The Rate Everyone Got Because One Person Did

A sales rep gave a family friend a 20% break on a job, off the books of any formal policy, just because he liked the guy. Reasonable, one time, on the surface.

Except that customer mentioned it at a golf outing. Then two more customers asked why they weren't getting the same deal. Rather than have an awkward conversation, the rep quietly extended it to them too. Eighteen months later, four accounts were running on a rate that existed because of one favor nobody ever formally approved, and the controller only found it while investigating why margin on that product line had drifted.

Leak #4 rarely arrives as a bad decision. It arrives as a reasonable one that nobody built a fence around.

Is there a pricing exception in your business today that exists because of a favor, a friendship, or a one-off — rather than a policy?