Counteroffers are a horrible way to retain your best people.

Why Counteroffers are a Horrible Retention Strategy (And What to Do Instead)

Amy Volas
14 min readDec 4, 2021

During a recent conversation I had with a colleague and VC powerhouse, I heard something that seriously blew my mind:

In just the last month, five accepted job offers with established start dates were on the table with their portfolio companies for VP’s of Sales. And they all blew up in the 11th hour due to counteroffers from the candidates’ current employers luring them to stay.

Each hiring company was left in disarray and scrambling to put the pieces back together while figuring out how to hire while recouping the lost time — and they were already struggling due to not having the right VP of Sales in place.

But guess what?

They’re not the only ones who will be feeling the repercussions of these dreaded counteroffers.

Know why?

Because counteroffers appear like shiny miracle workers on the surface, but more times than not, they spell D-O-O-M for employees and their employers alike, as you’ll learn in this guide.

I’m here to help and will be diving into why counteroffers are horrible for retention, what to do if you’re faced with this situation, and nine tips to help prevent them from striking.

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Amy Volas
Amy Volas

Written by Amy Volas

Helping SaaS startups hire executive Sales and CS leaders without the cringe ⋆ Personally closed $100MM+ ⋆ Founder/CEO ⋆ 2 Exits ⋆ LP ⋆ Sharing lessons here

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