Should you offer a Black Friday deal?

I’ve been getting a handful of Black Friday questions this week.

They all boil down to: “Should I offer a Black Friday deal (on my services)?”

The short answer: no.

And I’m pretty firm on this one.

Before I get into the logic, here’s how I think about Black Friday as a buyer.

When I’m scrolling deals and see something 20% off, my brain doesn’t say, “Nice, 20%.” It says, “That’s it!?”

I’ve been trained to hunt for the best deal, not the right thing. I’ve talked about anchoring before, and BF is one heck of an anchor.

Now, take that mindset and put it next to your services.

Is that really the mental mode you want a prospect in when they’re thinking about your work?

Do you want them asking, “Is this the best deal I can get on this person’s expertise?”

Me neither.

Because the hidden message behind a BF deal is simple: “There’s wiggle room in my price.”

Once that’s out in the open, a few things happen.

For past and current clients (who paid full price), you re-open the exact moment of pain you already helped them walk through: that price vs. value decision they had to wrestle with.

They weren’t worrying about overpaying anymore. You’d already nailed to value equation.

But now there’s a seed of doubt: “If this is on sale now…what does that say about what I paid then?”

And doubt (buyers remorse) is a terrible ingredient in a buying relationship.

On top of that, you’ve just told future clients that your price is not really your price. It’s your “starting number.”

I could end the post here, but it probably helps to understand how I think about discounts more broadly.

A discount, in its purest form, is the act of showing your prospect a reduction in price.

Key word: showing.

If you offer a lower rate without telling them it’s lower, that’s not a discount. That’s underpricing. Very big difference. The whole point of a discount is the signal. The fact that it’s seen.

To be clear, I have offered discounts in the past. But now, when it comes to advice-based work, I’m generally against them.

I say “generally” because there are situations that can make sense with one non-negotiable condition: Any discount has to be tied to the terms, not the service.

In other words, you’re never discounting what you do. You’re only ever discounting how it’s paid for.

Two common examples.

The first is the upfront payment. If a client pays upfront instead of over 6/9/12 months, a small discount can makes sense.

The discount is tied to cash flow, not value of the services.

You’re not saying, “My advice is worth less.” You’re saying, “Certainty is worth something to me, so I’ll share a bit of that gain.”

The second is bulk-commitments. If a client commits to a long time horizon, you can make the case for a discount that’s driven by the commitment, not your expertise.

You’re effectively saying, “If you’re willing to lock in with me for the long term, I can afford to move a little on rate (because your saving time and money on the future business development).”

I still prefer the upfront payment over bulk-commitment because its a clean, binary decision.

But if you are inclined to do a bulk-commitment, do it after the first project so you have established your value.

This is why a Black Friday deal doesn’t make sense to me for advisory or consulting work.

It isn’t about terms. It’s not about cash flow. It’s not about commitment. It’s about demand.

You are discounting the exact thing people are buying (judgment, expertise, your brain) at a moment when the intent is “lower price than usual.”

That’s how you accidentally move yourself from “trusted expert” to “thing on sale.”

Once you put your work in the same mental aisle as TVs and air fryers, that’s a tough anchor to remove.

If the value lives in your brain, don’t put it on sale.

Thank you for reading.

See you next week.

Be well. Talk soon.

— Peter

P.S. No Black Friday deal here. But if you’ve been thinking about fixing your pricing, hit reply and tell me you’re interested in a pricing audit. It’s the fastest way to clean up your value story, nail the price reveal moment, and finally feel confident in your rate.

I’m booked for 2025, so my next opening is in January 2026.

But you can lock in your spot (and reduce your 2025 tax bill) by securing it now and paying upfront.