I'm thinking about implementing a "no discounts" policy for my teams. Should I expect backlash? How have others handled this?

A “no discounts” policy could get some pushback, especially if discounts were a regular part of the sales process. Some team members might feel it limits their flexibility, but it can work if you focus on selling value instead of price cuts. To ease the transition, make sure everyone understands why the policy is in place, whether it’s to protect margins or strengthen your brand. Offering alternative ways to close deals, like adding extra value or terms, can help too. It’s all about training your team to confidently handle objections and focusing on the bigger picture.

Dustin, below are my thoughts, which I hope can answer your questions. However, they are rather general observations. I recommend researching target markets to assess the risk of introducing a ”no discounts” policy for your tech products and solutions in those target markets.

Below are two groups of customers in the EMEA region:

>>GROUP 1>GROUP 2<< — Customers Less Likely to Negotiate Deals
These regions often prefer standardized pricing and are less inclined toward bargaining:
—Northern Europe:
Countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland
Characteristics: Transparency and fairness are highly valued. Negotiation is rare, and pricing is expected to reflect the product’s value.

—Western Europe (Core):
Countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands
Characteristics: Efficiency-focused business culture with less emphasis on negotiations. These markets often rely on established procurement processes.
—United Kingdom & Ireland:
Characteristics: While some negotiation occurs, many companies follow structured procurement guidelines and expect pricing to be relatively fixed.

You will almost certainly face backlash but should that matter? There are some backhanded ways in which this will actually help your sales team that they don't know about or aren't considering

1. Reducing complexity - easy to spend a ton of time on trying to get the pricing JUST right. This time is all given back to the reps

2. Fewer interactions with purchasing/procurement could mean faster deal cycles due to the delays these departments can cause

3. Higher contract values - means they need to close fewer deals to get them to quota

Those are just a few of the many. There are plenty of ways to meet a customer and give them a win like within payment terms, or offer standardized multi year discounts or threshold discounts above certain user counts.

As a salesperson I hate discounting, but I love finding ways to get deals done. Your team will be better as a result of taking this away. Just be sure to give them some kind of carrot to negotiate with to get that last push over the line when needed.

I’ve always favored discount delegations, empowering reps to offer what they’re allowed to offer, then require management approval for deeper discounts. This approach aligns with the objectives of procurement professionals, who often have performance targets linked to securing discounts. For enterprise deals, you’ll need their support to shepherd deals through approval processes.

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