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Comment by danielvinson | Hacker News Reader

IANAL, but this is exactly how B2B sales works... you offer an absurdly high MSRP then offer discounts with various incentives based on completely arbitrary things, with the average purchase landing nowhere near MSRP.

I'd be careful about pricing this way to consumers since states are now started to see pricing differences as discrimination. See: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/tinder-prices-discrim...

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> you offer an absurdly high MSRP then offer discounts

Which is amazing. It's probably a lack of experience in B2B, but I tend to see prices as "take it or leave it", so if I see an absurly high price I go "Aight, that's a no", instead of trying to haggle.

It's just so inefficient having to haggle with every vendor to get real prices for a comparison.

Is the sales process anything else than just a huge money sink?

We have someone full time who negotiates with vendors. Vendors are squeezed every renewal. This person handles redlines, etc. A underrated position if you ask me.

In the B2B world, nobody pays list. I've seen some incredible discounts off list price, especially when buying in quantity.

One time I was buying some software licenses. List price was $30/seat. We needed 2000 seats. Which would list at $60K. By the time it was all said and done I ended up with 3000 seats for $10K.

I don't think it is unreasonable to purchase 4 or 10 seats at cost, but if you are considering buying 2 thousands, wouldn't you try to negotiate something?

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