Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

Imagine this:

You’ve made an offer to a potential client. Hopped on a sales call with them, they absolutely love the sound of the offer. Everything goes well.

But then they ask you “So how much does it cost?” You share your rate.

And their smile fades.

They aren’t happy with the price and make an objection?

What will you do?

How will you handle it?

If you said “Negotiate my prices” you just made the biggest mistake most people make and something you should never do.

Big mistake.

Always remember the golden rule: NEVER lower your prices. (or make it seem as if you’re open to negotiate)

I can’t tell you how important this is. Lowering your prices shows you that 1) everything you offer is negotiable (it isn’t) and 2) you don’t value your own stuff (you should).

Lowering your prices is the fastest way to become a commodity. To become the same as everyone else to the point where you’ll have to compete on price instead of value.

So what should you do instead?

Well, you’ve got 2 options—assuming you want to still think the prospect can make for a high-quality client, if not, just drop it.

Option 1) Adding value

This first option requires that you do some work upfront.

More specifically, you have to think about things you could do to make your offer more valuable. Or create products, tools, templates, or other stuff that complements your stuff and increases the value as well.

Now when a prospect has price objections. You can offer an additional services or an extra tool/product on top of what they were already getting. This will increase the perceived value the prospect has about the offer. And when that perceived value is higher than the price, they’ll buy.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to hold back certain bonuses for people who have objections. No.

It could very well be the case that you were intending to give them access to your bonus stuff anyway—something that can work wonders as a surprise effect and exceed people’s expectations.

In this case you can simply shine light on those bonuses and make your prospect aware of them. Notice how we’re not making our offer seem “less valuable” by agreeing to a lower price.

Never lower your prices.

Option 2) Downselling & Removing features

While the first option is perfect to get the prospect to agree to the price you’re asking.

That’s simply not always possible if the prospect simply doesn’t have the money to pay for your service—which can happen if you sell high-ticket services. But that doesn’t mean you simply have to disregard the prospect altogether.

In this case it’s useful to try and downsell your prospect.

Downselling refers to presenting them with a different offer of yours. Instead of a 3 month long coaching offer, try a 4-call consulting package. Instead of a 4-call consulting package, try a 1-hour group workshop. Instead of a group workshop, try a low-ticket digital course.

The aim here is to offer something that’s in their price range, while still being relevant and helpful for the prospect’s situation.

This does mean, however, that you do need to have an existing value ladder.

In the case you’re not at that stage yet, you can simply remove features of your main offer.

Instead of checking up daily through Telegram for your 3-month coaching package, remove it altogether and only have a weekly zoom call. By removing features you’ll make the offer itself less valuable and you can change the price to reflect that. (Important distinction between changing the price of the offer itself)

As an added bonus, you may find people agreeing to your main offer for the full price after removing features because your prospect will come to realize just how much value they place on the features you suggested to remove.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready. Here’s how I can help you:

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