A 4th Key Law of Sales:

Respect the buyer’s process. The truly successful sales people know that they have a superior ability to “take the customer out of the market,” in other words, they know that they have been successful in establishing the trust-bond, and in matching their services/products well with customer’s requirements so that when the customer does buy, he knows they will buy from him. He accepts that he cannot and should not try to materially alter the buyer’s process, for doing so will violate the trust-bond, and likely result in sacrificing margin. Far too often those in desperate need to meet a quota deadline will offer a concession to win the deal earlier then the customer was prepared to authorize it, and in a great many cases the incentive comes in the form of a price reduction—“if I could get a lower price, would you order this month?” It’s a lose/lose question:
o The trust-bond has been broken. The customer now knows he didn’t get the best his sales person could’ve offered
o The sales person has sacrificed margin, making the transaction and his company less profitable
o The customer must do abnormal things to make the sale happen, which he’ll both learn from and resent
Far better to have managed the pipeline better, spent more time developing prospects, less time chasing deals that really weren't qualified deals, and knowing that there are enough opportunities in the sales funnel that the requisite number will materialize, without adversely impacting the normal and natural course of events at any one customer.