The average person has some reasonable concerns the first time they come in contact with you in a business setting.

They don’t know who you are, they usually haven’t heard about your product or service, and so it doesn’t help that you’re immediately trying to convince them that yours is the latest and greatest they should buy.

If you look at things from this angle, then it become acutely obvious why they will have issues with your pricing.

Price is a proxy for value so off course they will become uncertain. That’s the heuristic they’ll use subconsciously to gauge the amount of “value” in a buying situation.

This is one of the most common objections EVERY business owner and self employed person will get.

An objection is a reason or concern that the customer will give for why they are not ready to go ahead now, or why they shouldn’t go with you.

Very few customers are going to approach you and say that you didn’t get the business because your price was too low! It does happen! But we can explore those scenarios at a later date.

So in the midst of all these insecurities concerning who you are, how capable your product or service is, and the cost of what you have put on the table, doing business with you has now become a risky proposition!

Given that we are all going to hear “your price is too high” or “that’s really expensive” at some point in our lives, it’d be a good idea to brainstorm and think about possible ways of dealing with this concern.

If we know that some of our prospective customers are going to think it, we should come up with a framework for addressing those concerns beforehand.

The worst time to think of an answer to a problem is when you have a potential customer or a paying client on hand.

We want the buying experience, customer interation and the process with us to be seamless and professional... and it’s not professional to watch someone fumble through a response.

There are a multitude of ways you can drive the conversation when someone hits you with the “your price is too high” concern.

But no matter which way you choose to respond, there’s one thing they all have in common.

All ways of responding agree that it’s a bad idea to start arguing about why yours is the best price and the greatest and most valuable on the market.

If someone is convinced that your price is too high, it’s not your argument that is going to change that... and most likely they have some concerns that are behind the statement.

So instead of trying to argue your case, why not ask questions to figure out the chief concerns and the real reasons the person has? At least from that point if you’re trying to argue something, you’ll know for sure what you’re arguing against.

If they say your price is too high, then empathize and ask them a question in return!

“My sister everything is expensive these days! But when you say my price is too high, you mean compared to what?”

A question like this will get you some information on other alternatives the customer has been looking at. With this info you’ll be able to make a case by case comparison on which is better and why, and maybe possibly educate them on things they are missing out.

You could also educate and “re qualify” the potential customer.

Qualification is the process of asking questions to be sure that you’re speaking to the right customer in the first place.

You want to be sure that the person you’re talking to has a want or need that you, your product or service can fulfill.

We also want to be sure that they have a reasonable time frame for taking action, and that you guys are mostly in agreement when it comes to money and other expectations.

That is a “qualified” customer and the best person to be having conversations with. If you don’t figure this out, the chances are you’re wasting your time.

If you’re trying to sell air conditioning to Bill Gates but he says there’s no need for that in his winter mansion, then you’re wasting your time. He has the money and can afford it, but he doesn’t think there’s a need for it.

Only talk to qualified customers!

Now back to pricing concerns!

Sometimes when someone says “your price is too high” it’s because you weren’t speaking to a qualified client in the first place. You probably don’t have someone who has realistic expectations on what the market for your product or service is.

In this case, education would be giving them a price range and a brief tour of what’s available in the market. After that you follow up with a question to gauge what their comfort level is with all this new information.

You might say...

“In the market for XYZ you can expect to get anything between 1M and 2.5M depending on whether you’re looking for features ABC. So what exactly are you looking for? And which price range are you comfortable with?”

If you didn’t do a good job of qualifying them before, then this will give you an opportunity to start figuring out exactly what they need, and what a realistic budget should be.

In cases like this, it would be okay to send them back into the market to do some research for themselves, and then you guys can talk again at a later date.

Some folks have even proposed that when someone says “the price is too high”, what is at stake is a confidence issue! They don’t have confidence in you, or the product or service.

In that case you can ask the question...

“Is the price too high, or your not confident that I can deliver on everything we’ve discussed?”

This is a useful question because it’s helpful to get to the root of what they feel insecure about with you or your product or service offering. If you don’t know what the issues are, you can’t address them.

It’s possible they feel insecure because you’re too young and inexperienced.

Knowing this will allow you to argue that even though you’re only 3 years in the filed, you have a roster of 50 happy clients behind you who would be willing to give a testimonial.

You could also try to persuade them that your installation guys or field hands have over 15 years experience, or that you only work with materials of XYZ quality.

These could be ways to bolster your credibility, show come competence, and justify your original asking price.

When someone says “the price is too high”, the reason why you shouldn’t start arguing is because this is a complicated issue and they might be crying foul for any number of reasons which you don’t know right now.

You are better off trying to calm the situation down, ask a couple of questions to get to the root of their concerns, and make your best replies against what’s really going in their minds.

So the next time someone says “that’s so expensive!” Don’t get defensive and start justifying yourself.

Ask them questions and figure out where they’re really coming from.

If you know where they’re coming from, you’ll know where to lead the conversation to.

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