What actually happens is far less romantic. You undercharge from day one, train the client to expect a bargain, and spend the rest of the relationship trying to claw back margin you should never have given away in the first place.
A discount is not a growth strategy. It is a gamble. And it is usually a bad one, because the downside is immediate and the upside is imaginary.
If a client only says yes because you were cheaper than you should have been, that is not a strong start. It is a warning sign. You are not "getting a foot in the door." You are often lowering the price anchor so far that the rest of the relationship has to limp along behind it.
And once that anchor is set, good luck resetting it.
Clients do not usually think, "They gave us a great launch discount, so now let's happily pay full rate for the bigger work." They think, "That was the price last time, so why is it higher now?" Or worse, they assume your real value is the discounted price and start treating that as the baseline.
That is how agencies end up working harder for less money. The scope expands, the expectations rise, the commercial discipline weakens, and the original discount becomes the gift that keeps on taking.
The worst part is that discounts are often sold internally as strategic. They are called "investment," "relationship building," or "a smart way in." But if the client never grows, or grows somewhere else, or simply keeps expecting the same deal forever, then what exactly was the strategy?
You did not buy future revenue. You sold current margin.
That does not mean every new client must pay top dollar in every circumstance. There is a difference between pricing intelligently and discounting out of fear. A sensible commercial concession is limited, deliberate and tied to something specific. A desperate discount is just you hoping goodwill will magically turn into profitability later.
It usually won't.
If a client is worth having, they are worth charging properly. If they need a discount to say yes, ask yourself whether they are a good client or just an expensive one in disguise.
The uncomfortable truth is simple: agencies do not grow by being cheap. They grow by being valuable, disciplined and confident enough to charge for it.