Lower the Client's Risk Instead of Your Price

Imagine a travel adviser named Solveig who is planning three weeks in Japan for Mrs. Okafor, her husband, and their three teenagers. At the end of their first call, Solveig quotes her planning fee, $6,500. Mrs. Okafor says that it is more than she expected.

Solveig has another call in five minutes. “I could take $1,000 off,” she says, “since it’s your first trip with me.” Mrs. Okafor thanks her and says she will think about it. She does not call back.

The next day, Mrs. Okafor has the same conversation with a second adviser, Tomas, whose fee is $7,000. She tells Tomas that the fee is more than she expected. He asks, “Is it the fee itself, or is it whether the trip will come out the way you want?”

Mrs. Okafor tells him that she paid an adviser for a trip to Italy two years ago. What she got was a list of hotels she could have found herself, and the teenagers were bored by the third day.

Tomas tells her that he planned three weeks in Japan for a family with teenagers last spring. He offers to ask that family whether she can call them. Then he tells her what the fee covers. It covers about 40 hours of planning and every booking made in her name. It also covers a phone number that answers while she is away.

Mrs. Okafor calls the family that week. She books Tomas at $7,000.

Solveig’s $1,000 does nothing about the Italy trip. Mrs. Okafor is weighing whether she will pay for a second trip that does not fit her family. A lower fee does not make the trip fit better. Tomas finds out what she is weighing and gives her a way to check it.

So when a client pauses at your price, find out what they are weighing, and lower that. Leave the price where it is.

A client pays for a service before anyone can see how it turns out

In 1988, Christopher Hart pointed out in the Harvard Business Review that a car or a camera comes with a warranty. Then he asked how often anyone receives a warranty for “auto repair, wedding photography, or a catered dinner.” His answer was “Virtually never,” and he added that buying a service is where a guarantee “would presumably count most.”

Here is what that means for a client who pauses at your price. The client will pay you before the work exists, and nothing promises them that the work will turn out well. So the client carries the whole risk, and the pause is often the client weighing that risk.

It helps to think of that risk as two questions the client is asking themselves. The first is whether the result will be what they want. The second is what a poor result would cost them, in money, in time, or in a day they cannot do over.

A lower price answers neither question. The trip is no more likely to fit the family at $5,500 than at $6,500. A poor trip costs the family the same three weeks either way.

A design coach says a quick discount makes the client doubt the figures

Andrew Mitchell runs a design studio in Melbourne and coaches other interior designers on running a business. In an article on discounting, he describes what a quick discount tells a client. “If the client can push back once and immediately get a better price,” he writes, “it raises the question of whether the figures were ever properly considered in the first place.”

He also writes that a request for a discount is often not about the price at all. “Sometimes the issue isn’t really price, it’s a lack of understanding around what sits behind the fee.” For that client, he suggests explaining how you work and showing examples of what you deliver. He also suggests being open about how you arrived at the fee.

So when a client pauses, give them what sits behind the fee. Tomas gives Mrs. Okafor the 40 hours, the bookings in her name, and the phone number that answers. The fee has something behind it, and it has not moved.

A designer who gave friends a discount found they asked for more

Melinda Trembly is an interior designer in Carpinteria, California. In 2023, Business of Home asked four designers how they react when a client questions their price. Trembly said that some clients come to her as friends of friends. She has offered those clients a friends and family discount.

“What I have learned, however,” she said, “is that when I discount my work, in their mind I discount what I do, and that tends to lead to discussions on further negotiating discounts or purchasing.”

In her account, the discount does not settle the client’s doubt. It starts the next negotiation. So expect a client who gets a discount in the pause to ask again at the next invoice.

Wealthy shoppers put a guarantee second on their list

For its 2019 report, the Luxury Institute asked 3,926 well-off shoppers in seven countries what makes them buy from a luxury brand. Excellent service came first. A lifetime guarantee came second, named by 44% of them. Free repairs and alterations came third, and a recommendation from a friend or relative came fourth. A policy for returns, refunds, and exchanges came fifth.

Three of the five, the guarantee, the repairs, and the returns policy, are promises about what happens if something goes wrong. Those shoppers were buying products, and a guarantee on a product is easy to give. A service comes with no warranty, as Hart points out. So a promise about a poor result is rarer, and it counts for more.

So the second way to lower a client’s risk is a promise about what happens if the work falls short. It can be a cap on what the work can cost. It can also be a guarantee of what you will do if the result is not what you agreed.

A designer’s client offered to pay more for a cap on the hours

Christine Vroom is an interior designer in Palos Verdes Estates, California. In the same Business of Home article, she described her fees. She estimates the hours a job will take, and her hourly rate starts once those hours are spent.

One client worried about going past the estimate. The client did not ask for a lower rate. In Vroom’s words, the client “wanted to negotiate a slightly higher rate to cover any overage in hours,” because “they didn’t want a false estimate with a high, unexpected ticket at the end.”

The two of them agreed on a final rate “including a ‘do not exceed’ that would protect us both.”

Vroom’s client was weighing the second question, what the job could end up costing. The client was willing to pay more for an answer. A cap answered it. So when a client’s worry is the bill at the end, offer a cap you can keep, and put it in writing.

A photographer calls the price the last lever to adjust

Walid Azami is a photographer who teaches other photographers how to price their work. In a post on his Substack, he describes a photographer who books one or two of every 10 meetings with potential clients. His advice is to leave the rate alone. “Instead of changing your rate,” he writes, “let’s adjust your value.”

The adjustments he lists are all to what a client sees before deciding. They include the number of images in a gallery and their order, the About page, and how fast the photographer answers email. “Reaching for the price tag is a photographer’s first reaction,” he writes, “but it should be the last lever to adjust (unless you’re raising the fee).”

Azami is writing about a photographer whose clients keep saying no. The order is the same when one client pauses. Before you touch the price, look at what the client can check before they decide.

A real limit is proof the client can check

Proof does not have to be a phone call. A limit on how many clients you take, stated with its reason, tells a client that other people have already chosen you. Suppose a photographer takes 24 weddings a year and has 20 of them booked. She is telling a couple that 20 other couples decided before them, and the couple can check that against her calendar.

The limit has to be true, and it has to be one you already have. A client who finds out that a limit was made up has no reason to believe the rest of what you said.

Why a cap you cannot keep goes wrong

Imagine a wedding florist named Marisol who quotes $11,000 for a wedding in October. The bride, Ms. Delacroix, says it is more than she had planned to spend on flowers. Marisol has read that a cap lowers a client’s risk. “Then let’s cap it at $11,000,” she says, “whatever happens with the flowers.” She has not yet priced the garden roses Ms. Delacroix wants, and she does not write the cap down.

In September, the roses come in at nearly twice what Marisol expected. She can take the loss, or she can send a bill for $12,400 and explain. She sends the bill.

Ms. Delacroix pays it. At the wedding, two of her friends ask who did the flowers. She tells them about the cap that was not a cap. Neither of them calls Marisol.

Marisol offered the cap to end an awkward moment. A cap lowers a client’s risk only when you can keep it. A client can rely on it only when it is in writing. So before you offer a cap, price the parts you cannot control. Then write the cap into the proposal.

Keeping your price is not stubbornness

Holding a price while a client hesitates can feel like losing a client over pride. It can also feel unkind, when one sentence would ease the moment.

Tomas does not hold his price in silence. He asks Mrs. Okafor what gives her pause, and he answers that. His price stays where it is because the price was never what she was weighing.

You can still lower a figure on purpose. Katharine Rhudy is a designer in New Orleans. She told Business of Home that early in her career a young financier and his wife asked to negotiate her fees. She made “a slight adjustment to my markup,” and she went on to design their main residence and two vacation homes. “Since that time,” she said, “I have never negotiated pricing.”

Rhudy’s adjustment was small, and she made it once. Mitchell writes that a discount “should be a considered decision rather than a panicked response to pressure.” So if you ever lower a figure, decide it before the conversation, for a reason you can say aloud. Do not decide it in the pause after the price.

How to lower a client’s risk and keep your price

When a client pauses after you say your price, let the pause run. The client may be thinking, and a sentence from you answers a worry they may not have.
A client may say the price is more than they expected, or ask whether it is negotiable. Before you answer, ask what gives them pause. For example, a caterer can say, “Is it the fee itself, or is it whether the evening will go the way you want it to?”
When the client is unsure about the result, offer proof they can check. Name a past client who has given permission to be called, and offer to put the two in touch. Then say what sits behind the fee, in the stages of the work. For example, an executive coach can say, “The fee covers 12 sessions, a call before each board meeting, and my notes on every paper you send me.”
When the client is worried about what the work could end up costing, offer a cap or a guarantee you can keep. Price the parts you cannot control first, and then write the promise into the proposal. For example, a private chef can write, “The fee for the evening is $2,400 for 12 guests, and it includes the shopping. If the shopping runs over, that is mine to cover.”
If you take a limited number of clients, say the limit with its reason, and say how many places are taken. For example, an event planner can say, “I plan 10 weddings a year so that I am at every one of them, and seven of next year’s are booked.”
Leave the price where it is. If you decide to move a figure, decide before the conversation, for a reason you can say aloud, and say the reason.

Next: You will see why wealthy clients worry quietly about choosing wrong, and why they keep the professional who removes that worry.