A good Sales Director resigns, their employer panics, and a bigger number appears. Everyone breathes out. The problem has usually just been postponed.
Counter-offers are a normal part of senior hiring, and I expect them. What I have learned over the years is how rarely they solve anything for the person who accepts one.
The reasons don’t change
People seldom start talking to a headhunter about money alone. They are frustrated with the direction of the business, a difficult relationship, a lack of autonomy or a ceiling they can see coming. A pay rise does not touch any of those. A few months later, the same frustrations are back, with the added awkwardness that everyone now knows they nearly left.
The relationship has changed too. Their employer has learned they are a flight risk. Trust, once tested like that, is hard to rebuild.
For the hiring business, it is a warning
If you are hiring, a candidate accepting a counter-offer is painful. But it is far better at offer stage than six months into the role. That is why I talk about counter-offers early and openly with candidates, long before they resign: what they would do if one came, and what would actually need to change for them to stay.
If the honest answer is “more money would keep me”, that is useful to know. It tells us the move was never really about the role.
For the employer making the offer
If you are about to counter-offer your own Sales Director, ask what they would have needed a year ago to never take the call. That is the real conversation, and it is usually cheaper than the counter-offer.
Handling notice periods and counter-offers well is part of the final stage of a search. A hire is only a success if it lasts.