My son deals with this every day. He is in management with a small oil field services outfit. They ran a pretty tight ship compared to the average, now they are as tight as it gets, and know where everybody, every machine and ever dime are at all times, and what return each is generating. Now that things are drying up, and rigs are getting stacked all over the country, some of his customers are telling him to drop bids by 30%. Not happening for one pretty basic reason, there never was 30% mark-up to give back in the first place. If it's a good customer who they value, he lays all the cards out, and tells them what he can cut, if there is no option (typically 10-12%, or less) and waits for a reply. If it was a more typical demanding bunch of A-holes. The kind who couldn't spend fast enough last year, and had you delivering a $50 part, 300 miles away on Christmas eve, and laughing about signing $1500 emergency delivery tickets, since they were too screwed up to keep their own shit together. Yea, those guys are the ones he walks away from.
It's amazing what the last year has done to the business.