What to say when someone asks for a discount

"Is that your best price?" is four different questions wearing the same six words, and the reason most answers go wrong is that the business answers the wrong one. Before you decide anything about the number, work out which request you are actually holding.

The four requests

1. They cannot afford it. A genuine budget limit. Nothing about your price will change that.
2. They do not understand what is included. They are comparing your number against something that is not the same job.
3. They are testing whether the price is real. Many people ask reflexively, expecting to be told no.
4. They negotiate everything. A habit rather than a judgement about you.

Only the first is about money. The other three are about information or expectation, and none is solved by cutting the number.

Find out which, before you answer

One question does it: "What are you comparing it to?"

Asked plainly and without defensiveness, it produces the answer nearly every time. They name a cheaper quote — now you can compare like for like. They go quiet — it was a reflex test. They say they simply have less to spend — that is a budget conversation and a different reply.

Answering before you know which one you have is guessing, and the guess is usually a discount.

The reply that holds the price

For the commonest case — a cheaper quote that is not actually the same thing — say what is in yours, without disparaging theirs:

"That's my price for what I've quoted. It includes the disposal, making good afterwards and the two-year guarantee — worth checking whether theirs does, because that's usually where the difference is."

That does three things: confirms the number, explains it, and hands them something checkable. It converts a meaningful share of jobs at full price, because most price objections are really uncertainty about what the money buys.

If they genuinely cannot afford it

Reduce the scope, not the rate. Do less for less — the same quality on a smaller job.

"I can't do that job for that, but I could do the essential part for it and leave the rest for later."

This protects your rate, gives them a real option, and frequently produces a customer who comes back for the rest. Cutting the rate for the same work teaches this customer — and everyone they tell — that your first number was optional.

Other things to offer instead of money

• Flexibility on timing. A slot that suits your diary is genuinely worth something to you, so trading it is not a loss.
• Staged payment. Frequently the real problem is cash flow rather than price.
• Something added that costs you little. An extra you have plenty of is worth more to them than the equivalent discount costs you.
• A reason. If you do discount, attach a condition — a quiet week, paying up front, two jobs together. A discount with a reason does not reset your price; one without does.

What to actually say when the answer is no

Short, warm, and without apology or explanation of your costs:

"That's the price, I'm afraid — it's what the job takes. Happy to look at doing less if the budget's fixed."

Do not justify with your overheads. Your costs are not the customer's problem and raising them invites a discussion about whether they are reasonable. The price is a fact about the work, not a plea.

Then stop talking. The silence after a firm price is uncomfortable and it is where a lot of businesses discount themselves without being asked twice.

What saying yes really costs

More than the money. Three things happen, all of them lasting:

• The discount becomes your price for this customer, permanently. There is no version where the next job is at full rate.
• It travels. People talk, and "he'll come down if you ask" is a sentence you cannot recall.
• It changes the relationship. A customer who negotiated your price down tends to negotiate everything else too.

Run the arithmetic once and it settles the question. On a 20% margin, a 10% discount does not cost you a tenth of the job — it costs you half the profit on it.

The ones to let go

Some enquiries are not yours, and recognising them early is worth more than winning them. Anyone who opens with price before asking what the work involves, anyone who wants your quote to beat a number rather than to be right, anyone whose second message is pushier than the first.

Let them go politely, and mean it. A job won at a price you resent is one you will do badly and remember.

Prevent most of it

Publishing a price signal — a from-price, a range, worked examples — filters out the people who were never going to pay it, before either of you spends time. And a quote that says what is included, what is excluded and what happens if something unexpected turns up removes the ambiguity that discount requests grow in. See showing your prices online and writing a quote that wins the job.

The bottom line

Ask what they are comparing it to before you answer anything. Explain what is included rather than cutting the number, and where the budget is genuinely fixed, do less for less. Attach a condition to any discount you do give. Then be quiet, and let the ones who were never going to pay go elsewhere. See also how to price your work.