Closing the offer: steering client and candidate

Your client calls: they want Sofie. You call her straight away with the news and the offer. Silence on the line. “Hmm. I was hoping for a bit more, to be honest. And that car is a class below the one I have now.” Your client thinks their offer is fair, Sofie thinks it’s too little and you’re stuck in the middle.

Let’s not be naive about it: you’re in the middle, and everyone knows your fee rises with the candidate’s salary. Your client fears you’ll push the salary up, your candidate that you’ll get them to sign something for the sake of your fee. But a placement that falls through earns you nothing, and a candidate who signs below their minimum will soon be looking again. Your job is an offer both sides say yes to, and that starts long before the offer.

And a yes is only a done deal once it’s signed. In a Gartner survey of nearly 3,000 candidates, 35% say they pulled out after accepting an offer.

Compare the whole package

Judged on gross salary, an offer looks good or bad, but your candidate lives on what they take home, and on their time. Put their current package and the proposal side by side, line by line:

• gross and net pay per month;
• expense allowance;
• car and fuel card, with model and category;
• group insurance and hospitalisation insurance, with own contribution and options for partner and children;
• phone, phone contract, laptop and internet, and whether they can use them privately;
• meal vouchers, eco vouchers and bonus;
• working hours per week, on paper and in practice, holiday days and ADV days (working time reduction days).

At the bottom, you add up two things: what they take home each month, and how much time they have. Only then do you know whether the offer is better, and where it pinches. Pay carries a lot of weight, but not on its own: in the same survey, 53% name higher pay as the main reason to accept an offer, and 47% career progression.

How to bring them together

Find where it really pinches. Often it isn’t the gross salary, but the car, the group insurance or the day working from home. What makes the biggest difference to your candidate sometimes costs your client the least.

Get both sides to take a step. Your client gives a bit more, your candidate drops something they care less about. Spell it out to both, so nobody feels they were the only one to give ground.

Persuade with what they gain or lose, not with your opinion. Your client with what it costs if it falls through: the weeks until the next candidate, the role that stays open. Your candidate with what they gain: the job, the team, where they’ll be in three years.

The method: from first conversation to signature

Six steps. You take the first two long before there’s an offer.

01Know their package and their minimum

In your first conversation, you ask for their whole package, line by line, and what they expect if they move. Ask for their minimum too, and what they definitely don’t want to lose: their car, their day working from home, their group insurance. If they won’t say what they earn, explain why you’re asking: you also ask your client for their maximum, so you don’t pitch your candidate roles that will never fit.

02Close on salary after every interview

After every interview with your client: “If they offer you this package tomorrow, will you sign?” You want a yes to that question. A no or a maybe isn’t enough to go on: keep probing until you know what’s still missing.

03Weigh up your client’s proposal

Before your client makes their offer, you ask for it in full and set it against your candidate’s current package. If something pinches, say so now: a car a class lower, no group insurance, fewer days’ holiday. Advise your client to adjust where needed, and ask straight away for a few slots to sign.

04Close your candidate before the offer

Call them before you deliver the offer. How do they feel about the job, what doubts do they have, are other processes still running? Talk concrete figures: “If they offer you the same as now, will you go for it? If not, from what amount would you?” That way you know their minimum, ideally below what your client wants to offer, and you know they’ll say yes if the offer is right.

05Make the offer verbally

Then you call back: “Have you got a pen handy?” Go through the whole package and then ask: “Can I let the client know you’re going for it?” The offer doesn’t go by email: an offer on paper easily ends up on their boss’s desk.

06Book the signing straight away

If they say yes, you schedule the signing in the same call, ideally the same day or the next, and confirm it with both sides. The longer it takes, the more time there is for doubt, another offer or a counteroffer. How to cover that last one is in Close the counteroffer in your first conversation.

What to say when it gets tricky

An example

Say Lien is a project engineer at an engineering consultancy. In your first conversation, you go through her package: her salary, a car, meal vouchers, group insurance and working from home every Friday. Her minimum: at least what she takes home now, and she wants to keep that Friday.

After her second interview, you ask: “If they offer you the same tomorrow, with your day working from home, will you sign?” “Yes, the job’s better.”

Your client wants to give her €150 gross more, but a car a class lower and no group insurance. On gross salary, that looks like more. Set side by side, she loses her group insurance and a class of car, and that outweighs the €150. You walk your client through it, line by line. They keep the group insurance and the Friday, and the car stays a class lower. Lien is happy with that.

You call Lien, go through the offer and ask whether you can pass on her yes. She signs the next morning.

Checklist

• You know your candidate’s whole package, their minimum and what they don’t want to lose.
• After every interview, you ask: “If they offer you this, will you sign?”
• You set your client’s proposal against your candidate’s current package, line by line.
• If something pinches, you adjust before the offer, not after.
• You’ve closed your candidate on concrete figures before you deliver the offer.
• You make the offer verbally, and you ask for a yes or a no.
• The signing is booked, ideally the same day or the next.

Frequently asked questions

Can a recruiter push up their candidate’s salary?

You advise, you don’t decide. From the start, you pass on your candidate’s expectations and show your client where the offer pinches. The offer remains your client’s decision, and signing it is your candidate’s.

Why not make the offer by email?

Because an offer on paper easily ends up with the current boss, as leverage for a counteroffer. Your candidate gets everything in black and white in their contract, at the signing. So schedule that quickly.

What if your candidate wants to wait for their bonus?

Work out together what they’d miss out on. If it’s a large amount, ask your client whether they’ll make up for it with a sign-⁠on bonus, or plan their resignation after the payout.

What if your candidate has a non-⁠compete clause?

Ask before the offer, and have it checked: whether it applies depends on their salary and how it’s worded. How that works is explained in Non-⁠compete clause and notice. This is general information, not legal advice.

How soon should the signing follow?

Ideally the same day or the next. Every day between yes and signature is a day for doubt, another offer or a counteroffer.

Sources

• Gartner, Gartner HR Research Finds 44 Percent of Prospective Candidates Received Multiple Job Offers in 1Q25, June 2025, survey of nearly 3,000 candidates.