Another problem that this inevitably leads to is further price reductions from your other clients.  If you help a company get a "new client" based on promises of volume, that work is being lost by another potential (or existing) client. That client then has to compete with the prices you have helped one of their competitors offer.  The only way they can do that is to ask you to lower your prices for them also.

It is a slippery slope.  Whenever an abstractor helps a client get "new" business it causes a price war among our clients and we always end up losing - no matter who eventually wins the client, we are the ones who have lost.

What I really want to stress is that it is never "new" business... it was there before with some other client.  Why would anyone want to help a client get new business at a discounted rate, when it is quite possible you are already getting the work for your regular rate?  Even if you stand to gain work from one of your competitors, the decreased prices still forces your other clients to reduce their prices to be competitive in the marketplace.  Therefore, even if you do pick up a few new orders, you will still lose in the long run.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE