Which offer package should you actually ask for?
Most people negotiate a job offer one issue at a time and meet in the middle on each. That habit is measurably expensive. When you score every issue for both sides, an optimizer can find the package that trades what you value less for what you value more, and it is rarely the middle.
Work Advanced Optimization free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Job Offer Package Optimizer
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
Every issue starts split down the middle. One Run turns that package into this:
- Your optimized package
- $17,700 vs $10,200 if you split every issue down the middle
- What the winning ask looks like
- $104,000 salary, plus $10,000 bonus, 23 vacation days, 4 remote days, premium health
- Employer keeps
- $5,500 exactly their walk-away value, so the package still gets signed
- Cushion over your backup offer
- $8,200 the middle-of-the-road deal clears your $9,500 backup by only $700
Packaging beats splitting. The optimized deal is worth $17,700 to you against $10,200 for the down-the-middle package, a gain of $7,500, while the employer still keeps the $5,500 they need to say yes. The trick is visible in the answer: you concede what is cheap to you and costly to them, starting in 2 weeks and taking only $2,000 of relocation help, and you take salary, bonus, vacation, and remote days in return.
The model
Eight issues, each with five settlement steps. You score what each step is worth to you and estimate what it costs the employer, all in dollar-equivalents.
| Issues on the table | 8, each with 5 settlement steps |
| Salary | $95,000 – $107,000 in $3,000 steps |
| Vacation | 15 – 23 days |
| Signing bonus | $0 – $10,000 |
| Remote days per week | 0 – 4 |
| Your value per step | $150 – $1,500 depending on the issue |
| Employer walk-away value | $5,500 kept |
| Your backup offer | worth $9,500 |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- Big advance or double the royalty rate?Advance vs Royalty
- Ship at 80% confidence, or run one more validation round?Ship Now or Test More
- When does your rollout actually reach 80% adoption?How Long Until the Team Works the New Way?
- What would regret have to be worth to leap?Should You Take the Career Leap?
- How do you give every team a fair share of every skill?Balanced Team Builder
- Is there a deal that beats splitting the difference?Win-Win Deal Finder
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Optimization in Google Sheets.