An Interesting Story: One Project Manager Requested a Discount on One of My Books Three Times Over the Course of Three Years
Strange desire for discounts.
Black Friday 2024 kicks off today, November 29, 2024. There are quite a lot of online sales.
I received a message on LinkedIn from someone who self-identified as a Project Manager. He asked for a discount on my Practical Performance and Load Testing book.
Before sharing the details of this latest request, let’s have a look at two similar requests this same person made in 2022 and 2023.
As always, when sharing the requests I received, I won’t disclose the names.
2022 November 7th:
2023 December 1st:
Today (2024-11-29):
Quite interesting, huh?
The book is priced at just $15, and the occasional sales on Leanpub can bring it down to $10.50. So, we're talking about a small amount of money, even for an IT manager in a developing country, such as India.
Some might say, “Zhimin, why not just give him the discount?”
I typically offer discounts only to specific groups, such as Substack paid subscribers or free access for training attendees—not to individuals. I prefer not to get involved in direct selling.
Having said that, I did share with him a link to a 30% Leanpub Sale discount (see the second screenshot), which I thought was more than ‘a small discount’ that he asked for. However, it might not have met his expectations. Since he didn’t specify an amount, I chose not to explicitly say no.
I imagine that, by this point, some of you might be (me too) wondering, “Is this software project manager genuinely interested in learning this book?”
I find it hard to believe that an IT professional—well-educated, proficient in English, and working as an IT manager—would be so fixated on an $11 book, repeatedly requesting discounts for three consecutive years. I doubt he would buy the book, even with a 50% discount. Based on years of experience working with mentees, he likely wouldn't be an effective learner either.
What’s the motivation? I don’t know, and I won’t speculate. But let me share another story with you.
Once, a testing manager at a government department spent 30 minutes negotiating with me for a discount on a TestWise (a functional testing IDE developed by me) license renewal. Eventually, I gave in and offered him a 25% discount, which I later made a standard renewal discount for all TestWise customers.
Sometime later, I met a tester from that department who shared an interesting detail. She told me the manager had proudly reported during a meeting with the director that he had secured a 25% discount on the TestWise license renewal. For context, the license was only $500 at the time (and it’s even cheaper now). A director of the Australian State Government Department wouldn’t have cared about such a minor amount—it seemed to be more about the manager's sense of achievement.
One thing I appreciate about E2E test automation is the opportunity to encounter various so-called "software professionals." Here are a couple of examples:
A senior test automation engineer once recommended Cypress, only to realise later that it couldn’t handle core business workflows due to its significant limitations.
A principal engineer proposed a three-month E2E test automation proof of concept with a fixed set of test scenarios. I completed it in just three days. Surprised, he asked, “What expensive technology did you use?” My answer: “Raw Selenium WebDriver with Ruby, using the free edition of TestWise IDE.” Despite the obvious and verified (by BA and one manager) success, the principal engineer dismissed the verified “Selenium Ruby” solution and insisted on using Java or JavaScript instead.
Further reading: