It helps if they know you're looking elsewhere and getting other offers. One of the jobs I ended up being really happy with made what I thought was a great offer to begin with, but I wanted to think things over. I had 7 days to accept the offer and planned on using that time to be sure it's what I wanted to do. Three days in they came back with an offer 10% higher if I accepted that day and halted the rest of my interviews. I thought it over for a bit and accepted 10 minutes later.
Incidentally, I had a very good recruiter who was in communication with them.
If you don't have a recruiter, use that to your advantage. A recruiter is probably going to get 25 - 33% of your base salary for commission. The company is saving a lot of money hiring you without paying a recruiter fee. That's why you see referrals as high as $10k -- it's substantially less than a recruiter fee.
And my final tip is to consider the overall compensation package and let your potential employer know that. Salary is only one part of it. I wouldn't even negotiate lower pay if they cover health care, because plans change annually, but I would argue for higher pay if their health plan sucks. That sort of thing.
Incidentally, I had a very good recruiter who was in communication with them.
If you don't have a recruiter, use that to your advantage. A recruiter is probably going to get 25 - 33% of your base salary for commission. The company is saving a lot of money hiring you without paying a recruiter fee. That's why you see referrals as high as $10k -- it's substantially less than a recruiter fee.
And my final tip is to consider the overall compensation package and let your potential employer know that. Salary is only one part of it. I wouldn't even negotiate lower pay if they cover health care, because plans change annually, but I would argue for higher pay if their health plan sucks. That sort of thing.