Mobi85

Regional Sales Manager

Holding my ground, possibly costing me the business

This is a current situation that I am running into and putting this out to the group and looking for some feedback. I was sent out a RFQ with an up and coming company, I know what their goals are for growth over the next few months/years and the timeframe they are looking for the aggressive buildout (won't have time to wait on stock/availability).

Long story short, I have submitted pricing and got the proverbially "you won this part of the business but XYZ items are high can you match?". As I have reviewed the pricing they are requesting many of the items are at or below manufacturer costs and it has become known that this competitor is just selling on price to not lose the business.

I have pushed back that I am not budging on price for those items (we have the stock available) and have asked to confirm we are comparing apples to apples on the product and if the competitor actually has immediate availability on what they need for this buildout. I haven't got a response back but figured I would throw it out to the room to see if you all would hold your ground or give a bit as I am waiting to see their response.

With limited info would you hold your ground?

Attached poll

Yes No Maybe

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

👑 Sales Strategy

🛢 Energy & Industrials

18

28 comments

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UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

5

SaaS Eater

Aside from you having stock and competitor not, is there anything that makes you superior to them?

Mobi85

Politicker

1

Regional Sales Manager

We are in distribution sales and have multiple locations compared to only 2 locations from the competitor on the west coast. So our advantage is speed to market resulting in less downtime on the buildout. Also have major backing from our manufacturers to allow trainings and continued education to occur with the end user but again they have used the one company in the past and I am the new kid on the block..

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

2

SaaS Eater

Makes sense, sounds like you can lean into that and the fact that they have no stock and hold you ground. If you stay strong what is ballpark chance you lose the deal? and how much of a discount are they looking for?

Mobi85

Politicker

0

Regional Sales Manager

So ballpark on the equipment I have "won" on the bid is around 40% of the items. Staying strong on the remaining items could lose me 60% of the business. I may not lose everything but many of the items that I would be losing would be items that are the higher $$ items. On the flip side the contractor could be bluffing as well on the pricing they are receiving just to see what they could get and push my pricing back to their current supplier for a possible better cost..it is just a merry-go-round of awesomeness.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

3

SaaS Eater

Ya I think you need to weight out how worth it is for you and your company to hold strong. If youre talking about losing 60% of the bid, thats a huge chunk and it might be worth a 5-10% discount on those higher money items to ensure you win the whole thing and not just the 40%

Caveat being I know nothing about this business/industry and 5-10% concession may put you in the red

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

4

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Don't want to trap your future self by lowering prices now.

Hold the line!

Mobi85

Politicker

2

Regional Sales Manager

Line is being held, it is the waiting game that is making it really funnnnn…

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Tis life boo.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

3

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Proud of you.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Waiting is the hardest part of sales...particularly if you're not a patient person.

Try not to flinch first.

Mobi85

Politicker

2

Regional Sales Manager

@Sunbunny31 Pure zen right now and put a follow up task in for a few days to test the waters...also can't put my eggs in one basket and rely on a maybe to make quota. Moved on to the next prospect to work on earning that business.

Jbeans

Opinionated

0

Director of Sales

Ugh! Waiting is the worst. But the person who speaks first loses, they are most likely seeing if you’ll budge. If you can hold - I’d say do it but be prepared also to lose that 60% and be ok with it. I weigh out the pros and cons of these price concessions- will it be a major difference to my take home commission? Is my pride getting in the way of making “some money” vs walking and making none? If you feel you’ve got the upper hand - I’d remain silent and wait them out . But if you think they are trying to work out another plan? Id maybe re look at the numbers. Good luck!! Keep us posted 😎

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

3

Burn Towns, Get Money

If the competitor doesn't have stock, and has a lead-time, you should hold your ground.

Otherwise you may need to give up a little. But make the case that you have business costs, and X is the lowest you can go, after you determine what you're willing to give up.

Hopefully the competitor either has lower quality or longer lead-times to delivery than you. You can make the argument that you get good, cheap, and fast, and you can pick two. Your offer is Good and Fast.

If they want cheap, they gotta budge on Good or Fast.

CaneWolf

Politicker

3

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

If you're truly the winner, I think hold ground. Do you have any coaches or champions you can have a secret conversation with to get the lay of the land here?

Mobi85

Politicker

1

Regional Sales Manager

So many of the employees at this new company came from a company that just went under and my experience with the previous company was an identical battle with the same exact people. So no champions at this moment but also know if they give us a chance we won’t let them down.

AlecBaldwinsHairline

Valued Contributor

2

Head of Sales Development

Don't become your prospect's bitch. RFQ are so nasty, if it's part of your core business I feel bad for you.

ragnarlothbrok

Politicker

1

Key account manager

absolutely hold your ground, by the sounds of things your competitor won't be in business too much longer if thats how they operate

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

1

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

RFI, RFP, RFQ's are THEE WORST way to do business. No one really wins because everyone is selling razor thin or negative margins to push volume. So in the end, the customer thinks they're smart because "they shopped" and the vendor doesn't give a shit about the customer because theres no money in it.

Always Stand your Ground. Always...

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

1

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Also, every time you don't stand your ground and you give in to the "pricing" discussion, you lose 7 years off your life. Its science.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Apart from product and price, I also look at intalgible values that we have for prospects; it can be your service, inventory availability, product knowledge, tech team knowledge, helping customers with their R&D etc. depending upon the products you sell.

Is this is a one time or recurring purchase for them.

Simo

Politicker

1

Director of Sales

I would hold the line and focus on value. If they want a lower price, change the conversation to ROI.

I would respond with something like "I'm surprised you are asking for less considering your goals. If the pricing doesn't make sense, let's dive back into the ROI to ensure it makes sense for you."

You don't need to be the cheapest, you need to be the most valuable.

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

0

AM

Fuck.. I meant to say yes I would gold my ground. HODL.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

3

SaaS Eater

This all made me LOL

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

1

AM

I'm not using my mechanical keyboard, and remote gaming mouse, since my wife's boyfriend wanted to play my games. Excuse my awful typing and fat fingers.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

3

SaaS Eater

the bangers just keep coming

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

1

AM

That's how I feel about my wife's boyfriend and his pals whenever they come over and make me sit in the basement with headphones on

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

Tough situation, but definitely hold your ground.

Unfortunately, my company has definitely lost deals where competitors underpriced, and had the prospect come back (unfortunately in a contract and too far gone to move) lamenting their choice. Very bittersweet when that happens, but still worth it.

alecabral

Arsonist

0

Director - Digital Sales Transformation

I'd always hold my ground if this was an honest bid, and actually if they already decided you won, it can't be about the pricing. It has to be about your overall value prop or something that made you the obvious choice. You get to decide if you want to concede them this though, or maybe you can just create another scenario with minimum loss over your current bid and see if that goes. In any case, I would not back down. If price was the only thing that mattered they would have gone with the guy giving away the product at production cost.

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