How to Prepare for a Salary Negotiation (Scripts for Every Moment)

Most of the salary advice on the internet is written for people who already have leverage: multiple offers, a safe job, a recruiter chasing them. For everyone else, the standard tips feel hollow. "Never name a number first" is nice advice when you can afford silence, and cold comfort when the application form requires a figure and you need the job.

This guide is for the real situation. It covers how to prepare for the money conversation in a way that works whether you hold zero leverage or plenty, exactly what to say at each moment, and how to negotiate with grace instead of games. Everything here is repeatable, and none of it requires you to be someone you are not.

Negotiation is 80% preparation, and the preparation happens before the first interview. Three tasks, none of them optional.

**Task 1: Build your number, from three sources.** You need a target range, and "what feels right" is not a source. Combine: what the market pays for your role and city, from job listings that publish ranges and salary reports for your field; what your experience level actually commands, adjusted honestly for your years and proof; and what you need to live, your walk-away floor, calculated before emotions are high. If the sources disagree, trust the listings: they are live market prices, not surveys. The salary insights tool shows pay ranges stated in real job listings for your role, which is exactly the evidence a negotiation runs on.

**Task 2: Write your proof list.** Every negotiation argument you will make is a sentence from this list: results you delivered, scale you handled, revenue you touched, costs you cut. Ten lines, numbers where possible. In the conversation, your range is an opinion until you attach proof.

**Task 3: Set your three numbers.** Your target (what you realistically want), your acceptable (what you would sign without resentment), and your floor (where you decline politely and keep the relationship). Deciding these in advance, in writing, is what keeps you from negotiating against yourself in the room.

It arrives early, often in the application or first call: "What are your salary expectations?"

The honest answer depends on how much you need this particular job.

**If you have options** (other processes live, or a current job): defer warmly once. "I would rather learn more about the role's scope first. Can you share the band you have budgeted?" Many recruiters will answer, and now they named first.

**If you need this job:** name a range, anchored high-normal. Research your role, then give a band whose bottom is your target and whose top is about 15% above it. "Based on the market for this role in Lagos, I am looking at 350 to 400 thousand naira monthly." Then stop talking. The two classic mistakes are naming your floor (you will receive it) and apologizing into a discount ("but I am flexible!") before they even respond.

**If a form demands a number:** give your target, not your floor. A form is a filter, and you want to pass it, not lowball yourself into it.

The reason anchoring high-normal works is mechanical: the first number in any negotiation becomes the center of gravity. A range with your target at the bottom lets them land "at the low end" and still give you what you wanted.

They call with an offer below your number. Here is the shape of the response that works: warmth, proof, counter, silence.

**Step 1: Thank them genuinely and never accept on the spot.** "Thank you, I am genuinely excited about this role." Interest is not weakness; a warm candidate negotiates better than a cold one. Then: "I would like a day to review the full package. Can we speak tomorrow afternoon?"

**Step 2: The counter, with proof attached.** In writing or on the call:

"Thank you again for the offer. Based on my research for this role in this market, and the reporting ownership I handled at Vantage, where I cut close time from 9 days to 5, I was targeting 380 to 420 thousand. Is there flexibility to bring the offer to 400?"

Read what that script does: it cites research (not greed), it cites proof (not hope), it names one concrete number (not a complaint), and it asks a question (not an ultimatum).

**Step 3: Silence.** After the counter, stop talking. The pause belongs to them. People fill silences with concessions, and the person who speaks first after a counter usually pays for it.

**Step 4: Handle the response.** If they meet you or split the difference, say yes warmly, you won. If they hold firm: "I understand. If the base is fixed, could we look at the review timeline? A six-month review with defined criteria would close the gap for me." Now you negotiate structure: signing bonus, earlier review, extra leave, remote days, a title that prices your next job. If nothing moves at all and the number is above your floor, you can still accept, happily and without resentment, because you tested it. Testing an offer respectfully never burns the bridge.

**You are asked for your current salary.** In markets where the question is legal, answer with your total compensation, not base alone, and immediately re-anchor to the target role: "My current package is 300, though for this role, with the added reporting ownership, I am targeting 380 to 420." In Nigeria and many markets the question is routine; the re-anchor is what keeps your next offer tied to the new job, not the old one.

**The offer is insultingly low.** Below your floor by a mile. Decline with the door open: "I appreciate the offer. The role genuinely interests me, but the compensation is too far from the market band for me to accept. If the budget revisits, I would love to talk again." Some budgets do move after a first choice declines.

**You have a competing offer.** The strongest sentence in salary negotiation, and you never need to bluff it: "I have another offer at X. This role is my preference, and if we can reach Y, I will sign today." True statements only: fake leverage collapses one reference call later.

**Internal promotions.** Different game, same prep: bring the proof list, the market band, and ask for the raise as a range tied to the new scope, not to your current salary plus a percentage.

Almost everyone hates this conversation. The people who negotiate well are not the people who feel no fear. They are the people holding three truths while their hands sweat.

**Truth one: they chose you.** By the time an offer exists, the employer has spent hours and money selecting you from a field. They want this to work. Your counter is not an inconvenience to a hostile party. It is a normal step with a party already on your side.

**Truth two: the worst realistic answer is "no, this is the number".** You will not lose the offer over one respectful, well-evidenced counter. Offers get withdrawn over arrogance, ultimatums, and lies, not over a polite question about flexibility. The scenarios your imagination produces are not in the data.

**Truth three: the discomfort is the price of every raise you will ever get.** A single negotiated offer compounds through your whole career, because every future offer anchors on this one. Ten uncomfortable minutes, priced against decades of difference, is the best-paid discomfort available anywhere.

Say your range out loud three times before the call, flat and unhurried. Then go be nervous and effective at the same time. Everyone is.

• **Give an ultimatum you will not keep.** "Final offer" means final. Say it once, mean it, or do not say it.
• **Negotiate before the offer.** Arguing money in the first interview, unprompted, screens you out before anyone wants you. The leverage arrives with the offer.
• **Accept on the spot.** Even a perfect offer deserves a night of review. Asking for a day is normal and professional.
• **Negotiate everything.** Pick your one or two priorities. Five simultaneous demands read as difficulty, and hiring managers pay to avoid difficulty.
• **Re-open after agreeing.** Once you accept, the negotiation is closed. Re-opening after acceptance marks you before day one.
• **Negotiate by ghosting.** Ignoring the offer email for a week to "create pressure" just creates risk and reads as immaturity.

Salary conversations are won by people who have already had them once that week. Twenty minutes of practice: write your three numbers and your counter script, then say them out loud, then have a friend play the recruiter and push back twice. Record it. Listen for the two tells of weak negotiation: rising pitch at the end of your range (it turns your number into a question), and instant justification after your counter (it turns your number into an apology). Repeat until your range lands flat and confident.

If you are preparing while job hunting, the interview side matters as much as the money side: the interview preparation guide and the STAR method cover getting to the offer in the first place. The offer itself is usually decided before the money talk, which is why preparation for interviews is also preparation for negotiation.

Do task one tonight: pull live ranges for your target role with the salary insights tool, write your three numbers, and draft your counter script. When the offer call comes, you will spend the conversation negotiating instead of calculating.