Negotiation glossary
What is Counteroffer?
Published 8 October 2026 · 2 min read
A counteroffer is a reply to an offer that proposes different terms instead of accepting or refusing it. It keeps the negotiation open, signals what you need, and replaces the other side's number with yours as the new reference point.
A counteroffer turns their number into a conversation. Instead of accepting an offer or walking away, you answer with the terms you want and the reasons behind them. Done well, it shifts the reference point of the negotiation from their opening to yours.
A counteroffer in practice
A recruiter offers 95,000 for a senior role. A weak reply is "I was hoping for a bit more". A counteroffer is: "Thank you. Based on three comparable senior roles and the platform work you described as the priority, I was expecting 118,500. Is there flexibility on the base, or on a signing bonus?" It names a number, attaches reasons and opens a second issue in case the first is blocked.
In sales, the same move works in the other direction. A buyer asks for 15 percent off a 48,000 contract. The counteroffer is not a smaller discount; it is a different package: "I can do 42,000 for a two-year commitment with payment upfront."
What makes a counteroffer work
- One precise number, not a range. "Between 105 and 120" is heard as 105
- Reasons attached. Facts the other side can check: market data, scope, timing, alternatives
- A question before it. Asking how their offer was set tells you whether you face a grid, a budget or a guess
- A second issue ready. If the main term is capped, bonus, start date, payment terms or scope can carry the difference
Common mistakes
- Countering in the first sentence. You give away information before you have any
- Countering too close to their offer. A small gap leaves nowhere to meet in the middle
- Apologising. "I know it's a lot, but..." invites them to agree that it is a lot
- Countering more than three or four times. Endless rounds signal that your limit is not real; move to a package or decide
Counteroffer, anchor and concession
The counteroffer is usually your anchor when the other side spoke first. Every later move is a concession, and the space between both sides' limits is the ZOPA. Seen this way, the counteroffer is the moment you decide where inside that zone the conversation will happen.
Every Negosim scenario starts with an offer or a position from the AI counterpart. Answering it with a reasoned counteroffer, rather than a quick concession, is one of the first things the analysis looks for.
Related terms
- Anchoring: Anchoring is the effect the first figure named in a negotiation has on the final result. Both sides adjust from that figure rather than from an objective value, so the party that opens with a credible, ambitious number tends to close nearer to it.
- Concession: A concession is a movement away from your position toward the other side's, on price or on any other term. The two questions that decide whether it helps you are what you ask in return and how it is presented; a concession given for free teaches the other side that pushing works.
- ZOPA: The ZOPA (Zone Of Possible Agreement) is the overlap between what one side is willing to accept at most and what the other side is willing to accept at least. Every deal that will ever be signed lies inside it; when the two limits do not overlap, there is nothing to negotiate about.