The other common game is the "our fiscal quarter/year is about to end and if you sign by X date we'll be able to give you Y discount." Since most of the time e

The other common game is the "our fiscal quarter/year is about to end and if you sign by X date we'll be able to give you Y discount." Since most of the time enterprises don't accelerate for anyone, especially a small contract, this bluff is pointless and if your sales guy gets called out for bluffing, they'll be disinclined to do business with you in the future. But, on the other hand, it can sometimes work, and work VERY well. One of our suppliers negotiated with us to sign a 3yr, $5m+ deal rather than a 1yr, $1.8m deal simply by telling us we could lock in pricing if we committed to the longer term. Since it's a SAAS service, they'll getting a ton more money up front, at no extra cost to them. ... Or are they... this is the customer I mentioned in a different comment, where we negotiated quarterly instead of annual payments. It's a great example of a BATNA: we got favorable terms that impact our cash flow much less, plus guaranteed pricing for 3 years on a large opex budget item, and they locked us in for 3 more years with guaranteed on schedule quarterly payments. Everyone loves smooth (as opposed to peaky) sales forecasts.