you'd happily say yes to. Roughly your previous comp + 10–15% (or market for the level).
• FLOOR - your walk-away. The number where you'd say no and feel okay about it.

Critical: If you don't write the floor down BEFORE the offer call, an excited recruiter will talk you below it.

The three scripts

Beyond base salary - what to negotiate

Five levers most candidates forget

• Sign-on bonus - often the easiest "yes" because it's one-time. Especially if leaving unvested equity behind.
• Equity refresh / accelerated vesting - sometimes more flexible than base.
• Start date - buy yourself 2–3 weeks off between roles. Worth real money.
• Title - costs the company nothing, compounds your career for years.
• Performance review cycle - "let's set a 6-month review with a target raise to [X]" is often easier to get than the raise upfront.

Closing the loop - even on rejections

Lock in your numbers

Prompt 1 of 4: Your three numbers - for your target role

Prompt 2 of 4: Customize the 24-hour ask script

Prompt 3 of 4: Customize the counter script

Prompt 4 of 4: Your "happy yes" criteria - written before the offer

Where Role Trackr fits in

Offers Use the Offers section the moment a verbal offer arrives. Side-by-side comparison of total comp (base, bonus, equity-per-year). Counter script ready. 48-hour timer running. Decision matrix mapped against your hard no's and must-haves from lesson 102. Offers is the closer - it pulls your Job Type spec so the offer is scored against your real criteria, not against excitement.

🎓 You finished Sales School. Twelve lessons. One whole job search, run like a process. Take the playbook into your next search - and the one after that. Every system you just built compounds.