How can I steer back to price instead of value-added services?

[DonaldT]

I’m trying to get a better price from a long-term supplier, but every time I bring it up, they pivot to talking about value-added services instead of the unit cost. It feels like they’re using a decoy to make their original offer seem more reasonable, and I’m not sure how to steer the conversation back to the actual numbers without damaging the relationship.

[DonaldM]

That pivot to value added stuff hits me every time. I pushed back with a concrete price per unit for a 12 month forecast, backed by a usage table from the last quarter. They came back with a discount on services, I declined and pressed again on the core price. We trimmed the price a bit, but not dramatically.

[Joshua_J]

I'm not sure if it's me or them. The talk keeps drifting to what we get for the money instead of the money itself. I tried sharing a one page price target, but they doubled down on value props. Feels like they're guarding margins, or maybe I’m framing it wrong.

[LarryJR]

One concrete move I tried: ask for a firm quote locked for 6 months with a cap on price per unit based on volume. They hedged with onboarding costs and training, but we still got a small reduction compared to last year's base price after we compared.

[Timothy79]

Is it possible the real problem is our forecast accuracy rather than the price?

[JacobD]

Another time I went quiet for a week after they sent a benefits deck. When I circled back, the price had shifted because we changed terms. I pushed for a fresh quote with no extras and finally got a better baseline.

[MasonRJ]

Sometimes I wander off topic and end up thinking about payment terms or delivery windows, then circle back to the unit price. The bottom line stays the same: we need a real number, not a new feature list.