Pricing power isn’t what it used to be.
If you’re leading a sales or procurement team, you’re already feeling the squeeze: more price pushback, longer negotiations, and, thanks to tariffs, costs you can’t hide.
Zilliant’s latest survey makes it plain: 44% of U.S. companies plan to pass tariff costs straight to customers.
But passing on costs is getting harder, not easier. Why? Because your pricing power is under siege from all sides.
Let’s break down the five real-world forces eroding your ability to set and defend prices, and what you can do about it.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY
Economic volatility isn’t a blip—it’s the new baseline.
Raw material prices and transportation costs swing wildly, forcing companies to raise prices just to keep up.
But here’s the irony: the same uncertainty that drives up your costs makes your customers even more price-sensitive. They’re watching every penny, and they expect you to justify every increase.
What this means for you:
You can’t just announce a price hike and expect acceptance. You need to anchor every conversation in the value you deliver, not just the cost you incur. If you don’t, you’ll get dragged into a price war you can’t win.
THE GLOBAL STAGE
Competition isn’t going anywhere. Whether it’s a global player, a regional upstart, or a new digital disruptor, there will always be someone offering a lower price.
Tariffs and supply chain shifts may have changed who the lowest-cost supplier is, but not the fact that buyers are always looking for a deal.
But not all solutions are created equal. The real risk is letting your product or service get lumped in with the cheapest option, even when it delivers more. Too many negotiations devolve into price wars because buyers are comparing apples to oranges—and sellers aren’t pushing back hard enough to clarify the difference.
What works:
- Force a true comparison. Don’t let the conversation get stuck on price alone. Expand the buying criteria and make sure the customer is evaluating all the value you bring—performance, reliability, service, compliance, risk reduction, and more—not just the sticker price.
- Anchor your value. Start the conversation by framing what makes your solution different and why it’s worth more. Use strong, memorable proof points to help buyers justify the higher price internally.
- Stay in the tension. When buyers push for a lower price, don’t cave. Acknowledge their need for cost savings, but insist on a fair comparison.
You can’t control the existence of lower-cost competitors, but you can control how your value is perceived and defended. The best teams don’t win by being the cheapest—they win by making sure the buyer sees exactly what they’re getting, and why it’s worth every penny.
BUYER SOPHISTICATION
Procurement teams have leveled up.
They’re armed with data, strategic sourcing programs, and a mandate to squeeze every dollar out of every deal. They’re not just asking for lower prices-they’re demanding transparency, cost breakdowns, and even gain-sharing agreements.
Your challenge:
If you walk into these negotiations unprepared, you’ll get steamrolled. You need to quantify your value, defend your margins, and push back—strategically—when buyers try to drag you into a race to zero.
TARIFFS
For decades, U.S. companies fought off global competitors, especially those from emerging markets, by cutting costs and squeezing margins.
Cheap labor and lax regulations overseas drove prices down, and buyers could always threaten to switch to a lower-cost supplier in Asia or Eastern Europe.
But tariffs have flipped the script. With a baseline 10% tariff on all imports and much steeper rates on goods from China (145%), Vietnam (46%), Taiwan (32%), and the EU (20%), the “low-cost” advantage from offshore manufacturing is evaporating.
The result?
The cost gap between U.S.-made and imported goods is shrinking, sometimes vanishing altogether.
Here’s the catch: bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. isn’t a silver bullet. Reshoring means higher labor costs, expensive compliance, and a scramble for skilled workers—costs that most companies simply can’t absorb.
In fact, a majority of firms surveyed say reshoring could double their expenses, and many are instead “globe-hopping” to chase lower-tariff regimes rather than coming home.
And don’t assume tariffs guarantee a pricing advantage for domestic producers.
Yes, tariffs make imports more expensive, but they also drive up costs across the board—raw materials, machinery, and components—especially since U.S. manufacturing still relies heavily on foreign inputs. That means everyone is paying more, and the old playbook of undercutting rivals on price just doesn’t work.
If you’re still selling on price alone, you’re already losing.
You need to pivot: focus on what sets you apart, build in flexibility, and be ready for buyers who are more sophisticated than ever and know exactly what every tariff, surcharge, and compliance cost means for their bottom line.
PERFORMANCE PRESSURE
It’s not just the market turning up the heat.
Corporate management is demanding revenue growth and margin protection—often at the same time. That pressure trickles down to the sales team, who are more likely to concede on price just to hit their numbers.
The result:
Too many teams are trading margin for volume, giving away value just to close deals. Over time, this erodes your pricing power even further, making it nearly impossible to claw back lost ground.
HOW TO FIGHT BACK: CONCRETE STEPS FOR SALES AND PROCUREMENT TEAMS
So what are sales and procurement teams supposed to do?
Here are some tried and tested methods to help you weather any price pressure storm (no matter how strong).
FRAME THE CONVERSATION AROUND VALUE
We’ll say this until we’re blue in the face: value over price.
To avoid falling into price conversations too early.
Instead, try to:
- Anchor your pitch in the value your solution delivers, not just the cost you’re trying to recover
- Use comparisons to higher-priced alternatives to make your offer look compelling
- Build in negotiating room by including elements you can trade away later without gutting your margins.
And remember, buyers are more sophisticated than ever. They’re not just looking at the sticker price—they want to know how your solution impacts their business and their own performance.
A great way to embrace this is to provoke new thinking: highlight value they haven’t considered and use memorable themes that help your buyer justify the higher price internally.
HANDLE PRICE PUSHBACK WITHOUT CAVING
When price comes up early—and it will—acknowledge it, but don’t let the conversation stall there. Defer deep price discussions until you’ve established value.
Get curious about what’s really driving the buyer’s concerns and look for ways to meet their needs without defaulting to discounts. Stay in the tension; don’t rush to fill the silence with concessions.
PLAN YOUR CONCESSIONS STRATEGICALLY
Don’t let the endgame turn into a giveaway. Plan your concessions in advance, and always trade, never just give.
Resist the urge to unbundle your price or negotiate it in isolation. Find creative ways to exchange value, whether it’s delivery terms, support, or added services, so you protect your target price and close at a number that rewards your business for the value you deliver.
MANAGEMENT MUST REINFORCE THE RIGHT BEHAVIORS
This isn’t just a sales problem—it’s a leadership challenge. Coaching is non-negotiable. Managers need to help teams practice these counterintuitive approaches until they’re second nature.
Don’t just tell your reps what to do; create real-world scenarios where they can see the cost of bad habits and the upside of disciplined negotiation. Use technology to reinforce these behaviors and keep your team sharp, even as market conditions change.
BOTTOM LINE
The decline in pricing power isn’t a passing trend—it’s a structural shift driven by economic uncertainty, global competition, smarter buyers, relentless tariffs, and internal performance pressure.
You can’t control these forces, but you can control how you respond.
The companies that thrive will be those that take back control of the pricing conversation, defend their value, and refuse to let the market dictate their margins.
Anything less is just giving it away.
