> <i>Clients who want a discount always turn out to be the worst clients, if you cave in to them. By offering you less, they’re really saying “We don’t think you’re worth what you’re asking.” You don’t want to work for someone who sees you that way.</i><p>Sometimes it's the job of someone, like in Procurement, to try to get a better price from a vendor, regardless of what value the company thinks they're getting. But unless they think you're a commodity that they know they can get from another vendor, they can't push back too much.<p>Other times (IME as an independent technical consultant), the executive/manager hiring you, who has some sense of your value, has to make a case to someone else, about why your rate is worth it. This can be due to sticker shock, or can be something they have to justify on government contracts. So they might ask for help with this case, subtly or directly. Like putting together a bio, itemizing some credentials, or answering specific regulation-based questions to make sure you qualify for some grade or exemption. IME, that's never been a negotiating tactic, and always worked out, getting the work with no discount of rate.<p>(Just anecdata; I don't claim to be an expert at the business of consulting. I generally delivered very high value, like few people could, and some clients got a great deal, while I also turned down a lot of work where the client thought they had commodity needs. I could've addressed this by growing a consulting firm, hiring "associates", who I supervised and mentored as a "partner". But, rather than sell difficult-to-value billable hours from a distance, I'd prefer to build tech startups as a founder, where I can be holistic on an entire product/business, and reap bigger rewards if successful.)