Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / The Sales Rep Who Won by Asking for a Price Increase
Transcript
- Lucas: So picture this: you're a sales rep, you've been in negotiations for three months, the buyer loves the product, but they keep pushing for a discount. You're down to the final call. And instead of conceding, you say, 'Actually, I need to raise the price by eight percent.' Luna: Wait, you're serious? That sounds like a surefire way to lose the deal. Lucas: That's exactly what most people think. But a rep named Jenny Park did exactly that — and she won the deal. She was selling a mid-market CRM platform, about a hundred and fifty seats, annual contract value around six hundred thousand dollars. And she was stuck. The procurement team kept asking for ten percent off, and she'd already given them five percent. Luna: So where did the idea to raise the price come from? Lucas: She told me that she realised the buyer's main objection wasn't really price — it was uncertainty about whether they needed all the features. Every time they asked for a discount, they also said, 'We're not sure we'll use the advanced reporting module.' So she flipped the script. She said, 'If we drop the reporting module, the base price is actually eight percent higher because the platform is configured for it — we'd have to re-engineer the deployment.' Luna: That's clever. She reframed the bundle, not the price. But that's not really a price increase — it's a restructuring. Lucas: Right, but the effect on the buyer's psychology was the same. She introduced a new anchor — a higher number — and made the original price look like a deal. The buyer ended up saying, 'No, no, keep the reporting module. We'll take the original price.' They stopped pushing for a discount. Luna: So she never actually charged more. She just created a scenario where the original price felt like a win. That's classic anchoring, right? Lucas: Exactly. And it works because of something called commitment consistency. Once the buyer says, 'We don't need that feature,' and you say, 'Great, then the price goes up by eight percent,' they have to reconcile their desire for a discount with their stated need. It's uncomfortable. So they revert to the original offer. Luna: I love that. And before we dive deeper, I want to mention something. We're able to dig into stories like this because we keep the show ad-free. No sponsors, no mid-roll interruptions. If that matters to you and you want to support it, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate the listeners who chip in. It's what lets us keep the conversation honest and focused on tactics that actually work. Now, back to Jenny — she told me the key was that she had already built enough trust to pull off that move. If the relationship is purely transactional, raising the price feels manipulative. But if you've spent time understanding their business, it feels consultative. Luna: So timing matters. You couldn't do this on the first call. Lucas: Definitely not. She had done three discovery calls, a demo, a proof of concept, and two negotiation sessions. By the time she used the price-increase frame, she had earned the right to challenge them. And she framed it as, 'I want to make sure you're not paying for something you won't use.' That's a buyer-centric move. Luna: I can see how that works when you have a modular product. What if you're selling something that can't be unbundled? Lucas: That's the million-dollar question. You can still use a version of the tactic. For example, you might say, 'I can offer a longer payment term, but that would require a three percent premium because of our financing costs.' Or, 'We can include premium support, but that adds five percent.' The principle is the same: you introduce a new option with a higher price that makes the original offer look better. Luna: So it's not about actually raising the price — it's about creating a contrast effect. Lucas: Exactly. Dan Ariely's research on anchoring shows that people evaluate prices relative to the first number they see. Jenny's first number was the higher price. Everything after that looked cheaper. And because she framed the higher price as the consequence of the buyer's own request — 'you said you don't need reporting, so here's the adjusted price' — it felt logical, not aggressive. Luna: What about the risk? If the buyer calls your bluff and says, 'Fine, take out the module and give me the higher price.' Lucas: Jenny said she was prepared for that. She had a legitimate cost structure. If they had agreed to the higher price, she would have actually removed the module and the company would have made more money on a stripped-down deal. But she also knew that the buyer's internal champion had already sold the advanced reporting to their team. So there was social pressure to keep it. Luna: So she had done her homework on the internal dynamics. That's the real lesson: the tactic works only if you understand the buyer's stakeholders. Lucas: Absolutely. If you try this without knowing who the champion is, what they've promised internally, and what the budget constraints are, it can backfire. But if you know that the champion has already bragged about the reporting module in a steering committee meeting, you have leverage. Luna: Give me a specific script. How would you actually say this on a call? Lucas: Jenny's actual words were something like: 'I've been thinking about our last conversation. You mentioned that the reporting module might not be critical for your team right now. If we remove it, I can adjust the scope, but the unit price actually goes up by eight percent because the platform is configured to include it. Would you like me to send a revised quote with the module removed, or should we proceed with the original proposal?' Luna: So the question forces a binary choice: either accept the higher price or stick with the original. That's powerful. Lucas: Exactly. And notice she didn't say 'discount' — she said 'adjust the scope.' She kept the conversation about value, not price. The buyer chose the original, and they signed the next day. Luna: I wonder if this works better in certain industries. I could see it being effective in SaaS, professional services, maybe custom manufacturing. But in commoditised markets, where price is the only differentiator, it might fall flat. Lucas: You're right. If you're selling office supplies, raising the price for removing a feature doesn't make sense — the buyer can just go to Staples. The tactic requires that your product has some level of customisation or integration. That's why it works in B2B tech, consulting, and any services where the implementation is tailored. Luna: Have you seen any data on how often this works? Lucas: I talked to a negotiation researcher at Harvard Business School, and she said that in controlled experiments, the 'price increase' frame works about sixty to seventy percent of the time when the rep has high credibility. When credibility is low, it drops to about thirty percent. So the prerequisite is trust. Luna: That's a good reality check. It's not a magic bullet. Lucas: No, it's not. But what I like about it is that it forces the rep to think differently about concessions. Most reps think the only direction is down. Jenny showed that you can go up — or at least make the buyer think you can — and that changes the entire negotiation dynamic. Luna: So the takeaway for listeners: before you give a discount, consider creating a new option that makes your original offer look like a bargain. But only if you've earned the right to do so. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing: Jenny said that after the deal closed, the buyer told her, 'I'm glad you pushed back. It made me feel like you really believed in the product.' So there's a relationship upside too. Luna: That's the kind of comment you don't get when you just slash your price. Alright, Lucas, great story. Thanks for sharing. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And thanks to everyone listening. If you've got a similar story about using a counterintuitive tactic in a negotiation, we'd love to hear it. You can find us at the show page. Luna: And if you value these ad-free conversations, you know where to find us: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. See you next time. Lucas: Take care, everyone.