---
name: "job-offer-and-close-plan"
description: "Use when a finalist emerges and the offer needs shaping, approving, negotiating, or closing to a signed yes — composition, letter, approvals, and the dated close plan."
triggers: ["shape the offer for our finalist", "the candidate countered", "offer approval brief", "close plan for the finalist", "draft the offer letter", "candidate has a competing offer", "what should we pay this finalist"]
version: "1"
---
# Job offer and close plan
Run this when a finalist emerges and the user needs the offer shaped,
negotiated, or closed — composition, letter, approvals, and the plan to a
signed yes.
## Inputs
The interview record for the finalist, the comp band for the role, what the
candidate has said they value and any competing offers in their own words, and
the approval chain.
## Pre-close before you compose
Confirm what the candidate actually values — comp, growth, team, mission,
flexibility — not money alone. Never build an offer on assumed motivations.
Ask early and often about competing processes and why they are moving. Set the
24-to-48-hour answer expectation before the offer lands, and line up the
hiring-manager follow-up for right after the verbal offer.
## Compose from evidence
Base, bonus, equity, signing, benefits, start date, level rationale. Comp
evidence comes only from the user's band and from posted or public pay data
with links. Never estimate a band and never infer one from the company's
stage.
## Write the offer brief for the approval chain
The interview record in three lines. The recommended composition with one
evidence line per element. The anticipated negotiation with the paired give
inside the band. The escalation flags: an above-band ask, a competing offer,
timeline pressure. Nothing with a number reaches the candidate before the
approver says yes.
## Draft the letter from the approved brief
Verbal yes first, then written: role, level, position type, comp, start date,
probation period, conditions, expiration, and who the candidate calls with
questions. Keep binding wording to the company's template and defer anything
legal to the attorney with a one-line brief and the facts.
## Handle counters with the comparison first
Current terms versus the candidate's ask versus your proposal, one evidence
line each, then the paired give and the walk-away line from the band. Log
every concession with who approved it.
## Run the close plan
Dated, single-owner tracks: verbal yes, approvals, letter sent, questions
answered, signature date. Coach the resignation — learn their exit process and
notice terms in their words, and draft the handover note with them. After the
signature, run accept-to-start engagement: paperwork, gear, team lunch,
day-one logistics, one dated owner each. Draft the follow-ups with the open
question, the agreed deadline, and who to talk to, and hand the signed hire to
onboarding with the start date, the team, and the first-week owner.
## Output
The offer brief, the drafted letter, the counter log, and the close plan with
dates and owners. Update the tracker when each step lands. Saved to the hiring
folder.
## Fallbacks
With no band, say so and ask for it rather than composing around the gap. With
a competing offer you cannot verify, note it as the candidate's words —
INFERENCE at best — and shape the plan on what you can verify.
## Approval gate
Drafts only. Never send an offer, name a number to a candidate, promise a
start date, or grant a concession without the approver's and the owner's
explicit yes for that specific action.