Notstephcurry

Account Executive

Getting out of a discount

we are a Saas company that sells to contractors sales teams. we have a long standing customer who has been signed up with us for about 3 years, the rep who sold them offered a significant discount and is no longer here. since the time they have signed up we have offered new plans and different pricing.

I am now the rep on the account, when they started with us they had 10 people getting about a 60% discount. over the 3 years they have grown to about 40. they recently reached out letting us know they have acquired multiple businesses so they will be adding a significant amount of users. during the first call they mentioned they are expecting the same discount. I have a discovery call tomorrow to dive into this a bit more but I'm curious how you guys would handle this.

😤 Conflict Resolution

📳 SaaS

👑 Sales Strategy

25 comments

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Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

@braintank @Pachacuti @SADNESSLieutenant @AnchorPoint @RealPatrickBateman @CuriousFox update - I think we are going to make it out of it here. Talked with the customer and let them know what is going on here and took some of your advice. They will be getting the existing price for all the people part of the original company and then July 1 we are restructuring the deal to give them volume discounts but removing the insane per license discount

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Good job!

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Congratulations! Sounds like a win-win and good rapport is being built.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

Sweet! Looking forward to my commission

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Solid 🤙🏼 now go forth and make some money 🤑🤑🤑

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Now THAT is how you leave a company, take notes people. Offer the most insane discounts known to man and leave before the paperwork is signed.

@blohmskii can you send me that persons contact info please? Would love to have a beer with a fellow savage.

Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Oddly enough he is VP of sales now at a different company

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

obviously, he's a fucking legend.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Review the contract and see how bad it is. Does the discounted pricing last in perpetuity? Are there any guardrails?

See if they can give you anything in return for the great discount: referrals, case study, etc.

At the end of the day it's probably not worth the stress and headache of negotiating a bad deal you inherited. Just take the add'l ACV and see if they can help you somehow.

Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

The problem is it was one of the first deals closed at the company and the rep at the time closed it and did not have any contract in place or terms, just a recurring discount.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I've been there before. Typically not good impression to be the new AE who comes in and tells ab early customer: the party is over.

Better to just take the new seats and ask for a favor from them.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

They can expect shit all day long but prices increase. Nature of the game.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Yesterdays price IS NOT todays price.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

You ordered Diet Coke, that’s a joke right?

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

LOL do we have the same fuckin playlist or what?

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Probably. We both have exquisite taste.

You’re supposed to put the first 500 in the safe and lose the combination…

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Yeah, you right.

I can promise you the floor plan is nothin like the model.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

The phase I’m on love, I wouldn’t believe it either.

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

That is why "discounts" without parameters is a terrible idea. The fact that they mentioned the discount, tells me they expect an increase at some point. While you cannot go from -60 to even, you can probably bump it up to -40

Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

That’s a good point, maybe that’s the approach

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

-1

Officer of ♥️

maybe try saying things have changed in the last three years and that term rate is not granfathered in but meet them in the middle, mention how now that you have more employees or better product improvement its not feasible

Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

That’s fair, that’s something that I have been thinking about but want to make sure I keep the relationship here

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Is your management pushing back on you continuing to offer this discount?

Notstephcurry

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Not necessarily, they are under the same viewpoint that I am that we might just have to bite it and continue to offer it, but there’s a decent amount of upside so they want me to see if there’s anything we can do

Pachacuti

Politicker

-1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That’s a rough spot.

You can either capitulate and “grandfather” them in or present them a completely different pricing model which is so radically different they won’t be able to do an apples to apples comparison.

Throwing the old rep under the bus and tell the client he quit before he was fired might work too.

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