Discount matrix
discount grid · customer terms · pricing matrix
A discount matrix is the grid that, by crossing a customer with a part family or brand, determines the rate applied to list price to produce the net price. It is the mechanism that makes pricing reproducible without negotiating every line.
Director of publication : Florian Précigout
Its purpose is consistency. Two orders from the same workshop, placed at two different counters at two different hours, must produce the same price — a far stronger trust condition than a well-placed one-off gesture.
It also carries commercial policy: a stronger discount on a stocked range steers sales towards what the distributor wants to sell, without discussing it on every call. The grid is a steering tool, not merely a tariff.
The flip side is that it makes exceptions expensive. A price granted outside the grid propagates: it becomes an expectation, then an entitlement. That is why derogations belong to an approval level rather than to the counter.
The trap
Granting an off-grid price "just this once". The next order will refer back to it, the grid loses its explanatory power, and margin turns into a permanent negotiation.
Frequently asked
Are discounts negotiated per reference?
Rarely, and it is not desirable. The usual level is the part family or the brand: that is what makes thousands of references manageable without line-by-line arbitration.
Why do two workshops not get the same price?
Because the grid crosses their respective terms — volume, commitment, stocked range. It is not case-by-case favouritism but an applied policy.