The first number is a starting point, not a verdict. Word-for-word lines for countering an offer, handling a hard no, and asking for a raise.
Most people take the first number because pushing back feels rude. It is not. The company handed you a figure with room built into it, fully expecting you to ask, and the person who asks usually lands a few thousand dollars ahead of the person who does not. Same job, same start date.
What makes it work is preparation, not nerve. Settle on your number before the call, then say the words out loud.
Decide on three numbers before you talk
Your target is what you want. Your floor is the lowest you will accept. Your anchor is what you open with, a notch above target, because these conversations tend to settle below where they start. Get all three from market data for the role and your city. Do not anchor on your current salary. That is the company's favorite number, not yours.
The opening counter
The moment you have an offer in hand, the balance tips your way. Use it warmly:
"Thanks, I'm genuinely excited about this. Based on my work with [specific thing] and what I'm seeing for similar roles right now, I was hoping for [anchor]. Is there room to get there?"
Then stop. The pause after the ask feels endless to you and completely ordinary to them. Let them speak first.
Here is how it tends to play out. The offer lands at $92,000. You counter at $100,000 and point to a project you led and the going rate for the role. They come back with $96,000 plus a $3,000 signing bonus, and you take it. That ten-minute exchange added $7,000 in the first year, and because next year's raise is a percentage of a higher base, it keeps paying you long after the call.
When they say the budget is fixed
Sometimes base salary really is capped. That is a redirect, not a dead end:
"Understood on the base. Could we look at a signing bonus, a six-month review instead of a year, extra PTO, or a couple of remote days? Any one of those would matter to me."
Base pay is a single line on the offer. There are usually five or six others you can move.
Asking for a raise where you already work
Same approach, more receipts. Bring what you have taken on since your last bump and what it produced:
"Over the past year I've owned [responsibility], and we [result]. I'd like to bring my pay in line with that scope. From what I can find, the range is [X to Y]. Can we work toward it?"
Tie the ask to value you have added. Not to your rent, and not to what a coworker makes.
A few fast ways to lose the room
Do not invent a competing offer you do not have; it collapses the second they test it. Do not make it about your bills. Do not say yes on the spot if you want to think, because "Can I take until tomorrow?" is standard and buys you a clear head. And drop the apology. You are not asking for a favor.
One thing to handle first: "more money" is not a number, so get the math straight. The Interview Prep & Salary Negotiation Kit has the full script set plus a calculator that totals base, bonus, equity, and benefits, so you can weigh two offers honestly. It lives with the rest of the Career & Job Search tools.
The conversation takes about five minutes, and you are unlikely to find a better-paid five minutes anywhere.