Page 25 of Semantics

I am certain that, as the SVP of Sales at a major software company, you have the ability to discount your services far below the ten percent you’ve given me. I’d like to keep the thirty hours of Monique’s services since I don’t think we’d be able to implement your not-so-user-friendly software without her as quickly as we need it, and I’m hoping that if I offer you some sort of testimonial or interviews or something to help your marketing team, that maybe you can reconsider and grant me even just a slightly larger discount. If not, I might have to go to one of your competitors. Given our shared past, I wanted to give you and Cerebral our business, but at these rates, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do so.

Violet

She hit send, felt good about herself, and didn’t have to wait long for Stella’s reply.

Violet,

I’m sure that you know, given that you’re a CEO, that sometimes, even leaders of departments cannot make all the decisions, especially when it comes to the bottom line, and the reality is, I’m sorry to say, your account wouldn’t pay for itself, so to speak, for a while. If I went to my CEO and told him that I wanted to go down more, he’d ask me why, because your company is small and not the size of an account we’d normally even offer the initial discount to. I suppose an interview or testimonial might help me make that case, but the real thing that’s going to let me go even lower on costs is having you introduce Cerebral to the other companies that Russell operates. If you can get me three intros to companies that are doing substantial business revenue-wise, or even employee-size-wise, I can probably drop your price and offer them a discount as well, should they sign.

Stella

“Ah…” Violet said to herself. “That’s what she wants.”

It hadn’t dawned on her that Stella was only taking on her account personally because she wanted access to Russell brands. Violet wasn’t part of the Russell Group, to her father’s great disappointment, but Stella must have assumed that her company was and that she could get connections through Violet to the others, which Violet wouldn’t do, but especially not now, with how Stella was acting.

Stella,

I’m afraid I’m unable to do that. Our company is not part of the Russell Group. My connections there are only familial, and I haven’t worked there since my internship out of college. I didn’t realize you’d taken my company on in order to have an in at Russell, but if that’s the reason, I’ll tell you now that I won’t be introducing you to anyone there. Since I don’t think you’ll lower the price for me given that, it looks like I might have to go elsewhere.

Violet

“Hey, why are you in here?” Arlowe asked.

Violet turned around and saw Arlowe standing there in her sweats, rubbing her eyes.

“Did you just wake up?”

“I had a bug that I had to work on all night. Why aren’t you in the garage?”

“I needed some alone time.” She sighed. “Stella won’t lower the price any more than she already has, and she’s very annoying. I think she’s trying to get connections to my family’s business, and that’s the only reason she took the demo meeting with me.”

Arlowe shrugged a shoulder and said, “So? Makes sense to me.”

“Her using us makes sense to you?”

“She’s in sales, Vi. It’s all about networking. It makes sense that she’d want their business.”

“Then, she should’ve offered me a better discount.”

“She didn’t? Did you tell her that you can introduce her around?”

“No, I told her I wouldn’t. She suggested it first; gave me a number even: three intros.” Violet held up three fingers. “Only then would she help me get a better discount.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Arlowe asked, sitting on the end of Violet’s bed. “Seems like it’s not a big deal. You get her three intros. I get the software I want, and we’re able to grow the business faster.”

“You said the other one was fine.”

“It is. It’s fine, but it’s not what we need. If we can’t go with Cerebral, I’d rather just build the thing myself.”

“Arlowe… You know I don’t talk to my parents about business. Any of my family.”

“I know. But it’s just asking for them to take a call or something. They don’t have to buy their software. What will she give us if you do it?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t give me an exact number, but my guess is at least twenty percent. Maybe more.”

“Vi, the thing is a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. That’s, like, twenty-four thousand dollars off, and she’s giving us more hours with their sales engineers to help me out. I think that’s a pretty big deal.”

“Yeah, I know. I budgeted a hundred thousand, so ten percent doesn’t do enough. Twenty would, of course, and it would give us a little extra cash in the kitty, so to speak, but it would involve me talking to my father about this, and I don’t want to do that.”