"Your Price Is Too High": What to Say Next

Every service business hears it. The instinct is to either drop the price at once or start justifying it. Both make the position weaker.

What the sentence usually means

Rarely "I cannot afford this". Much more often one of:

• Higher than I expected, and I do not know why
• Higher than someone else quoted, and the quotes look the same to me
• I am testing whether this is your real price
• I want it but I need to feel I negotiated

Four different problems. Only one of them is about money, and a discount only answers that one.

Ask before you answer

"Compared to what?" is a complete, polite response.

The answer tells you which of the four you are dealing with. If it is another quotation, you can look at what is actually in it. Very often the cheaper one excludes something yours includes, and neither of you had noticed.

If you do move, get something back

A price that falls because somebody asked teaches them it was never real. If the price changes, the deal should change with it: a larger advance, a longer commitment, a reduced scope, a flexible timeline.

"I can do that number if we move to 50% advance" is a negotiation. "Alright, I will do it" is a lesson.

And be willing to lose it

Some customers will only ever buy on price. Those jobs are usually the ones that also want the most attention, argue about scope and pay slowest.

Losing one of those is not a failed sale. It is a week you get back.