"Hmm... it's quite expensive."
Three words that make most business owners do one of two things: panic and discount, or write the prospect off as someone who can't afford it.
In my experience, neither response is usually right.
What buyers are often really saying is: "I'm not hearing enough value yet."
That doesn't mean your service lacks value. It often means you haven't communicated the value clearly enough for this particular buyer to confidently justify the investment.
I see this constantly with technical businesses, consultants and complex services. Logically minded people tend to explain what they deliver rather than why it matters. They describe the process, the deliverables, the methodology, the hours, the specification.
Meanwhile, the buyer is trying to answer a completely different set of questions:
"Will this actually solve my problem?"
"Will this reduce risk?"
"Can I trust these people?"
"Will this save me time, money or stress?"
"What happens if this goes wrong?"
The customer is trying to work out the value. But too often we make them do all the heavy lifting themselves. And that's where "it's expensive" starts creeping in.
A £5 bottle of water sounds ridiculous - until you're stranded in an airport at midnight.
An eye-watering consultancy fee sounds outrageous - until the consultant helps you avoid a £250k mistake.
Price is contextual. People don't buy based purely on logic. They buy based on perceived value compared to perceived cost, risk and effort.
That's why one client can hear your proposal and say "Wow, that's really good value" - while another hears the same number and immediately winces. The difference is rarely the maths alone. It's whether they clearly understand the outcome they're buying into.
One of the biggest messaging mistakes I see is businesses describing features and assuming the customer will automatically connect them to the outcome they care about. Sometimes they do. But often they don't.
For example, a consultant might say: "We provide monthly strategy workshops, KPI dashboards and CRM reporting."
That's clear. But it's a list of deliverables. The buyer now has to work out why those things matter, how they fit together, what business impact they'll have, and whether they justify the cost.
A stronger explanation might sound more like this: "We work with leadership teams to stop scattergun decision-making - giving them clear marketing priorities, measurable data and regular strategic reviews. That means fewer wasted activities, faster decisions and real confidence that the marketing budget is driving growth."
Now the buyer understands what happens, why it matters, and what changes as a result. The features haven't disappeared - they've become evidence supporting the outcome.
I had to learn this myself the hard way. When I first went out on my own, I was essentially operating as an outsourced marketing manager - and I described my work like one. Deliverables, hours, activities. What I wasn't doing was articulating the strategic outcomes I was creating. Now, when I talk about decision-making clarity, reduced marketing waste and long-term capability, the response is often: "Wow, that's really good value." The way I communicate what I do has transformed at least as much as the work itself.
Sometimes a pricing conversation reveals a genuine mismatch - and that's worth recognising early.
There's a real difference between:
"I didn't realise this kind of work cost that much" - which is often just a knowledge gap - and:
"Can you do the same amount of work for half the price?" - which can be a warning sign.
If a prospect fundamentally doesn't see the value in the kind of work you do, they're unlikely to become a good long-term client - for either of you. The goal isn't to convince everyone to buy. It's to communicate value clearly enough that the right buyers can make confident decisions.
Pause before you discount. Ask yourself honestly: have you clearly explained the outcome the buyer is buying into - not just the deliverables? Have you connected the dots between what you do and what changes for them?
The other option worth considering is offering less scope for less money. A smaller starting point lets prospective clients experience the value of what you do before committing to a larger investment. Often, once they've seen what good looks like, they come back for the bigger conversation anyway.
Because "it's expensive" is rarely a dead end. It's usually an invitation to make the value clearer - and that's a much more solvable problem than a buyer who simply can't afford you.
Start by shifting from describing what you do to explaining what changes for the client as a result. Instead of listing deliverables, connect each element of your work to a business outcome - saved time, reduced risk, faster decisions, fewer costly mistakes. The client shouldn't have to join the dots themselves. The clearer you make the outcome, the easier it is for them to justify the investment.
The most effective way to justify a price is to make the value of the outcome bigger than the cost of the investment. That means understanding what the problem is actually costing your client - in time, money, stress or missed opportunity - and being able to articulate clearly how your work addresses that. If you can show that your fee is small relative to the problem it solves, the price justifies itself.
Partly it's about articulating value more clearly - as this blog sets out. But it's also worth recognising that value itself is broader than most people think. People don't just buy outcomes. They buy trust, relationships and the feeling of working with someone who genuinely gets them. I'll go out of my way - and pay more - to buy a book from the lovely independent bookshop on my high street rather than ordering it from Amazon. The book is identical. But the experience, and what my purchase supports, isn't. The same principle applies to your business. If customers like you, trust you and believe in what you stand for, price becomes much less of a deciding factor.