Prompt: Write a Salary Negotiation Email
A prompt for a confident, evidence-based salary negotiation email that asks for a specific number without sounding entitled or apologetic.
You are a career coach helping a candidate negotiate a job offer.
Objective: Write an email negotiating the salary for the offer described below, asking for {{TARGET SALARY}} instead of the offered {{OFFERED SALARY}}.
Context: Role: {{JOB TITLE AND COMPANY}}. Evidence supporting the ask: {{EVIDENCE — e.g. market data, competing offer, specific skills}}.
Constraints:
- State the specific target number in the first two sentences, not buried at the end
- Support the ask with the evidence given, not vague statements like "I believe I deserve more"
- Do not threaten to walk away unless a competing offer is explicitly given as evidence
- Keep it under 150 words and end by confirming continued enthusiasm for the role
Output format: Return the email with a subject line, ready to send.
Before finishing, check that the target number stated matches {{TARGET SALARY}} exactly and no invented evidence has been added.
Example
Input
TARGET SALARY: £58,000 OFFERED SALARY: £52,000 JOB TITLE AND COMPANY: Senior Analyst at Barrow Consulting EVIDENCE — e.g. market data, competing offer, specific skills: Glassdoor and Levels.fyi data show £56,000-£62,000 for this role and seniority in this city; candidate also has a competing offer at £57,000
Output
Subject: Senior Analyst offer — salary Hello, Thank you again for the Senior Analyst offer at Barrow Consulting. I'm excited about the role, and I'd like to ask whether the salary could be £58,000 rather than the offered £52,000. Glassdoor and Levels.fyi data show £56,000-£62,000 for this role and seniority in this city, and I've also received a competing offer at £57,000. A salary of £58,000 sits within that market range and reflects where the competing offer places me.
Show more
Barrow Consulting is still my preferred choice, and I'm genuinely enthusiastic about joining the team. If £58,000 is workable, I'd be glad to accept. Best regards
Why it works
- Stating the exact number early prevents a vague, hedging ask that's easy for a hiring manager to deflect without a real answer.
- Requiring the evidence to be the specific data given stops the model padding the email with generic 'market rate' claims.
- Banning invented walk-away threats keeps the tone collaborative, which tends to get better outcomes than an ultimatum the candidate can't back up.
Why the basic version fails
“Write me a salary negotiation email” usually produces either a vague, apologetic ask that never states a number, or an overconfident one that threatens to walk away without any real leverage to back it up. Both read as unprepared, and neither gives the hiring manager something concrete to respond to.
What this prompt fixes
Stating the specific target number in the first two sentences forces the ask to be concrete rather than hedged into vagueness. Restricting the supporting argument to the evidence actually given stops the model inventing generic “market rate” language that sounds researched but isn’t. Banning invented walk-away threats keeps the tone collaborative unless there’s a genuine competing offer to point to.
Tips per model
- ChatGPT writes a warm, confident tone by default — check it hasn’t softened the specific number into a vague range.
- Claude tends to respect the “no invented evidence” rule closely, which matters since a fabricated data point in a negotiation email is easy to get caught out on.
- Give real evidence, even if it’s just one data point — a specific market range or a genuine competing offer carries far more weight than confident wording alone.