Explaining Your Value Shrinks It

Imagine a coach named Julia Moreno who works with people who run their own companies. On a Tuesday in February, she has a first call with Dan Whitaker, who runs a design firm. Early in the call, Dan asks how her coaching works. Julia tells him about the 12 sessions over three months, the email support between sessions, and the workbook.

Near the end of the call, Dan asks what it costs. Julia has another client in 10 minutes, and she wants Dan to see all he would get. “It’s $4,000 for the three months,” she says. “That includes the 12 sessions, email support between sessions, and the workbook. I know that’s a lot, but most clients find it pays for itself.”

Dan says he will think about it. He does not call back, and in March he hires a coach a friend of his used.

Suppose instead that Julia says the price and when the work starts. “It’s $4,000 for the three months. We could start on the first of March.” Then she stops. After a few seconds, Dan asks whether the sessions are at his office or on video. Julia says they are on video, and Dan books the first session for March 1.

Julia offered the same coaching at the same price both times. In the first version, she repeated the list Dan heard 20 minutes before, and then she apologized for the price. Those sentences told Dan that she expected him to object. In the second version, the price came with a start date and nothing else. All Dan had to decide was whether he wanted the coaching.

So state your price, add one sentence about when the work starts, and wait for the client to speak. Here is why reasons after a price make it sound less sure, and what a photographer says to do instead. Then you will see why a discount offered into the pause goes wrong. You will also see why the doubt about a new price passes.

A client decides on a question they can answer

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, the psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes a habit of the mind he calls substitution. When a question is hard to answer, the mind often answers an easier one in its place. It does this without noticing the swap.

Here is the course’s view of how substitution works on a price. “Is this coaching worth $4,000?” is a hard question for Dan, because he cannot see Julia’s coaching before he pays for it. “Does Julia seem sure of her price?” is an easy one. So Dan answers the easy question, and the answer feels to him like an answer to the hard one.

A reason added after a price answers a doubt the client has not spoken. Each one tells the client that you expected the price to be challenged. “I know that’s a lot” goes further, because it is an apology for the price. So when Dan asks himself whether Julia is sure of $4,000, the answer he hears is no. That is how explaining your value shrinks it.

What the work includes goes before the price

Julia’s list of sessions did no harm early in the call. Dan asked how her coaching works, and the list helped him picture the three months. After the price, the same list sounded like a defense of $4,000.

So the course suggests describing what the work includes before you give the price, or when a client asks about it. After the price, add one sentence about when the work starts. That sentence moves the conversation to what happens next, instead of back to the price. For example, an event planner can say, “Planning the party is $8,000. I’d start with the venue visits the week after Labor Day.”

A photographer who once softened his rates says to state them “like it’s just the weather”

Don Giannatti is a photographer who mentors other photographers. In a post from April 2025, he describes the reflex of softening a price right after saying it. A photographer says the rate and then adds a phrase like “But I’m flexible” or “We can work something out.” Giannatti writes that he did this himself early in his career.

His warning is short. “Say it with apology, and they’ll ask for a discount.” His advice is to say it “like it’s just the weather,” as in “Today’s rate is $2,000 with licensing included.”

His rule for the moment after the rate is just as short: “After you state your rate, stop talking.” Often, he writes, “the client nods and says, ‘Okay, sounds good.’”

Giannatti also reports that the photographers he mentors who state their rates clearly land better clients. So give your price in the tone you would use to talk about the weather, and then stop.

A discount offered into the pause teaches the client to wait

Imagine a dog walker named Jonah Pike who is meeting a new client, Anya Brandt, at her front door. She wants a walk every weekday for her two dogs. Jonah has three more dogs to collect before noon. “It’s $900 a month,” he says.

Anya pauses to think. Jonah wants to fill the pause, so he adds, “But I could do $800 if that’s easier.” Anya takes the $800.

In January, Jonah’s rates go up, and Anya asks whether he can do better for her again. She learned at her front door that his first price comes down if she waits. Jonah has lost $100 a month, and every talk about price with Anya now starts lower.

In the version that works, Jonah says the price and when he could start. “It’s $900 a month, and I could start on Monday.” Then he bends down to pat the older dog and waits. After a few seconds, Anya asks whether he walks the two dogs together. Jonah says that he does, and Anya books him for Monday.

Anya’s pause was her thinking about the offer, not a no. So when the pause comes, let it run, and let the client be the next one to speak.

The doubt comes with a new price, and it passes

Saying a price and then stopping can be uncomfortable, most of all when the price is new to you. Rich Litvin, a coach, wrote that “almost every time I raised my fees I felt like a fraud.” He thought, “No one is going to pay me that.”

The thought lasted “Until the first person does.” Then he thought the first client was a fluke, until more clients paid. “And only then do I begin to own my new fee,” he wrote.

Litvin also gives two signs of a wrong fee. A fee is too low when “too many people pay it without questioning it.” It is too high when “too many people question it without paying it.” So one client’s pause tells you little on its own. A pattern of clients who question your price and do not pay it tells you more.

Expect the doubt the first few times you say a new price. Keep it out of the sentence you say after the price.

How to state your price and stop

1. Write down your price exactly as you say it now, including everything you add after the price.
2. Move any description of what the work includes to before the price. For example, a personal trainer can describe the three sessions a week and the check-in each Sunday, and then give the price.
3. Cross out everything after the price, and add one sentence about when the work starts. For example, a florist can write, “The flowers for the wedding are $11,500. I’d start with a visit to the venue in April.”
4. Say the new version aloud until it sounds like your own voice. Use the tone you would use to talk about the weather.
5. When you quote it, stop after the start sentence. Look at your notes or at the plan between you, and wait for the client to speak. Do not offer a lower price or an extra while you wait.
6. If the client asks a question, answer that question in a sentence or two, then stop again. For example, a private chef who is asked whether the price includes the wine can say, “No. I can choose the wine with you, and the wine shop bills you directly.”

Next: You will see why raising your price with nothing else changed tends to bring silence. You will also see what has to change with it.