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How to negotiate a price by email

Whoever mentions a number first should also mention what it buys.

The situation

Either the quote is too high and you have to push back, or yours has been challenged and you have to hold it. Both drafts tend to collapse into a number with an apology attached.

The email that works separates the number from the scope. If the price cannot move, the scope can — and saying so keeps the conversation alive without discounting.

Why it is hard

Price conversations are where hedging costs the most. An unhedged number reads as a position; the same number wrapped in qualifiers reads as an opening bid, and the reader will treat it as one. Attaching the number to what it buys gives it a reason to exist that is not simply your preference, which is much harder to negotiate against than a bare figure.

What to actually write

Two versions of the same message. Same facts, different posture — which one is right depends on the relationship, not on which is “better”.

THE ANALYSTDefending your own price

Subject: Re: Proposal — scope and price

Hi Dana,

I can hold £24k, and I would rather adjust scope than the number.

The figure covers discovery, the migration itself, and four weeks of post-cutover support. If the budget is fixed at £18k, the cleanest cut is the support window — that takes it to £18,500 and keeps the migration itself untouched.

What I would not recommend is trimming discovery. That is where the last two projects found the problems that would otherwise have surfaced at cutover.

Happy to talk it through.

— Sam

THE DIPLOMATAsking someone else to come down

Subject: Re: Quote for the Q4 work

Hi Rob,

The proposal looks right in shape. The number is above what I can approve without going up a level, which I would rather avoid for a first project together.

If we dropped the monthly reporting pack — useful, but we have our own dashboards — where would that land? If that gets us close to £18k I can sign this week.

— Sam

Common questions

Should I give a number first?

If you have a defensible one, yes. Anchoring works, and a number with a scope attached is much harder to negotiate down than a bare figure.

How do I decline a discount without losing the deal?

Offer a smaller scope at the lower price. It keeps the conversation on value and protects your rate for the next client.