Price, the Proposal, and the Discount Trap in ERP Deals

A request for a discount does not mean the price is high. In most cases it means the value is unclear, or that the buyer is doing his professional duty — and his duty is to ask.

The mistake most sellers make is answering a question about value with an answer about the number.

What an instant discount says

Picture what happens when you give twenty per cent off in two seconds.

The buyer does not conclude that you are generous. He concludes three things in order: that the first price was not real, that there is probably more margin in it, and that every other number you gave is negotiable the same way — including the duration, the scope and the support commitments.

You bought one concession and sold the credibility of everything else.

The working rule: never reduce a number without reducing something alongside it. Not to punish the customer, but because a price that falls on its own proves it was never attached to anything.

Split the number into three

A proposal with one large number gets compared against one large number at a competitor, and the deal becomes a numbers contest and nothing else.

Always split it into three separate lines:

1. Licence or subscription. A number belonging to the product, and the only one compared directly — and the only one in which nobody holds a permanent advantage. Note that half the market does not publish a price at all; the ERP systems comparison table documents that with published prices and the date each was read.

2. Implementation. This is your project, and it is what decides whether the project succeeds or fails. Merging it with the licence into one number is the worst pricing error in this market, because it makes the most valuable thing you sell invisible.

3. Annual support and operation. A separate number, stated from the start and never deferred. A seller who hides the year-two figure to close year one is building an angry customer with a known due date.

The negotiating benefit is that splitting gives you something to move other than price. Under pressure you can shift a line to a later phase, or reduce a scope, or adjust the payment schedule — all real concessions that never touch the declared value of your work.

The missing number in every proposal, and it is the deciding one

The 2026 ERP Report from Panorama Consulting Group, built on 170 responses collected between January 2025 and January 2026, found that more than a quarter of projects exceeded their budget, and that the leading cause was an unanticipated need for additional technology. It also found that roughly a quarter exceeded their schedule, and that the leading cause there was organizational, not technical.

Those two numbers are the most honest thing you can put in your proposal, for purely commercial reasons:

• Stating them tells the buyer you know where the risk sits, and that is the difference between a supplier and a partner.
• Stating them protects you in advance. A contingency requested in the proposal gets discussed; the same contingency requested in month seven is called an overrun.

And state alongside them the clause that concerns you: that the leading cause of delay is organizational means the customer’s own commitments — named people freed up, decisions taken by dates — are a line in the proposal, not a courtesy. That is precisely what why ERP projects fail explains from the other side.

Three responses to “the price is high”

First — ask for the comparison: “High compared to what exactly?”

A simple question that exposes the baseline. The answer is either “compared to another quote” — at which point you ask about its scope, and usually find it excludes implementation or excludes year two — or “compared to what we have available,” which is a budget matter rather than a price matter, and is handled with a payment schedule or phasing.

Second — tie it to the number he gave you: in the discovery station you left with a cost figure the customer spoke himself. Give it back: “You said this costs you X a year. How many months of that does this proposal equal?”

Note that you are not comparing your price to anyone’s price. You are comparing it to the cost of inaction, and that is a comparison only you can make, because only you extracted the number.

Third — meet a reduction with a reduction: “I can get to that number if we move phase two to after go-live. Would you like to do that?”

You have not refused and you have not caved. You have moved the discussion from your number to his scope, which is where it belongs.

The story: the discount that lost the deal

The story is composited from real events, and every identifying detail has been changed.

A services company, deal in its final stage. The finance director asked for about fifteen per cent off, and I agreed in the same meeting — I thought I was accelerating the close.

A week later he asked for a second cut.

And when I objected, I got the answer everyone who sells in this industry should read:

“Last time you came down fifteen per cent in three minutes. I don’t know where the real price is.”

The man was entirely right, and he was not haggling. He was saying honestly that he had lost the ability to evaluate any number I gave him, which made his decision impossible rather than merely difficult.

The deal ended in “no decision”. It did not go to a competitor — and that is the number that opened this whole path: 40% to 60% of qualified deals are lost to “no decision”, not to a rival. I manufactured one of them myself, with a discount I intended as an accelerant.

The lesson: a fast discount does not buy trust. It buys suspicion of every other number you gave.

Common pricing errors

• An open price with no written scope. Guarantees a dispute in month five and turns your project into a permanent negotiation.
• Free as bait. “Migration free” and “training free” teach the customer these things have no value, and then you are blamed when he assigns nobody to them.
• Hiding year two. Closes one deal and kills the renewal — and we saw in the channels station that referral from an existing client is the highest-closing channel there is.
• Pricing with no contingency. You have seen the figure: more than a quarter of projects exceed budget, and the leading cause is additional technology nobody accounted for.

Checklist before you move on

• Is your proposal three separate numbers or one?
• Is the year-two figure stated from the beginning?
• Can the customer read the scope of work and know what is outside it?
• The last discount you gave: what did you take in return?
• Do you know the cost-of-inaction figure the customer spoke — or are you negotiating without a reference?

Next station

The decision makers agreed. Now a party enters who attended no meeting and whose job is to take a slice out of your number: procurement and negotiation in this region.