You have done your homework. You planned, searched, found, vetted and interviewed and finally you have the right candidate. You have the right person, the person who you feel is perfect for the position. Now it’s time to close the deal. It’s time to make that offer, negotiate the compensation package, and bring the person on board.

If you have done your homework properly you should have a pretty good idea as to what it is going to take to convince this person to join your company.

You should also have an idea as to what salary range you are looking at that will make the person leave his current position (assuming she is currently employed) and come to your company. Actually, if she is not currently employed this makes your job that much easier.

But for the sake of this column let’s assume that the right candidate already has a job and that you are negotiating to lure her away from that job.

This means that you are going to create a better compensation package that he has right now. So, let’s get the money part out of the way first.

By now you should have a good idea as to what he has been making where he is now. All you had to do was ask. And again, there should be on question that this is the right person for the job, no doubt at all which means this is the person you want and are willing to pay the price to get him on board.

Besides her current salary you should look at her years of experience, her background, her knowledge of your industry and your product. And most importantly how well she will fit into your company.

You should also consider his value to your company. You have to ask how much better your company is going to be with this person in it? You also have to consider what this person is going to bring to your company. Is he going to bring in more business? Is he going to help you do things that you have not been able to do without him? Is he going to be able to help take your company to the next level?

The more value this person will bring to your company the more valuable she is and the more she is worth whatever you are going to pay her.

Taking all these factors into consideration will help you make up your mind about what the salary should be. It certainly should start at twenty percent more than what she is currently making, At least that. And then add to that the estimated value she can bring to the company. That could be anywhere from ten to twenty percent more…or more if she is bringing technology that you would not have without her.

And of course, you want to make sure that she stays with your company for a while, say at least five years. And remember the more valuable she is the more she is going to be in demand by other companies in your industry…namely your competitors.

You could be considering an offer of thirty to forty percent more to make sure she is with you for a while, and she feels that she has made the right career choice.

Then there are the benefits. You should never take these lightly, in many cases when a person reaches a certain salary range the benefits become as important to them as the salary.

Here are some of the more popular benefits at this time:

• Longer paid time off. If a person has been in the industry for five years they just get two weeks off now; ten years three weeks off and so on. This is important, don’t underestimate how important this is.
• Good health benefits. I know this can be expensive, prohibitively expensive, but remember that people are switching jobs based on the quality of health insurance a company provides. Don’t skimp on this, it can be as important as the salary.
• Retirement funds like IRAs especially matching fund plans. Very important!
• Stock options or other ownership plans. This is also a critical benefit at this time
• Car allowances are not as important unless the person you are hiring is in sales. But they can still influence a hiring decision.

And then there are the softer benefits like personal growth sabbaticals, or time off for charity work, or paid education like funding an MBA or other executive courses.

Or the benefits could be more custom made for the particular candidate. It’s good to talk about this with the candidate. It could make the difference that tips the scales for him joining your company.

The important thing to remember during this hiring process is that it is a sales job. You are convincing this person, the right person, to join your company so you have to be persuasive, and you have to be convincing as well.

But one word of warning. Don’t try too hard. What I mean by that is if you find yourself really pleading with this person to join the company, and he is resisting too much, get the point. There is a fine line between negotiating and not really wanting the job. It’s not going to do you or her any good if she just ends up taking a job she really doesn’t want because you wore her down. That won’t work. You have to have a sense that the candidate really does want to come to work with you but is just trying to negotiate the best offer possible for herself.

In the end if the negotiations go well and you amicably come to an agreement, it’ll be the start of a beautiful relationship. It’s only common sense