Sales Negotiation Gimmicks Consultants Should Avoid (Plus the Golden Rule)

Fake deadlines. Pressure tactics. Artificial discounts. “Let me check with my manager.”

These tactics may show up in negotiations, but they’re not how I believe consultants should sell.

I’ve had a lot of opportunities to learn this, including making plenty of mistakes myself.

In the final session of my three-part series on professional, win-win negotiation, we’ll cover the sales negotiation gimmicks consultants should avoid, how to recognize when a client is actually negotiating, and how to respond professionally without automatically giving something away.

We’ll also work through real client scenarios and apply my Golden Rule of Negotiation.

What do you do when a client asks:

“Can you knock 10% off?”
“Can you add one more deliverable?
“Can we have Net 60 terms?”

We’ll apply the Golden Rule to price, scope, timelines, and payment terms.

Feras Alhlou

Feras has founded, grown, and sold businesses in Silicon Valley and abroad, scaling them from zero revenue to 7 and 8 figures. In 2019, he sold e-Nor, a digital marketing consulting company, to dentsu (a top-5 global media company). Feras has served as an advisor to 250+ other new startup businesses, and in his current venture, Start Up With Feras, he's on a mission to help entrepreneurs in the consulting and services space start and grow their businesses smarter and stronger.

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