Pick up the phone or send an email. State clearly that you need to cut the costs to a specific target. Ask if there is any specific path they can assist you with such as removing features or moving to an alternate plan. Say that you are doing this now with all vendors. Don’t threaten to leave, try to be collaborative and explain that you are doing this to be able to maintain the service in the short term and long term. If they push back hard ask what they want in order to make concessions. The truth is many of your vendors will be fielding these types of requests while at the same time seeing a ton of cancellations and customers going out of business. They may view it as better to cut your bill and thereby preserve the revenue they collect that watch your account go to $0.
For large dollar value contracts you usually have an account rep/point of contact you can get on the phone.
You can explain to your rep what you are dealing with, what your budget is, and make a concrete ask. I get the sense that the larger of a customer you are for someone, the more willing they are to work with you.
I second the concrete ask. Be specific about what you need and ask how to get there. Explaining why helps the rep feel empathy and also be creative. Ultimately they want to preserve revenue too.
Maybe I can offer an experience that made me 'see the light' (well, some light) accidentally on how sales (re)negotiations work. I'm going to be vague because this is going to make me seem petty.
I had a colleague once who was an 'office rival', you know the type of person you can't stand and are always one-upping (told you this was going to be petty, but in my defense, he started it). So one day we were moving offices and we needed something for the new office. (Sane companies would have had one person doing this but let's say we were a caricature of 'scrappy startup where everybody wears every hat'). There was one item that is basically like a 'staple' for office furnishing - let's say it was perfectly standardized desks. Or plants to put in the hallways, something even more mundane than desks.
Anyway this other guy had me beat on price from every supplier (everyone in the office was basically one-upping everyone else on how cheap they could get things, to the point where I spend days making my own cat5 cables). But I got the same quotes (within a few percent) from at least 5 suppliers, using just the standard 'what's your best price' beginner negotiation playbook. After that I thought screw this, I'll just lay it out. (let's say this general price was I got around 12k, and the 'other guy' got it for 11k).
So I went to a 6th supplier, let them do their sales spiel in their showroom, and said (pretty much as blunt as I put it here) "Listen, you probably have a great product but I don't care, I'm buying on price. Everyone else like supplier X, Y and Z have given me these and these prices" (I showed him the offers I got). "There is another guy at my office who got prices around 11k. I want to beat this other guy, and you want to sell. The only way you will sell to me is if you can come in with a price below 10k. Let's not do a sales dance here. Can you do this?".
The guy got a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look, went "to the office to discuss with his boss" (like a car salesman but this time for real I guess) and then came back with a price a hair under 10k.
I got my petty win, then a few months later the company almost went under and the guy who gave me the deep discount called me daily for a month when he was going to be paid until a miracle happened and he got his money, but that's another story.
Anyway, what I took away from this (this was before I had had any sales training or really thought about sales) was that usually, the key to a (hard) discount is to convince the other party that it's better for them to take a smaller profit than no profit at all. And also, that it's better to make it seem that you are not the decision maker or that there is some sort of external price anchor. Not saying this is always the best global strategy; personally I value lasting relationships with good personal rapport over squeezing out every last penny, but in crisis mode it's sometimes just necessary.
I was going to quote Burroughs' characterization of Hauser and O'Brien from Naked Lunch. So anyway, here's what he said about them:
> O'Brien was the con man, and Hauser the tough guy. A vaudeville team. Hauser had a way of hitting you before he said anything just to break the ice. Then O'Brien [is friendly and encourages cooperation].
How does renegotiating a contract look like? I'm picturing a meeting where people haggle over the new price, but that doesn't sound right.