SOP 96 — Answer a discount request and capture payment

1. The rule: the price does not move to win a sale

Never change your price on the spot to get a sale. The rule comes with its condition: assuming your product provides the value, changing the price just to close one deal sends you down a sad, dark and ethically questionable path. It also invites your own customers to push you around. Avoid it.

Two points go with the haggle closes: what a request for less gives you and what giving in costs you:

When they ask for less, the field narrows. Once somebody says they would do it for less, they have stopped arguing about everything except price and payment. That lets you focus on only one obstacle. (Part of this point is not established on this page.)
When you agree to less, the value case is gone. The moment you say you will do it for less, you give up every appeal to what your product is worth. You have stopped closing and started haggling.

A neighbor page carries the same principle from the downsell side: never offer the same thing for less, with the case of a buyer who stopped trusting every price he was quoted. That is SOP 70 — Work the payment-plan downsell ladder, section 8. SOP 73 — Feature-downsell customers before they cancel, section 4, says the same for a customer who is leaving: never negotiate the price.

2. Where a discount request sits

People who use money to avoid a buying decision do it in four ways. They are listed in this order:

Not enough value. They point at the price, but they have the money; what they do not see is the value.
"I can't afford it." They see the value, but it really does cost more than they have. This is described as the far rarer case.
Other people do it for less. They point to someone who, they say, offers something similar for less.
"I'd buy it for less." They haggle and ask for a discount.

This page answers the fourth. Each of the first three has its own page: not enough value is SOP 103 — Handle the it's-too-much objection; "I can't afford it" is SOP 105 — Handle time and resourcefulness objections; and someone else doing it for less is SOP 102 — Handle the competitor-price objection. How to sort any objection into its kind is SOP 99 — Classify an objection.

What a haggle sounds like:

"Can you do it for less?"
"Can you do it for [a lower figure]?"
"It's not the money, it's this other thing." One example begins "It's not the money, I just don't think I'd…"; how it ends is not established on this page.

3. The "we could do it for more" close

The short version of the answer: when someone asks to pay less for the same thing, offer to charge more. That ends the haggling and pushes them to make a decision.

Say it one of these ways:

The light version. With a small laugh, say something like: Uh… we could do it for more.
The figure version. Name a number above the one you quoted: We could do it for [a higher figure].

It is claimed, not shown, to work insanely well for anyone who asks for a discount. This page gives no figure for how often it works.

4. The "it's not, not the money" close

Use it when the prospect insists the money is not the problem and names some other thing.

Ask: If this were free, would you do it? They say yes. Then point out that it is not, not about the money.

The rest of the script is not established on this page beyond two pieces: a line about pushing their start date or ship date out as far as they like, and the line that either way they might as well lock in the savings now. What "the savings" are: not established on this page. Do not fill in the rest by guesswork; if you need this close, write your own version of the move and test it.

5. The moment they say yes: stop selling

Once the prospect says yes, stop talking. Do not sell yourself out of it. Anything more you say has the potential to disrupt it. (Part of this rule is not established on this page.)

The next sections cover taking payment.

6. Take payment with the ID swap

Why it is here. People sometimes say they do not have a way to pay on them. That can happen in any close, so the fix sits with the closes that work everywhere. You can avoid it by following a routine.

The routine starts once you have a verbal yes. The steps run in this order. It is the same move a neighbor page carries for a free trial: ask for the ID first so the wallet comes out, fill the contract in for them, trade the ID back for the card, and copy the card number yourself. That is SOP 71 — Run a free trial with a penalty, section 5. What this page adds:

Ask for their ID first. It forces them to take their wallet out.
Fill in the contract for them from the ID.
Fill the silence with easy small talk, for example where they are from. It covers the time while you write.
Gesture at the wallet. Once their details are copied down, point toward the wallet, which they usually have open on the table in front of them. Hold the ID between two fingers, motion toward the wallet, and offer to trade it for the card they want to use.
On a video call, ask them to hold their ID up to the screen.
Copy the card number down yourself. That way nobody writes a wrong digit by accident.

Why it works: once the ID is out, their other cards are typically in plain sight. That heads off many of the "forgot my wallet" and "forgot my card" moves people make at the last minute, and the copied number heads off a mistyped card. Several problems go at once.

7. When the card is not on them

If, despite the routine, they still say it, these are the lines you will hear:

"I forgot my wallet at home."
"I don't have the card I want to use on me."

The no-card close. Say: No problem. Do you have your phone on you? Great. Ask them to open their banking app and go to their statements, where the account number is on the top right. While they find it, you look up the bank's routing number.

Take bank transfers. This close needs you to accept automated clearing house payments: payments drawn straight from a bank account. If you do not take them, you should. SOP 78, section 8, already carries why a bank link costs less and changes less often than a card. What this page adds:

fewer expired payment details and account changes;
a lower risk of chargebacks, where the buyer's bank reverses a charge;
you can always sign up a new client, even one without their wallet.

It is reported to have saved a lot of sales and to be very useful. This page gives no figure for how many.

8. What this page does not decide for you

How far above the quoted price to go in the figure version of section 3. This page gives no figure for the markup.
The rest of the "it's not, not the money" close. Not established on this page.
What to do if they refuse the ID or the bank details. Not established on this page.
Payment rules. Card-network rules, bank-transfer authorization and consumer-protection law are not covered on this page.

9. The checklist

Moment	What you do
They ask for a discount	Keep the price; offer to do it for more, lightly or with a higher figure
They say it is not the money	Ask whether they would do it if it were free
You feel the pull to cut the price	Remember that agreeing to less gives up every value argument
They say yes	Stop talking
Taking payment in person	Ask for the ID, fill in the contract, make small talk, trade the ID back for the card, copy the number yourself
Taking payment on video	Ask them to hold the ID up to the screen, then the same steps
"I forgot my wallet"	Phone, banking app, statements, account number; you look up the routing number
Not taking bank transfers yet	Set them up

10. What this page does not cover

Pricing itself is not covered on this page: setting a price is SOP 82, and raising one is SOP 83 — Write the price-raise letter with a vanishing discount. Payment plans are SOP 70; a second card and bank links are SOP 78; a card on file from a pay-later sign-up is SOP 64 — Design a pay-less-now-or-pay-more-later offer.