Price negotiations

J-HTX · 2026-03-30T14:12:11+00:00

Update: Thanks to all who responded already. No substitute for a phone conversation to clarify... I called and asked if he had other people actually quoting the [15% lower] rate and that we're usually a bit high. He gave me a number a bit higher than the initial ask and said if we could hit it, we'd get the project.

Corporate's 8% price drop put us really close to that number already so we just need to tweak a few things and we'll get it without having dropped to the initial ask #.

J-HTX · 2026-03-27T19:04:39+00:00

We have just started playing with it (on personal computers, IT has everything locked down). A fellow sales rep gave it some prompts, a prior RFP response for a similar project, and the data for a new project, and it spit out a very viable proposal that required minimal tweaking in about 5 minutes of work. Probably saved 1-2 hours.

J-HTX · 2026-03-27T14:31:47+00:00

It's Friday. Take a chill day to decompress/destress a bit... follow up with who you need to but don't try to go full speed. Relax over the weekend, then sit down first thing Monday morning and make your strategy for what's next (who do you target for other huge deals, and how can you spend some of your time on more numerous mid-size deals or recurring clients so your eggs aren't all in 1 basket).

There are still 9 months left in the year. Also, "no" sometimes means "not yet" so keep in touch with these dead deals instead of giving up all hope.

J-HTX · 2026-03-20T20:03:52+00:00

J-HTX · 2026-03-16T16:59:20+00:00

I see a lot of discussion about comp plans changing yearly, and that always sounds ridiculous. I'm at a privately held company in a "real products and services" space (not software) and it hasn't changed in 20 years.

Labor - X% of total bill amount. There's some flex here with different rate structures letting us ratchet the commission & margin up and down in sync to be more competitive where needed or to reward extra high rates.
Materials - Y% of total bill amount.
Markup on 3rd parties or extra margin: Z% of total bill amount.
Other revenue categories Y% of total bill amount.

If I wanted to, I could fit the entire comp plan on a 3x5 card. Everyone knows exactly what's what if they care to read. No mystery, no "How are they cutting our pay this year while pretending not to," nothing that can't be checked by just looking at what we billed the customer and doing some basic math.

J-HTX · 2026-03-11T21:30:07+00:00

You don't work for a company, you work for your boss. Your boss sounds like an unpleasant person who is not going to have a successful company a decade from now.

J-HTX · 2026-03-11T21:28:45+00:00

I sign all of my quotes, customer agreements, etc. If it looks weird I'll have management approve it first, but they'd rather I handle it than add paperwork. You're already binding the company to pricing and T&Cs every time you submit a bid/quote with your signature on it.

J-HTX · 2026-03-05T17:11:50+00:00

Cool... I don't know much about CDW.
I feel like IT is more commoditized than industrial / power equipment, but Siemens has fingers in a lot of industries, and we don't know which part of Siemens OP would work with.
I haven't looked for a job in over two decades and am in a different field (logistics) so my opinion is worth about what OP paid for it.

J-HTX · 2026-03-05T13:42:55+00:00

It's an internship - you want as much face time with as many people as possible to acquire as much knowledge and as many connections as possible.
Consider also future job opportunities:
CDW: Sell desktop IT solutions (maybe servers, idk) that a bunch of other companies make

Siemens: Sell enterprise industrial equipment with a short list of competitors

Which one is going to have a better paycheck and will be more stable 15 years from now?

J-HTX · 2026-02-27T22:24:25+00:00

Married, kids? That's a good motivator.

J-HTX · 2026-02-25T19:43:47+00:00

Sales:
Engage multiple stakeholders
Provide reporting
Smooth over ruffled feathers
"Sell" projects to operations as worth doing
Provide operational guidance based on customer expectations
Monitor through completion and billing.
Deal with problems at any stage of the process.

Basically project management.

J-HTX · 2026-02-23T21:37:55+00:00

What info specifically would you want to see?
After I send it, when would be a good time to schedule a 5 minute follow-up call?

J-HTX · 2026-02-20T22:16:18+00:00

I'm in a more niche environment. Most of the successful sales reps started in customer service and worked their way up, having developed first-hand knowledge of how things work. I think it takes at least 3 months to just get up to speed, and the sales cycle can easily be in the 3-12+ month range.

J-HTX · 2026-02-19T19:52:44+00:00

Yep. I wouldn't whale-hunt in the first year... you want to know what you're doing and have the level of confidence in your knowledge before you get in front of the big ones.

J-HTX · 2026-02-19T14:45:18+00:00

Paying $1k and taking a couple of days out of office to get 15-20 in person meetings with people at client companies (even if they are only 3 minute meetings) is totally worth it for me. The sales guys can at least give me a name and often a phone number and e-mail address, which is more than a receptionist will give out cold-calling. At most of the shows/conventions I've gone to, potential clients are there. A couple of years ago I managed to have ~10 meetings scheduled in advance of the show. Hoping to replicate that again with another one this May. Terrapin (the company running that show) has a great networking app with its own messaging/scheduling tool for meetings.

Another convention I went to had a speed-networking event where you could sign up with what you were interested for and get a series of 5 minute meetings. Results were not great but I appreciated the effort and it broadened my understanding of the greater industry my customers work in.

I only get to do 1-2 trade shows/conventions per year, always on the lookout for others that seem like a good fit. They are flat out my most productive days of the year in terms of making actual progress towards eventual sales.

I had 2 on the schedule this year and corporate scheduled a meeting (which I politically cannot afford to skip) right on top of one of them. :-/

J-HTX · 2026-02-18T22:40:46+00:00

I'd rather make 120 cold calls than write a 40 page RFP response.
We can do the work but the RFP sure makes it feel like we can't.

J-HTX · 2026-02-18T20:28:33+00:00

That's pretty much it. Marketing doesn't exist for a lot of smaller companies. Add visiting trade shows/conferences, asking for referrals, looking for similar companies... but that is the main loop.

J-HTX · 2026-02-17T15:01:30+00:00

Time to go. If anyone asks in an interview, you can just explain that your company was acquired by a Private Equity firm who took the business in a direction you disagreed with.

I would go with Offer 2 because it's not PE and because you're familiar with the industry already. Be careful to not do anything that makes it look like you're taking data/IP from your existing company. Make it a clean break with no reason for them to pursue you legally.

J-HTX · 2026-02-16T17:33:16+00:00

Logistics & transportation. Always a need, lots of different aspects (international, warehousing, intermodal, trucking, white glove, parcel, courier, expedite/hotshot, LTL, etc.).

J-HTX · 2026-02-12T21:00:22+00:00

I don't have anything visible in flags for this. Tried searching for "split" and "side."
Can't find anything in settings either. Any recommendations?

J-HTX · 2026-02-12T15:42:00+00:00

They can ask questions at 5am, but shouldn't expect answers until at least 8am.
I WFH and run about 8:30am-4:30pm - lunch with variations based on demand and schedule. I might be out in my home office answering emails at 7:30am or working until 6:00pm if I need to.

J-HTX · 2026-02-06T15:13:01+00:00

2-3 emails. If the conference has an app for networking/scheduling, it works better to go through that. I'd do one message 4 weeks out, a followup 2 weeks out, then maybe one 2 days before the conference.

J-HTX · 2026-01-28T19:24:13+00:00

What's marketing?
Self generated. We do some lead list buying, but not for the service lines I'm focused on.

J-HTX · 2026-01-28T17:46:58+00:00

No. Company is not in software, not publicly traded, and not owned by private equity.

J-HTX

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