This tactic involves presenting FireHydrant with competitive offers that highlight lower prices or better features from alternatives like PagerDuty or OpsGenie. Leverage these comparisons to negotiate a better deal for the FireHydrant software. For instance, state the price quote from a competitor and insist on getting to a price point that your finance team is comfortable with. This approach is effective as it introduces urgency and makes FireHydrant aware that they are at risk of losing your business.

When negotiating terms with FireHydrant, emphasize the importance of removing auto-renewal clauses from the contract. By ensuring you have the ability to evaluate your options every year without being bound automatically, you will have stronger leverage in negotiations. Make it clear that this is a requirement from your finance team, which would help in smooth annual negotiations moving forward.

If FireHydrant proposes any changes that increase costs or introduce new features, use this tactic to question whether these upgrades truly align with your security and operational needs. If possible, point out competitors who offer similar features without the associated costs, positioning FireHydrant as needing to compete with those offerings to retain your business.

If the contract includes an uplift in pricing, anchor conversations around your company's budget constraints and insist on its removal, aligning your expectations with those of similar SaaS providers. Point out that you hadn’t anticipated any uplift based on previous agreements and that you expect a flat or reduced pricing model instead.

If you are particularly satisfied with FireHydrant, propose to participate in a reference call or case study in exchange for a pricing concession. This tactic helps to formalize the relationship while also allowing FireHydrant to showcase success stories, which can be appealing to them; thus they may be willing to give better terms.