I can speak to this directly — it bit me.
I used to offer a 10% prepayment discount to lock clients in for the following year. Made sense on paper — get people committed early, guarantee revenue. But this year I also raised my base prices significantly, so the combination of a real price increase plus losing the 10% discount added up to a jump a lot of people couldn't justify. What I found out afterward: the clients who would have stayed with me anyway, discount or not, took the deal and stayed. The clients who were only there because of a lower price waited, saw the new number, and left.
Only 50% of my clients from last year renewed into this year. That's low, especially after I worked hard on service quality — but looking back, most of that churn was price-sensitive clients who were never going to absorb both a price hike and a lost discount at once.
Changed the whole system because of it. No more prepay discount, no more chasing renewals — now every client is on the same terms, no exceptions: they agree to the terms and have a card on file before I do the work (the only exception is a standalone top-dressing job). At a higher price, with clients who actually value results over the price tag.
What I'm noticing now is a shift in trust. More and more clients tell me to just do whatever the lawn needs and charge the card. I still walk them through the plan and the cost, but knowing there won't be resistance as long as it's justified is a completely different feeling than chasing down low-value clients every year. I also get clients who appreciate and respect more what I do. Discount attracts the opposite type of people.
I think it comes down to what you're actually optimizing for: raw client count at any cost, or fewer clients who stick around and spend more. I didn't hit my client-count goal this year. But one client alone has spent over $5,000 with me this season — that's worth more than 25 people chasing the cheapest option.
These days, if someone asks for a discount, I tell them Walmart's got better prices than me. The only discount I still offer is for referrals — and honestly, most new clients don't even ask for it anymore. They're happy enough with the results that they tell friends, neighbors, and family on their own.
