A request for a lower price is clear. The reason behind it may be considerably less so.

The quotation has been discussed, the technical scope is understood, and the customer finally comes back with a response.

“You’re too expensive.”

At least this seems straightforward.

Unlike silence, a vague hesitation or an unexpected change in behaviour, price appears to give you something concrete to work with. The customer has named the problem. The natural next step is to discuss the number.

The same objection, different situations

Imagine two customers asking for a ten percent reduction.

The first has compared several technically equivalent offers and is now negotiating the final commercial terms. They know what they want, the scope is settled and purchasing has been given a clear target. Price may genuinely be the remaining issue.

The second customer asks for the same reduction, but the situation around the request looks very different. Technical questions are still unresolved. Operations has concerns about implementation. The person you are speaking to cannot explain what budget is actually available, and there is still no clear agreement internally on what should be purchased.

Both conversations contain the sentence: “You’re too expensive.” Only one may primarily be about price.

Price is sometimes where friction becomes visible

Price has an unusual role in sales conversations because it is easy to express.

It is much simpler to say that something costs too much than to explain that the organization is uncertain about the risk of changing supplier, that the project has lost internal support, or that different stakeholders still disagree about what they actually need.

That does not mean a price objection is secretly something else, but the number alone does not tell you which situation you are dealing with.

Who raised the objection? When did it appear? Was price discussed earlier? Has the scope changed? Is there a concrete number attached to the objection, or only a general request to “do something”? Those surrounding pieces matter.

Before changing the number

A discount can solve a price problem, but it does remarkably little for an unresolved technical concern, unclear ownership, implementation risk or internal disagreement. That is why the moment before responding can be more valuable than the response itself.

Not because every price objection requires a sophisticated interrogation, but because changing the commercial offer before understanding the friction can leave the underlying issue exactly where it was.

And occasionally, the customer will happily accept the lower price while the real obstacle remains untouched.

Price deserves to be taken seriously. It just does not always deserve to be taken literally as the entire explanation. The objection tells you where the customer has chosen to express the friction. The pieces around it help you understand what that friction may actually consist of.

From the book

Price, value and the friction that can surface around commercial decisions are explored in more depth in Chapters 6 and 11 of Sales Between the Lines, including how timing, stakeholders and the wider context can change what a price discussion actually means.