A customer asks for a discount. You panic, you want the deal, and you say yes. “Okay, I can do that.”
You think you’ve won the business. In reality, you’ve just damaged your authority.
When you drop price without changing scope or terms, you signal one thing: your original number wasn’t real. The buyer hears, “I was trying to overcharge you, but you caught me.”
That instantly shifts you from strategic partner to market-stall haggling. And once that frame is set, future negotiations get worse, not better.
If you want to maintain credibility, you need one rule: give-to-get. If price changes, scope or terms change too. You don’t give margin away for free. You trade it.
If they want £12,000 instead of £15,000, you have options. You can trade scope: remove post-project support, reduce the number of sites, adjust the SLA. Or you can trade terms: upfront payment instead of 30-day terms, or a longer commitment.
These trades do more than protect margin. They prove your pricing is calculated and robust.
Don’t be an order taker. Be a negotiator.
What to do next: write down your three standard “give-to-get” trades now (scope, term length, payment terms). Use them every time price gets challenged so you never negotiate on the spot.