Give trade customers the notice your contract requires, at minimum, and where nothing is written, aim for about 30 days for small accounts and 60 to 90 for large ones. Use AI to draft one letter per customer tier from the same facts: the new prices, the effective date, an honest reason and who to call.
A blanket email to a customer list is the usual mistake. A distributor who has agreed prices for the year, a key account buying every week and a shop that orders twice a year are reading the same words with very different worries. The drafting is quick with AI. The work that matters is sorting the customers first, checking what each contract allows, and arming the sales team before the letter lands.
Read the terms before drafting a word
Notice periods in trade sales come from your own paperwork: the supply agreement, the terms and conditions printed on quotes and acknowledgements, any price list validity date, and anything agreed by email with a key account. Gather them into a short table, one row per customer or customer type, with the clause number, the notice required, whether prices are fixed until a date, and whether a rise needs agreement or only notice. If you use AI to read the contracts, ask it to quote the clause each time, and check the quotes yourself.
If a contract fixes the price until a renewal date, you cannot raise it before then without agreement, and a letter pretending otherwise damages the relationship. The honest versions are "your price holds until 31 March, and the new price applies to orders from 1 April", or a conversation about a variation. Where wording is unclear, or a large account is involved, ask a qualified adviser; this tutorial is practical guidance, not legal advice.
Sort customers into tiers
| Tier | Who | Notice (guide) | Sender and channel | What they need |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: contract or fixed-price accounts | Customers with written price terms or a price-hold date | As the contract says; letter after a call | Account manager, then letter | Respect for the agreement, the date the new price starts, a reason |
| B: key accounts | The top 10 to 20 percent by margin or volume | 60 to 90 days where possible | Owner or sales lead phones first | Time to reprice, a volume or term option, a named contact |
| C: regular trade | Standard accounts with no written terms | About 30 days | Email letter from the sales team | Clarity: which products, how much, from when |
| D: occasional or small | Buyers who order a few times a year | About 14 to 30 days, or the new price list | Email or price-list update | A short notice and the new list |
The notice figures are a guide, not a rule; your contracts override them. Ask the AI to do the sorting from a customer export with columns for account, last 12 months' revenue, gross margin, contract flag and last order date. It can rank and tier them, but check the contract flag against the real paperwork, since an export often misses side agreements.
Illustration: a specialist food importer's list
Say a specialist food importer with 140 trade accounts finds 6 on written annual price agreements (tier A), 18 key accounts (tier B), 74 regular accounts (tier C) and 42 small ones (tier D). Tier A and B together account for about 65 percent of revenue, so those 24 accounts get phone calls from the owner and the sales lead, and the other 116 get a letter. That split makes the mailing small enough to read properly and puts the human effort where the money is.
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Buy nowWork out the number before the wording
A letter that says "prices are rising by around 10 percent" with no basis invites an argument. Decide the increase from your own costs. Quick sum, illustrative: a product sells at $10.00 and costs $7.00 landed, a gross margin of 30 percent, or $3.00 a unit. A cost rise of 8 percent takes the cost to $7.56. To keep the $3.00 in cash terms, the price must rise to $10.56, which is 5.6 percent. To keep the 30 percent margin, the price must rise to $10.80, which is 8 percent. The difference between those two answers is a decision about margin, and it should be made before the letter is drafted. Mixing the two in a letter ("costs rose 8 percent so prices rise 5.6 percent") gets questions you want to answer on your terms.
Ask the AI to run the table for your top 30 products from a cost sheet, then check the arithmetic yourself on three lines. Rounding prices to pack-friendly numbers is a human job. The planning side of this, including who needs to approve, is covered in planning and announcing a price increase with AI's help; this tutorial picks up at the letter.
State the reason honestly, and only once
Trade customers are also running businesses and recognise a cost story that is true. They also compare notes with other suppliers. A good reason names the cost lines that moved, in order of size, with a rough figure where you can support it: "our freight cost per pallet has risen about 12 percent since last spring; packaging and energy costs have also risen". A weak reason is a vague appeal to "market conditions".
Check three things. Is the reason true for every line you are raising? If freight explains only imported goods, do not apply it to locally made ones. Is it proportionate? If one cost rose 12 percent and it is 20 percent of your price, a 12 percent price rise is not defensible. And are you telling a story you will not have to retract? If the cost falls next year, expect customers to ask for the price back.
Where the real reason is to recover margin that has crept down over several years, say that prices have been reviewed and not held since a certain point, and name what you have done to hold them. It is a better position than a cost story that does not stand up.
The prompt: one set of facts, four letters
Write four versions of a price increase letter from a wholesale supplier to trade customers.
Facts (use only these; do not invent figures, dates or reasons):
- Our name and sender: [company, sender name and role]
- Effective date for orders: [date]
- Increase: [average X percent; list the product groups and their percentages]
- Reasons, in order of size: [cost line, rough change; cost line, rough change]
- What we have already absorbed or done to hold prices: [e.g. renegotiated freight]
- Offer for larger accounts (tier B only): [e.g. fixed price on a 6-month volume commitment]
- Contact: [named person and role] (no email addresses; I will add them)
Versions:
A: contract accounts (price holds until [date]; respectful of the agreement).
B: key accounts (follows a phone call; offers the option above; invites a meeting).
C: regular trade (clear, short, product groups and effective date).
D: small accounts (three short paragraphs, link to the new price list).
Tone: direct, courteous, no apology paragraph, no "unprecedented", no promise of no further increases.
Length: A and B under 220 words, C under 170, D under 110.
After each letter, list every number and date it states so I can verify them.Illustrative output for version C, trimmed and corrected: "Dear [first name], from 1 June our prices will rise by an average of 6 percent across the range. Our freight cost per pallet has risen by about 12 percent and packaging by about 8 percent since our last review, and we have absorbed part of both. The attached list shows your new prices by product. Orders placed before 1 June, for delivery before 15 June, will be charged at the current prices. If you would like to talk through your account, [name] is on [phone]." What was fixed: the first draft said "up to 6 percent" while the list showed 7.5 percent on two lines, and the AI wrote "pallet cost" where the figure was the freight cost per pallet. The verification list at the foot of the output caught both.
Before and after: from vague to usable
| First draft | Better |
|---|---|
| "Due to rising costs, we regret to inform you of a price adjustment." | "From 1 June our prices will rise by an average of 6 percent." |
| "We value your continued custom." | "Orders placed by 31 May ship at the current price." |
| "Please contact us with any questions." | "[Name] handles pricing questions: [phone]." |
| "We do not anticipate further increases." | Remove it. Nobody can promise that. |
Give the sales reps their talking points
Most pushback arrives on the phone, in the first two days. A rep who has not seen the letter, or has only seen its first line, will improvise. Ask the AI for a one-page note for the team from the same facts, then edit it with the sales lead.
- The three-sentence version. "Prices rise by [X] percent from [date]. The main reasons are freight and packaging. Orders placed before [date] keep the old price."
- What you may offer. Pre-buy at the old price until a stated date, a volume-linked price hold, a delivery-day change. What you may not offer: individual discounts that nobody approved, or any statement about future prices.
- Likely questions and short answers. "Why so much?" gives the cost lines. "Your competitor has not put theirs up" gets "I can't speak for them; this is what changed for us, and I'll check where we can help you on volume". "Can you hold it for us?" is answered with the option you have approved or a promise to come back within a day.
- When to escalate. A customer who threatens to move is passed to the owner or sales lead the same day.
- What to log. Every call, the customer's reaction (accepts, asks for time, threatens to leave), and any offer made.
An example exchange
Illustrative: a furniture maker's rep gets a call from a trade customer who buys 40 chairs a month. Customer: "A 7 percent rise is steep." Rep: "I understand. Timber and haulage went up, and we have taken some of it ourselves. If you can commit to a six-month order pattern, I can hold your price at the current level for six months. Shall I send the terms?" The rep stated the reason, did not argue about the competitor and offered an option already approved. A rep without that approval would have promised a discount, then had to withdraw it.
A contract table, filled in
The table you build from the paperwork is the most useful single page in the exercise. Here is a filled-in extract for an illustrative furniture maker selling to shops and hotel fit-out firms, with the kind of entries you should expect to find:
| Account | Source | Price status | Notice needed | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fit-out firm 1 | Annual supply agreement, clause 6 | Fixed to 31 December | Rise only at renewal, 60 days written notice | Tier A: call in October, new terms at renewal |
| Retail chain 2 | Email last March agreeing prices for 12 months | Fixed to 28 February | None stated; honour the date | Tier A: confirm the date, offer a renewal meeting |
| Shop 3 | Standard terms on acknowledgement | Price list in force on order date | Terms allow change on written notice | Tier C: 30 days |
| Studio 4 | None; buys twice a year | Quote validity 30 days | None | Tier D: new list, and any open quote keeps its price to expiry |
Two points come out of it at once. The email in row 2 is a commitment, even though nobody would call it a contract, and it would have been missed by a search of the contracts folder alone. And open quotes in row 4 are a separate question from standing prices: decide whether quotes already issued keep their price until they expire, and say so in the letter, because customers will ask.
A letter for a contract account
Tier A letters are the hardest, because the right message is partly "we are keeping our word". Illustrative output, trimmed, from the same prompt with the tier A facts:
Dear [first name], thank you for the call on Tuesday. As we discussed, your prices under our supply agreement hold until 31 December, and nothing changes for orders before then. From 1 January, new prices will apply under the renewal, with an average rise of 6 percent on your product mix. The main causes are freight and packaging, which have risen by about 12 and 8 percent since our last review. I would like to meet in October to go through the renewal, including an option to fix prices for a further six months in return for a forecast of your orders. [Name], [phone].
What you would check: the quote of "6 percent on your product mix" must come from that customer's own purchase history, not the company average. If the AI was given only the average, it will state the average, and the customer's own number could be higher.
Handling pre-buys and the weeks around the date
When customers learn of a rise, the sensible ones order ahead. That is not a problem unless you let it become one. Decide before sending the letter whether pre-buys at the old price are allowed, up to what quantity, and for delivery by when. A common rule is a cap at the customer's normal usage for the notice period plus a month, which stops a customer buying a year's stock. Illustrative sum: a regular account orders 200 units a month, the notice period is 30 days and the pre-buy cap is two months' normal usage, so 400 units at the old price at most, to be delivered by a stated date. Anything above it goes at the new price, and the letter or rep note says so plainly. Without a cap you can lose a quarter's margin on a single order, and your warehouse and your cash flow have to find the stock to deliver it.
Check also what happens to orders placed before the date but delivered after. Your terms may say the price at order, or the price at dispatch. Say which in the letter and make sure the order system does the same. The most common source of invoice disputes after a price rise is an order taken on the old price that is invoiced at the new one.
When a customer asks you to prove it
A large account's buyer may ask for the cost evidence. Decide in advance what you will share. Some suppliers show the freight and packaging invoices, others a summary of the changes. Do not hand over your whole cost sheet, which reveals your margin on every product. A short summary table, "freight per pallet: before, after, change", is usually enough. Ask the AI to turn your internal cost notes into a customer-safe summary and then check that no margin figure, supplier name or other customer's information has crept in. Anything you would not want a competitor to read does not go into a letter.
A calendar for the whole exercise
- Weeks 1 to 2: contract review, cost sums, margin decision, tiering.
- Week 3: draft the four letters and the rep note; the owner and sales lead check every figure.
- Week 4: phone tier A and B accounts; log reactions.
- Week 5: send C and D letters, with the price list attached; update the price list in your order system with a future effective date.
- Weeks 6 to 10: reps follow up on questions; a weekly look at orders by tier against the same weeks last year.
- Effective date: check that the first invoices carry the new prices, and spot-check ten.
Where your system allows it, load the new prices with an effective date, not by overwriting; that way pre-notice orders, pre-buys and quotes honoured at old prices work without a manual workaround.
Where a letter goes wrong: three illustrative cases
The wrong version to the wrong account. A manufacturer's mail merge sent the tier C letter to six contract customers whose prices were held until year end. Two replied citing their agreements. The fix was a "contract flag" column in the mail list, checked by a second person before sending, and a note to every affected customer the same day acknowledging the error and confirming the held price.
The figure that did not match. A letter stated an average rise of 6 percent while the attached list averaged 7.4, because the AI had been given the average of product groups rather than a volume-weighted one. Customers noticed. Give the AI the list and ask it to compute the average weighted by last year's volume, then say which method you used.
The late sales note. The reps heard about the rise from a customer. Send the rep note a week before the first letter, and hold a fifteen-minute call to go through it.
Checking whether it worked
Two months after the effective date, compare tiers with the same period last year: number of orders, average order value, revenue and gross margin per customer. Look for customers whose orders dropped by more than a quarter and ring them. Review the logged reactions for patterns, such as a product group where complaints cluster, which may mean that line's rise was too steep. Running a churn analysis with AI is useful if you have recurring accounts, and tracking supplier prices and lead times keeps the next review grounded in your own cost data. The next rise should be easier: you will have a contract table, a tiered list and a rep note ready, and the customers will have seen that the last one was explained honestly. If a worked example for a single trade or type of customer would help, the asphalt quotes and customer notices tutorial shows a trade version of the same approach.
Questions suppliers ask before sending a price rise
How much notice should a supplier give trade customers?
Whatever the contract says, as a minimum. Where nothing is written, longer notice builds goodwill: a sensible guide is about 30 days for small accounts and 60 to 90 days for larger ones, who need time to reprice their own goods. Check the terms of supply first and ask an adviser if a contract is unclear.
Should every customer get the same letter?
No. A fixed-price contract customer, a key account and a small occasional buyer need different wording, different notice and a different sender. Keep the facts identical across versions, because customers compare notes, and change only the tone, the notice and the offer.
Is it wise to say why prices are rising?
Yes, if the reason is true and checkable. Name the cost lines that moved and by roughly how much. Do not blame one cause when several apply, and do not promise there will be no further rises. If the real reason is margin recovery, say prices are being reviewed, not that costs spiked.
Can AI send the letters without a person reading them?
It should not. AI is good at drafting the versions and the rep notes, but a person must check every figure, name and date, and a sales rep should ring the top accounts before the letter arrives. A wrong price in a letter becomes a quoting argument you will lose.
Further reads
- Cleaning Company Price Increase Letter: Draft and Segment With AI — A service business's version, with tiers by contract type.
- Plumbing Price Increase Letter: Raise Call-Out and Hourly Rates Clearly — Rates and call-out charges explained plainly.
- AI Accounts Receivable: Predict Late Payers and Act Early — Watch which accounts pay late after a rise.
- How to Compare Supplier Quotes Side by Side With AI — Check your own suppliers' increases before passing them on.
- How to Automate Purchase Orders and Supplier Emails With AI — Update purchase orders once your costs are re-based.
- HVAC Price Increase Letter: Maintenance Plan Members and One-Off Customers — Handling members on fixed-price agreements.
- How to Use AI in a Bakery Business: Wholesale and Standing Orders — Wholesale bakery workflow: one standing-order sheet, a change form for cafés, AI that reads messy messages, and reminder texts that get answered.
- Paint Store Marketing: Colour Advice Posts and Trade Offers With AI — Colour-advice posts built from your own chart, a coverage sum, honest wording on photo matching and a trade-account email with the margin maths shown.
- Best AI Tool for Pricing Wholesale Goods: Chat Assistant or App? — Chat assistant plus a sheet, an inventory-system price list, or pricing software: the right pick depends mostly on how many SKUs you carry.
- AI Personalisation in B2B: Tailor Outreach to Each Trade Account — Personalise B2B trade outreach and quotes account by account using structured notes sheets and human-reviewed AI prompts to increase reply rates.
- Line Sheet Template: Turn a Product Export Into a Wholesale PDF With AI — Export your products, let AI add wholesale prices, MOQs and case packs in a sheet, then check the maths and produce a PDF buyers trust.
- Wholesale Nursery Availability List: AI Builds and Emails It Weekly — A weekly routine that turns a grower's stock sheet into a priced availability list, emails it to trade buyers and marks lines as sold.
- Supplier Price Increases: Update a Wholesale Price List With AI — A 5,000-line price list, one supplier increase and five checks that stop a wrong price reaching your trade customers.
- Tiered Wholesale Pricing: Set Tiers and Margin Floors With AI — Build trade, volume and key-account tiers with a margin floor, then back-test them on a year of orders so no big account is underpriced.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: your own terms of supply and customer contracts govern notice; no outside statistics are used. Figures in the examples are illustrative.