Say Your Price Again When a Client Hesitates

Imagine a personal stylist named Saskia Moreau who meets Mrs. Halloran at her house in January. Mrs. Halloran’s daughter is getting married in June. There is a dinner the night before, the wedding itself, and a brunch the morning after. Mrs. Halloran has bought her own clothes all her life, and she wants three outfits she will not have to think about.

Saskia has looked through the closet and listened for an hour. “For the three outfits, the shopping, and the fittings, it’s $4,800,” she says. “The clothes are on top of that.” Mrs. Halloran looks at the sketches on the bed. “Four thousand eight hundred,” she says. “For three outfits.”

Saskia has a fitting at three, and she hears a no coming. “I know it’s a lot,” she says. “Since it’s one occasion, I could do it for $4,000.” Mrs. Halloran says that is kind of her, and that she will talk it over with her husband. A week later, she writes that she will shop with her sister instead.

Suppose instead that Saskia hears a big decision in the repeated number, not a no. “It’s a big decision, especially the first time,” she says. “It’s $4,800 for the three outfits, the shopping, and the fittings.” Then she stops, with her eyes on the sketches.

Mrs. Halloran is quiet for a moment, and she does not go on. “What gives you pause?” Saskia asks. “I’ve never paid anyone to dress me,” Mrs. Halloran says. “But I’ve never been the mother of the bride, either.” She asks whether the first fitting could be in March. Saskia offers the 10th, and Mrs. Halloran books it.

Saskia offered the same work at the same price both times. In the first version, the discount answered a question Mrs. Halloran did not ask. She did not say that the price was too high. She said the number back, because she had never bought help like this before. The $800 off left that decision just as large, and it told her that Saskia’s first price had been soft.

In the second version, Saskia agreed that the decision was big and showed that the price was settled. Then she asked what gave Mrs. Halloran pause. All that was left was whether Mrs. Halloran wanted the help, and she did. So when a client hesitates at your price, say that it is a big decision. Say the price again, and leave the discount out. Here is why each part works.

A client can afford the price and still hesitate at the decision

A client who goes quiet after your price is thinking it over, and the quiet is theirs to use. Some clients say something instead. They repeat the number, or they say that it is more than they expected. That spoken hesitation is often about the size of the choice. A client who has the money can still hesitate when they have not bought this kind of help before. Mrs. Halloran could pay $4,800, but she had never paid anyone to dress her.

The three moves below are the course’s suggestion, and each one has its reason.

Say that it is a big decision. Say it in one sentence, about the decision and not the price. “It’s a big decision” tells the client that they are right to take it seriously, and that their pause does not worry you. “I know it’s a lot” sounds close, but it agrees that the price is too high. It is an apology for the price, and a client who hears it starts to wonder what the price should have been.

Say the price again, in the same words. Use the same number for the same work, and let your voice go down at the end. Then stop. A client who says the number back may be checking whether it is the real price. A price that comes back unchanged tells them that it is. New words, even kind ones, tell them it can move.

Leave the discount out. A discount at the first pause answers the money, and the money may not be what the client was weighing. It also tells them that your first price had room in it. If you ever lower a figure, decide it before the conversation, for a reason you can say aloud.

After the three moves, let the quiet run. If the client does not go on, ask what gives them pause. What they say tells you what they are weighing. A worry about the result is answered by lowering the risk instead of the price. A price they paid before is a concern the two of you can look at together. A question about why it costs that is answered with one fact about the work.

A Chicago designer’s discount was still too much for the client

Joy Williams is an interior designer in Chicago who worked as a lawyer for about two decades first. In 2022, she told Business of Home’s 50 States Project how she learned to charge for her work. Early on, a project came up for a client whose own clientele, Williams thought, could bring her some publicity. So she tried to give the client a discount.

She cut the price so far that “I was just charging her to get the job done,” she said, “and even that was too much for her.”

“That really set my mind to never giving away my services again,” Williams said. Later, she “got comfortable saying, ‘This is the fee.’”

Her answer to a budget that will not stretch is different from a discount. One prospective client with a new five-bedroom house wrote $20,000 to $30,000 on Williams’s questionnaire as the budget for the whole house. Williams told her, “Your budget is probably enough for one room.” She explains to prospects how she charges and why their budget might not work. “I don’t dismiss people, because their budget is their budget,” she said.

Williams’s discount was aimed at the money, and the gap was bigger than any discount she could give. So the discount bought her nothing. Now she says the fee. When a budget will not cover the work, she says what it would cover. That is less work, not the same work for less. Do the same, and leave the price where it is.

A photographer says any discount means the first price was too high

Karel Donk is a photographer in Paramaribo, Suriname, who also works as a software engineer and designer. In 2015, he wrote an essay for PetaPixel about clients who haggle. In it, he asks what a discount tells a client. His example is a photographer who quotes $1,500 and ends up charging $1,000.

“Even if you’re able to give a discount of just $100,” he writes, “it means you were essentially overcharging them by $100.” The only other explanation, he writes, is that the photographer is working at a loss. “I’ve given clients ‘discounts’ in the past, but it always meant that I was doing part of the work for them at my own expense.”

Donk’s answer is a policy of not negotiating his prices at all. “It’s take it or leave it,” he writes.

His reasoning about the discount holds. A price that drops at the first pause was either too high before or too low after. The client cannot tell which. His tone is another matter. “Take it or leave it” ignores how big the decision is for the client. Saying “It’s a big decision” takes care of that. So keep his reasoning, and say the price the way Saskia did, with the decision named first.

A Los Angeles designer handles price questions with grace and patience

In 2020, Business of Home asked eight designers what they do when clients question their pricing. Joyce Downing Pickens, a designer in Los Angeles, said that the conversations can be frustrating. Even so, “they must be handled with grace and patience.”

For the most part, she said, people “just want to know where their money is going.” Then she named the exception: “There are some people who just don’t value you and never will, and you may have to walk away.”

Pickens gives the manner and the limit. The manner is grace and patience. In the three moves, that means one kind sentence, the same price, and time for the client to think. The limit is the client who will never think your price is fair. Let that client go, and do not hand them a discount on the way out.

Why making the price sound smaller goes wrong

Imagine an event planner named Theo Lindqvist who meets Mrs. Abernethy about her husband’s 60th birthday. She wants a dinner for 120 guests in a tent on their lawn in September. Theo’s fee for the planning is $14,000. Mrs. Abernethy says, “Fourteen thousand, just to plan it?”

Theo knows not to offer a discount. He has a call at five, so he makes the price sound smaller instead. “It’s a big decision,” he says. “But it works out to less than $120 a guest.”

Two weeks later, Mrs. Abernethy writes that they have cut the list to 80 guests. She asks whether the fee comes down to $9,600. Theo writes back that the fee is for the planning, however many guests come. “You said it was $120 a guest,” she replies. She books a planner whose fee is $12,000.

Theo named the size of the decision, and he did not offer a discount. His mistake was saying the price again in different terms. Once he split it by the guest, his flat fee became a sum. Mrs. Abernethy did the sum again with fewer guests. The price moved in her head, even though Theo never moved it.

The version that works says the same price in the same words. “It’s a big decision,” Theo says. “The fee is $14,000 for the planning, from now to the night.” Then he stops. Mrs. Abernethy asks whether that includes finding the tent. Theo says that it does, and she books the first visit to the lawn for the next week.

Saying the same price twice is not being stubborn

When a client hesitates, a discount can feel like the kind response. Saying the same price again can feel stubborn, and it can feel like the quickest way to lose the client.

The kindness in the conversation is the first sentence, not the discount. “It’s a big decision” tells the client that you see what you are asking of them. Williams does not dismiss a client whose budget is small, and she still says her fee. Donk’s “take it or leave it” is what a held price sounds like without that first sentence.

The discount does not keep the client either. Saskia’s $800 off did not keep Mrs. Halloran, and Williams’s discount was still too much for her client. A client who is weighing the size of a decision is still weighing it after the discount.

How to answer a client who hesitates at your price

1. Before your next meeting, write your price as one sentence, with the number and the work it covers. That is the sentence you will say twice. For example, a coach writes, “It’s $9,000 for six months, with a session every week.”
2. When a client repeats your price or says it is more than they expected, say first that it is a big decision. For example, a dog walker can say, “It’s a big decision, trusting someone with Biscuit every day.” Do not say “I know it’s a lot,” which apologizes for the price.
3. Then say your price again, in the same words, with your voice going down at the end. For example, the dog walker can say, “It’s $1,100 a month, for a walk every weekday.” Use the same number and the same unit, and do not split it by the day or the session.
4. Stop, and let the quiet run. Leave out any discount, any cheaper option, and any word such as “flexible.” If the client does not go on, ask what gives them pause. For example, the dog walker can ask, “What gives you pause?”
5. If the answer is a worry about the result, lower the risk instead of the price. For example, a private chef whose client asks, “And if the children won’t eat it?” can offer to change any dish the family sends back in the first month.
6. If the client’s budget will not cover the work, say what it would cover. For example, a tutor can say, “For $1,500, I could see him every other week until the exam, not twice a week.”

Next: You will see what to say when a client tells you they can get the same work cheaper.