He Asked For A Discount And I Gave Two

He asked for one thing.

He said, is there anything you can do on that. One sentence, said lightly, the way people do.

And by the time you had finished answering, you had taken something off the price and thrown in a piece of the work for nothing.

Two concessions. He asked for one.

I want to be exact about what happened in the gap, because this is not about being soft. Men who do this are usually decent and usually quick, and the quickness is half the problem.

The moment he pushed, your mind went looking for a way to keep him. And it found two, and it offered both, because it did not stop to find out whether one would have done it.

You are bidding against yourself, and one push has never once been the same thing as two demands.

And before anything else: this article will not tell you what to charge, and it will not tell you how to work out a discount. That is arithmetic, it is yours, and any stranger with a formula for it is selling something.

What I want to look at is the second concession. The first one might have been a reasonable trade. The second one was a reflex, and the reflex is what has been costing you for years.

A just weight is his delight

There is a proverb about trade that people read as a warning to shopkeepers, and it has a second half that is warmer than most people notice.

A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. (Proverbs 11:1, King James Version)

A just weight is his delight.

Not merely acceptable. Not permitted. Delight. There is pleasure attached to an honest exchange, on God's side of it, and that is a strange and good thing to sit with.

You are inside a verse where a fair trade is something God actually enjoys, and an honest price has never once been the barely tolerated option. Proverbs 11:1 says but a just weight is his delight, and the Holy Spirit is the one who put the pleasure into that second clause.

And notice that the verse says nothing about the weight being generous. It says just. Accurate.

A weight that is wrong in the buyer's favor is still a false balance. The verse is about accuracy, not about which direction the error runs.

You have been running a balance that is wrong in one direction and calling it decency, and an inaccurate weight has never once become accurate by being wrong in somebody else's favor. The Holy Spirit is the one who applies that evenly, and it is written in Proverbs 11:1 about the balance itself rather than about who gains from it.

Find out what he actually wants first

Now the practical part, and this is the one thing in this article I would ask you to actually do differently on Monday.

When he pushes, do not answer. Ask.

What were you hoping for. Or: what were you thinking. Five words, and then stop.

Because most of the time the thing he is after is not the thing you would have offered. He wants it a week later. He wants it in two parts. He wants the small version. He wants to pay half now.

You are guessing at a want that could be asked about, and an answer given before a question has never once been the cheapest one available. The written word puts the concern on the weight being accurate, and the Spirit of God is the one who slows a man down for the length of one question.

And here is why the asking works, beyond the money.

A man who asks what you are after is doing business with you. A man who immediately drops his price is absorbing pressure. The second one gets less respect, from everybody, including himself in the truck afterward.

You are able to trade rather than absorb, and a question asked back has never once been read as awkwardness in a working conversation. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives a man one sentence instead of two concessions, and Proverbs 11:1 attaches God's own delight to an honest exchange.

One thing, and not two

So the assignment, and it has a number in it, and the number is one.

Say your price out loud to yourself three times, then say it to the next person who asks.

And when the push comes, the rule is: one question, then one concession at most, and then stop.

Not two. Not two and a half. One thing, given deliberately, and then your mouth closes.

You are able to stop after one, and a single deliberate concession has never once been less generous than two given in a panic. The Spirit of God is the one who holds a man still after he has given something, and the written word calls the just weight a delight rather than a minimum.

And if one is not enough for him, that is information and not a failure. He can say so and then you decide, on purpose, in your own time, with the same mouth that said the first number.

You are allowed to let a man walk and come back, and a customer who needed something you could not give has never once been a verdict on the work. The Holy Spirit is the one who keeps a price from being a referendum on a man, and it is written in Proverbs 11:1 that the balance is the thing being weighed.