What to say when they ask why it costs that

The price question is not really a question. It is a test of whether you believe your own number. You will fail it every time if you are working it out live on the phone, and you will pass it every time if you wrote the answer down before you dialed.

Never raise it before they do

The most common way people talk themselves into a discount is bringing up the price defensively when the customer had not questioned it. If they have not asked, you do not answer.

Say the line, then stop talking

Whatever your version is, it should be one sentence, and then silence. The silence is the part that works. Filling it is what turns a price into a negotiation.

That is the whole thing. No apology in front of it, no justification behind it. It works because it is true and because it reframes the question from "why so much" to "what am I actually getting."

Find their number before you say yours

The right anchor is never what the thing "should" cost. It is what they already spend on the same problem. A business paying two hundred a month to a listing site has already told you their number, and it is not the number you were about to nervously discount to.

Never go below the floor

Pick a floor and treat it as arithmetic, not confidence. If somebody cannot pay the floor, the ongoing work is not there either, and a cheap tier does not win you a customer, it wins you the customer who will take the most time and pay the least. Discounting down is how you fill a calendar with work you resent.

Always pair the build with a monthly

The one-time fee is the door. The monthly is the business. A price sheet with only one-time numbers on it is a job, and you will have to find a new customer every single month forever.

Rehearse it out loud once

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