The Discount That Started as a Favor

Years ago, an owner cut a longtime customer a break during a rough patch — 15% off, just for a quarter, just to help a friend through a hard stretch. Totally reasonable in the moment.

Nobody ever went back and turned it off. Five years later that customer was still getting the 'temporary' rate, three sales reps had turned over in the meantime, and each new rep just assumed the discount was standard policy for that account because it was already in the system when they arrived.

That's Leak #4's favorite disguise — kindness that never got a review date. It's not about being stingy. It's about making sure a decision made for one good reason in one specific month doesn't quietly become permanent margin loss nobody remembers approving.

If you audited every 'temporary' discount currently active in your books, how many of them do you think are actually still temporary?