Price the Deal: a B2B pricing simulation with a buyer who pushes back
A big order, a cost sheet that does not tell the whole story, and a buyer who says you are above the market. Set your walk-away before you open, then see what the deal was really worth.
- Quote 400,000 boxes against a real cost sheet and spare capacity
- Trade price, volume, payment terms, flexibility and indexing
- Four rounds; the buyer counters and can walk away
- A live calculator shows the contribution of every package
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first: no sign-up, about five minutes.
What is a good simulation for learning how to price a large B2B order?
Price the Deal, a Bodhih Arena micro-sim, has you quote a 400,000-box order for a packaging maker with spare capacity. You set a private walk-away price, then negotiate price, volume, payment terms, flexibility and material-cost indexing over four rounds. The score weighs contribution earned, negotiation craft and how well you knew your cost.
What is Price the Deal?
Price the Deal is an online pricing and negotiation simulation. You are the commercial manager at Tessaro Packaging, a box maker running at 75% of capacity, and a homeware chain wants 400,000 boxes over a year. Using a cost sheet that mixes costs which change with the order and costs that do not, you set a private walk-away price and negotiate a package over four rounds. The buyer counters, may walk away, and keeps its own limit hidden until the debrief.
Price the Deal at a glance
| Format | Micro-sim, single player |
|---|---|
| Length | About 15 minutes per play |
| Players | One person; every play is a new seeded scenario |
| Devices | Any modern browser on a laptop, tablet or phone |
| Scoring | Scored on the server out of 100, with sub-scores and a debrief |
| Credential | Open Badges 3.0 micro-sim credential at a score of 80 or more, with a public verification page |
| Competencies | Commercial Acumen (SPN.4.5), Negotiation (SPN.2.3), Analytical Reasoning (SPN.4.2) |
| LMS | LTI 1.3 launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L, with grade passback; usable as a Bodhih pathway stage |
| Price for one person | $12 |
| Price per seat | $12 per seat, volume pricing by seat count |
Big deals get priced fast, from the wrong cost
Full cost says no, the factory says yes
Finance quotes a full cost per unit that includes overheads you pay with or without the order. Price below it and someone calls it loss-making; refuse and the spare capacity stays idle.
Concessions leak out for nothing
Longer payment terms, flexible volumes and a lower price all get given away in the same meeting, often without anyone pricing what each one costs you or is worth to the buyer.
Nobody agreed the walk-away
Without a number set before the meeting, the floor becomes whatever the buyer's last counter was, and the deal you sign is the one you were talked into.
Here is the situation you walk into
You are the commercial manager at Tessaro Packaging. The factory runs at 75% of capacity, so you have room for about 300,000 more boxes a year before overtime adds $0.09 a box. Lumen Home Goods, a fast-growing homeware chain, wants 400,000 shipping boxes over the next twelve months and has asked for your best price.
The cost sheet on your screen says materials, labour and freight are $0.41 a box, the factory overhead share is $0.11, full cost is $0.52 and list price is $0.62. Read it carefully: some of those costs change if you win this order, and some do not.
Before you open, you write down your private walk-away price. Then you put a package on the table. Lumen's buyer tells you you are well above the market and comes back with a lower price on 60-day terms. You have four rounds, and somewhere along the way your board supplier may call with news about prices.
4 decisions, one debrief
- STEP 1
Round 1: set your walk-away and open
Enter the lowest price you would accept for 400,000 boxes on 30-day terms. It stays private and is scored for accuracy. Then choose your opening price, the volume you commit to, payment terms, flexible volumes and whether to link the price to board prices.
- STEP 2
Round 2: respond to the counter
The buyer counters, usually asking for 60-day terms. Make a new offer, accept their package or walk away. The calculator shows the extra cost per box, margin per box and contribution for the year of whatever you put together.
- STEP 3
Round 3: costs may move
Before round 3 your board supplier may announce a $0.03 rise. It hits any fixed-price deal you sign, which is where a price link to material costs earns its place. The buyer's patience is also thinner now.
- STEP 4
Round 4: final answer
No more offers. Accept the package on the table or walk away and keep your capacity. Then the debrief shows what you signed against the best deal this buyer would have accepted.
Who Price the Deal is for
- B2B sales and key account managers. You quote large orders and negotiate terms. This shows which concessions are cheap for you and valuable to the buyer, and which quietly erase your margin.
- Commercial, pricing and finance business partners. You sit between sales and finance. Price the Deal gives both sides a shared way to talk about contribution, capacity and the real floor.
- Sales managers coaching deal reviews. Use it to rehearse the questions you want your team to ask before a big quote: what does this order add, what does it cost us, where is our walk-away?
- Business and MBA students. It makes marginal costing, opportunity cost and negotiation tactics one decision, with your own numbers in the debrief instead of a textbook example.
Who should skip it
It is not a contract-drafting course, and it will not build a pricing model for your own products.
What you can do after pricing one big deal properly
Price the Deal builds commercial judgement: knowing your real floor, opening with confidence and trading rather than giving.
You will know your floor before the first meeting
You will work out the walk-away from the costs that change with the order, including overtime on the last units, and keep it to yourself.
You will spot the full-cost trap
When a finance number threatens to talk you out of a profitable order while capacity sits idle, you will be able to explain why contribution is the right test.
You will trade every concession
You will ask what longer payment terms, flexible volumes or a price link cost you and what they are worth to the buyer, and swap them for price instead of giving them away.
You will concede in shrinking steps
You will open high but credibly and move in smaller steps each round, so the buyer feels the floor coming, and you will never raise a price you have already offered.
You will weigh risk you cannot see yet
A possible material cost rise sits behind every fixed price. You will practise deciding how much of that risk to carry, a core part of decision making under uncertainty.
Learning goals
- Price against incremental cost and contribution, not full cost
- See how overtime and opportunity cost change the price of the last units
- Trade concessions that are cheap for you and valuable to the buyer
Skills practised: Commercial judgement, Deal pricing, Negotiation planning, Marginal costing, Risk-aware decision making, Strategic thinking in negotiation.
Competencies scored
Sub-scores map to the open Bodhih Competency Spine, so results sit beside your other learning records.
What the debrief shows
- What you signed, the contribution it adds over the year, and the best deal this buyer would have signed with you.
- Your offers round by round, your walk-away compared with your real cost, and whether you ever went backwards.
- The reveal: the buyer's own walk-away, what 60-day terms and flexible volumes were worth to them, and the best package for you.
- Why contribution, overtime and the trade in payment terms matter, what strong negotiators do, and the key concept of contribution margin.
Contribution margin
Price minus the costs that rise with each extra unit. It is what each sale contributes towards fixed costs and profit, and the right test for an extra order when you have spare capacity.
Use Price the Deal with a team
Seats are $12 each. Buy up to 25 seats online and assign them from your company admin; above that, or for a facilitated programme or an institution licence, request a quote and we activate your seats after payment.
Before a deal review or pricing committee
Have the account team play it the week before. In the review, start with "what did your walk-away turn out to be?" and the conversation moves from gut feel to cost.
Sales kick-off breakout
Run it in pairs during a kick-off, then compare packages across the room: who traded terms for price, who gave flexibility away, who walked. Each play draws a new buyer, so results differ.
A stage in a sales or key account pathway
Add it as a stage in a Bodhih pathway alongside your negotiation content. Completion counts automatically and sub-scores map to Commercial Acumen, Negotiation and Analytical Reasoning.
Assessment centre or LMS assignment
Use the server-scored result as evidence of commercial reasoning in a development centre, or assign it from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L through LTI 1.3 with grade passback.
Volume pricing
| Seats | Per seat | How to buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12 | Online |
| 2 to 10 | $10.80 | Online |
| 11 to 50 | $9.60 | Online up to 25, then quote |
| 51+ | $8.40 | Quote |
Price the Deal compared with a case study or slide-based course
| Compared on | A case study or slide-based course | Price the Deal |
|---|---|---|
| The cost question | Explains marginal costing with a worked example. | Makes you set your own walk-away from a cost sheet, then scores how close you got. |
| The other side | A described buyer whose moves are fixed in the text. | A buyer that counters, values terms differently each play and may walk away. |
| Trading concessions | A list of tactics to remember. | Five levers in one package, with a calculator showing what each costs you. |
| Feedback | A model answer or a discussion. | Your contribution against the best deal on offer, plus the buyer's hidden numbers. |
| Practice again | Same case, same answer. | A new buyer limit and new values for terms each time you play. |
| Where a case wins | Industry context, relationships and long-term account history. | A single order and four rounds; it trains one judgement, not a whole account plan. |
What to pair with Price the Deal
Ask Better, Get More
Its fillable planner and negotiation calculator help you prepare a real deal the way the simulation rewards: walk-away first, trades planned.
See the kit →Pro KitThe Proposal and Tender Response Kit
Once you can price a large order, this kit helps you put that price into a proposal or tender response that holds up.
See the kit →Online courseAI for Sales course
Its graded negotiation plan, with give-get trades and a walk-away point rehearsed before the meeting, applies this simulation to your own accounts.
See the course →AssessAll assessmentKey Account Management assessment
Measure how well your account managers protect and grow strategic accounts, alongside the pricing judgement this simulation scores.
Take the assessment →Bodhih TrainingCorporate training by Bodhih Training
For an instructor-led negotiation or commercial skills programme that uses the simulation as its practice round.
Talk to Bodhih Training →Related simulations
How much does Price the Deal cost for one person?
Price the Deal costs $12 for one person. You buy it online and play it in your Bodhih account straight away. It is sold on its own, not as part of a bundle.
What is the price for a sales team?
Seats are $12 each, with volume tiers that lower the per-seat price for larger numbers. Up to 25 seats can be bought online. For bigger teams, facilitated sessions or institution licences, request a quote; we invoice, and seats are activated when payment is received.
How long does it take to play?
About 15 minutes: four rounds plus the brief and the debrief. Players who study the cost sheet carefully tend to take a little longer, and score better on knowing their cost.
What do I get?
The full simulation with the live contribution calculator, a score out of 100 with three sub-scores, the complete debrief with the buyer's hidden numbers revealed, and a credential at 80 or more.
Can I replay it?
Yes. Each play is a new seeded scenario: the buyer's limit, what it values in terms and flexibility, and whether material prices rise all change. That lets you check whether a better negotiation was skill or luck.
Is there a certificate or badge?
Score 80 or more and you earn the Arena Micro-sim Mastery credential for Price the Deal, an Open Badges 3.0 credential with a public verification page you can add to LinkedIn.
Can it run inside our LMS?
Yes. It launches from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and D2L using LTI 1.3, and the score returns to your gradebook. Inside Bodhih it can also be a stage in a learning pathway.
Which devices does it work on?
Any modern browser on a laptop, desktop or tablet, with nothing to install. A phone works, but the cost sheet and calculator are easier side by side on a bigger screen.
Who is it for?
B2B sellers, key account managers, commercial and pricing staff, finance business partners, sales managers and business students: anyone who quotes, approves or challenges the price of a large order.
How is it different from a negotiation case study?
A case study describes someone else's deal. Here you set your own walk-away, build packages against a cost sheet and face a buyer that counters or leaves, then see the buyer's hidden limit and the best package you could have signed.
How is my data used?
Your decisions and scores are kept in your Bodhih account so you can review them, and so company admins can see results when you play through a company account. Details are at bodhih.org/privacy.
What is the refund policy?
Refunds follow the published policy at bodhih.org/refunds.
Your next big quote deserves a rehearsal
Work out your real floor, open with confidence and trade every concession, in a deal where a mistake costs nothing, then see how close your walk-away was to the truth. Buy a seat for yourself, or seats for the team that quotes your largest orders.
Want a feel for Arena first? Play the free 3-round Price War.
- Play it as often as you like for 12 months: every play is a new scenario
- A debrief after each play: what happened, why, and what strong players do
- A verifiable credential when you score 80 or more
- Scored on the server, mapped to the Bodhih Competency Spine
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first, no sign-up.
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