Discounting Days

Published by Matt Church – Founder on 9 June 2021

We teach thought leaders to be commercially smart with their practices. Discounting then becomes one of the topics that comes up all the time. Here is a response you might find useful to the question:

To discount or not to discount?

It has become natural in society to ask for a better price. To haggle or barter in a market to see if you can get the product or service for less. In some cultures, bartering is part of the game of merchandising.

In the Great Market of Istanbul, you would never accept the first price, to do so would dishonour the game of bartering or haggling, that is part and parcel of the cultural experience. The merchant pretending to be offended at the request for a discount is equally part of the melodrama of the great bazaar. That should not happen here.

“Discounting your value is an erosion of conviction or a demonstration of commitment.”

In other words, it’s not about what the final price is, it’s how you got there. I, for example, may reduce my day rate if you buy 10 days; in doing so I am rewarding your commitment to me. And in this case, I should never go lower than my minimum acceptable day rate. More often than not though, a person in charge of procurement has a checklist of questions and procedures and one of them is to ask for a discount. If there is no increased commitment from the other side, don’t discount and even if there is, don’t discount lower than your baseline day rate. Resist the instinct to lower your fees. Be cool, stand in your value, know your worth and be willing to walk away if it’s a deal-breaker.