Saying the number without flinching
Say it early, then stop talking. When they say expensive, find out which of three things they mean, and reduce scope rather than price.
Most people who sell their own work are uncomfortable talking about money, and the discomfort shows in predictable ways: the price arrives at the end, apologetically, with a discount offered before anybody asked.
Say the number early
Counter to instinct and it is the single thing that improves these conversations most. Mentioning a range in the first conversation does two useful things: it ends the ones that were never going to happen, and it means the proposal confirms rather than reveals.
The sentence is ordinary. Projects like this usually run between X and Y, depending on how much of the second part you need. Does that fit what you had in mind. Then stop talking, and let them answer.
The fear is that the number scares them off. Sometimes it does, and those were conversations that would have ended later having cost you three more hours.
What to do when they say it is too expensive
First, find out which of the three things they mean, because they are different problems with different answers.
- It is more than I have. A budget fact. The answer is a smaller scope, not a smaller price for the same scope.
- It is more than I expected. An anchoring problem. They are comparing against something, and the useful question is what.
- I am not convinced it is worth that. A value problem, and the only one that is actually about your price. The answer is the cost of the problem, not a reduction.
Asking which one is as simple as: when you say expensive, is that against a budget you have, or against what you expected it to cost. Most people answer honestly.
Discounts that are not damaging
Some are defensible, and the test is whether you are getting something in return.
- Payment in advance, which is worth real money in cash flow.
- A longer commitment, which reduces your own selling time.
- Work you genuinely want, where flexibility on timing is worth something to you.
- A first engagement at a smaller scope, which is not a discount but a different product.
What is not defensible: a reduction because the conversation went quiet, because the client asked twice, or because you were nervous. Those teach the buyer that your prices are a starting position.
The silence after the number
Say the price and stop. The urge to keep speaking, to justify, to add a caveat, is almost irresistible and it undoes the number. Pause for as long as it takes, including when it becomes uncomfortable. The next person to speak should be them.
Practise it out loud before the call if you have to. Saying your own price without flinching is a skill, it is learnable, and it is worth more to a small business than any negotiation technique.
When they want a number before you know the scope
Give a range and say what moves it. Refusing to indicate anything reads as evasion and costs you the conversation; a precise quote before you understand the work costs you the project. A range with two named variables is honest and sufficient.
Raising prices with people who already pay you
The conversation most often avoided, usually for years, until the gap between what new clients pay and what long-standing ones pay becomes embarrassing.
- Give notice rather than announcing a change. A date a couple of months out lets somebody plan, and planning is what they actually want.
- Say it in one line without a justification essay. Rates are going to X from March. Long explanations invite negotiation of the reasons rather than acceptance of the price.
- Expect to lose one or two, and work out in advance which you can afford to lose. Usually the ones who leave are the ones who were least profitable.
- Do not offer the old rate to anybody who pushes back, unless you are prepared to offer it to everybody, because they talk to each other.
- Raise it for new clients first, immediately. That way the increase for existing ones is a correction towards your actual price rather than an invention.
The error almost everybody makes is waiting until they are resentful. A price raised out of resentment is raised too far, delivered badly, and the conversation goes worse than it needed to.
Work to do
- Compare what a new client pays with what your longest-standing one pays. If the gap is large, that is the work.
- Write your range and the sentence you will use to say it, then say it out loud until it sounds ordinary.
- Next time you hear expensive, ask which of the three things they mean before responding.
- Write down what you will accept in exchange for a discount, so the answer exists before the pressure does.