The Boss of You

At last night’s event in Largo, MD (a suburb of Washington, DC), a question arose during the Q&A period: What do you do when people try to haggle with you about your prices? The general consensus among the panelists was that you shouldn’t budge; your prices are your prices, and in most cases, undercutting yourself will devalue your work in your customer’s eyes. However, we didn’t have time to get into a nuanced discussion about the issue, and afterwards we met a woman named Mary who told us how she had solved the haggling problem in her last business venture.

She had started a small spa services business and found she was regularly asked by clients and prospective clients for sizable discounts — often they were looking for half-price services, or “buy two, get one free” promotions. She had priced her services very reasonably and didn’t have any wiggle room in her pricing, so she couldn’t afford to say yes. (The cost of giving deep discounts, of course, goes beyond the loss incurred in that single transaction — word can get around that you perform work for less than the advertised price, and the next thing you know, everyone wants a $25 seaweed wrap.)

Mary came up with what I thought was a brilliant solution: She printed off a new batch of business cards that listed her as the manager rather than the owner, and from there on in, whenever she was asked for a special price, she replied, “Oh, I’d love to, but my boss would kill me!”

The happy ending: Her clients were much less persistent when they thought they were dealing with a manager, and she was able to keep the haggling to a minimum. I guess sometimes a little demotion can pay off…