I love to haggle. Maybe it's genetic inculturation (My father was Iranian Kurdish, and that is a haggling culture if ever there was one, I'm given to understand). Maybe I'm just like the thrill of getting a good deal. But whatever it is, haggling can be fun.
But not when I'm on the receiving end. When peddling simple wares where, ultimately, one is as good as another, then allowing room for haggling over price is fine. But when you make your living selling a good or service that is the best in its class, to haggle simply makes you feel cheap.
More than that, it can make your product seem "cheaper" (as in, less valuable), and it can make you seem more desperate (i.e., less professional). I sympathize with some of my clients who initially tell me that they don't know if they can afford what we do. But then I remember this story.
A fellow I'm acquainted with and who has made his living in sales had a 6 month-later follow-up appointment with a guy who had told him his service was too expensive. He opted to go with one of my friends competitors, who saved him about $100 a month. However, though he saved $600 over that 6-month period, he admitted to my friend that if he could go back and do it all over again, he'd have spent the extra $100 and gone with him. Why?
See, my friend ran a professional ship. He had account managers and outsourced to people he trusted in the States.
The fellow who underbid him was a one-man show. He worked in his mother's basement, and did all of the work on his own. When he got backed up (which happened all of the time), then things quit working. He got fewer than 3 customers during that half-year span, and his website's rankings actually went DOWN due to the "black hat" operating procedures employed by this subterranean hack.
We don't haggle on price here. You shouldn't either.
Know your value and lead with that. This is THE business philosophy that should guide you as you develop your brand and become the 5-star business you're destined to become.
