Best Price Ploy

You’re Getting Our Best Price Possible Ploy:

The carrier’s sales representative objective is to convince the customer that they are receiving their company’s best price possible.

The assumption of being able to sell the best price ploy to the customer is twofold:

First, since the customer would be receiving the carrier’s best price possible, there is little reason to attempt to negotiate lower pricing.

Second, because the carrier is offering its lowest price, they cannot offer any contract concessions.

The best price ploy is effective on both larger and smaller customers.

Large customers are impressed by their own size and buying power.  Sales reps do not have to work hard to convince a large company that their business is important and that they are being aggressive with their pricing.

With smaller customers it appears that they have done such a good job negotiating that they have been awarded pricing typically only offered to larger customers.

How to battle the Best Price Possible Ploy:

Customers must do their homework and not be bullied by the vendor into rushing into an agreement by utilizing the “best price possible” ploy.  There are customer forums, where pricing information is disclosed.  A formal RFP process will bring light to whether or not your company is truly receiving your vendor’s “best price possible”.

Ask the vendor rep to include a “most favored customer” provision in the contract.  The provision would guarantee that you are indeed receiving the vendor’s lowest possible price and that if you find out later that the service was sold at a lower price, your company would be awarded a retroactive discount.

Asking for a “most favored customer” provision will separate exaggerated claims from the truth.

If the vendor rep agrees to the provision, you can rest assured that you are receiving the lowest possible price.  If the vendor is unwilling to include the provision you should probably end the negotiation.  What’s likely to happen next is that the vendor representatives will regroup and come back with even lower pricing than originally offered.