Giving someone 10 % off just because they ask is just not good business. This happens repeatedly in consumer based companies, business to business operations etc. The fact is that the media tell us that everything is negotiable, of course, everyone asks and often gets!
The bakers dozen gives away additional product or service ( that costs you less) rather than denegrate your brand and even worse, give away 25 – 30% of your profit!! This is fact.
Some businesses of course have to increase their published prices in order to give away the 10%. For the SME, we often suggest they explore the bakers dozen as there is less opportunity to give away volume discounts.
For more information on this and a variety of other means of counteracting discount and negotiation, we have the expertise here at RFM. We often run skills development programmes on this on a one to one basis. This, when tailored to individual organisations, gives a real time example of how to cope with the issue and maintain the appropriate level of profit.