If customers never seem satisfied with your price and always want it lower, you’re not alone. In every sales cycle, the push for a better deal shows up like clockwork. But here’s the key: most discounts aren’t the customer’s idea, rather they’re a byproduct of what’s happening within the salesperson.
Belief in Your Price Starts With You
When a salesperson doubts the value of their offer, the customer senses it. Confidence is contagious, but so is hesitation. Buyers are trained by society to negotiate, and they’re experts at spotting uncertainty.
“If you don’t believe in your own price, why would you ever expect your customers to believe in your price?”
Too many sellers give in not because the customer demands it, but because they’re not fully sold on the value themselves. The best procurement professionals even teach their teams: if the salesperson can’t state the price with straight body language, solid voice, and eye contact, there’s probably a discount on the table.
Don’t Let Price Become a Commodity
Ever notice that you never haggle over the price of a dinner at a restaurant, but nobody blinks at bargaining over a car? That’s conditioning. When a seller lets their product or service become just another commodity, price becomes the only battleground.
The antidote: clarify the value proposition. Focus on what your solution actually does for the customer. Understand what the outcome is worth in their world. The all-too-common mistake is focusing on the product, not the impact.
“Customers will haggle on price when they don’t have confidence in the outcome. When they have absolute confidence in the outcome, it is amazing at how they will pay more.”
Shift the Conversation to Value and Confidence
Ask yourself: Can you articulate exactly how your offering changes the customer’s world? If not, expect to face more discount demands. The more clearly you connect your price to a tangible result and state it with conviction, the less room there is for negotiation.
For instance, a parent won’t waste time arguing about the cost of balloons for their kid’s birthday when those balloons make the event. Value is context. What matters is what your product unlocks for the customer, not what it “costs” you to provide.
Scarcity and Urgency, But Only When True
When buyers view you as one of many, prices get squeezed. The smart move: highlight what makes your solution unique or scarce. But always do this with integrity. If there’s a genuine supply or resource constraint that makes your proposal time-sensitive, explain it. Manufactured urgency breeds distrust, but real scarcity tips decisions in your favor.
“You have to create value and when the customer sees value and confidence, they will pay the price and they’re not going to push you for lower prices.”
Presenting Price is a Confidence Game
Never present a naked price. Anchor every proposal in the customer’s pain points and the ways your solution addresses them. Before quoting, repeat back what matters to the customer, what’s at stake, and why competitors fall short.
If you’re not fully bought in on the impact your offer provides, the customer will sense it and negotiate accordingly. Confidence in delivery equals confidence in price.
The Ultimate Move: Be Ready to Walk Away
The surest way to avoid endless discounts? Be willing to walk. When a potential client knows you’re not desperate, the dynamic shifts. And if you must concede on price, never do it without pulling something off the table. Discounts should always come at a cost to the buyer, not just to you.
Every step, from framing value to quoting with conviction, boils down to this: buyers mirror the salesperson’s mindset.
Don’t expect the customer to believe in your price if you don’t.
Show up confident. Sell the outcome, not the product. And remember, most deals aren’t lost to price. They’re lost to a lack of conviction.
Mark Hunter :
Why do customers keep pushing you to lower your price and keep lowering it? And oh, come on. Hey, this happens far too often. You’ve experienced. But let me tell you something, I bet you’ve probably done it when you’re trying to get a better deal. Why do we do it? Ah, let’s get the show going.
Mark Hunter :
Right now you’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host.
Mark Hunter :
Okay, let’s cut to the chase right now. If you don’t believe in your own price, why would you ever expect your customers to believe in your price? I say this. Far too many discounts are given because of the false beliefs of the salesperson than are given based on the demands of the customer. And I believe that 100%. I’ve had a chance to sell all over the world in some brutally price oriented markets in Asia, throughout many parts, many third world countries where haggling on price is a given. But let me tell you something. Customers are going to ask for a lower price. They’re going to demand a lower price because they can get away with it.
Mark Hunter :
It’s very simple. Hey, let’s use a couple of examples. Have you ever bought a car? I’m sure you have. Whether it be a used car or a new car, you probably have haggled over the price. Why? Because that’s what we’re just supposed to do right now. You don’t walk into a restaurant, sit down for a meal and begin haggling over the price. Oh, you know what? I have in some third world countries, but that’s not the norm in developed nations. You see, there are areas where we haggle on price and areas that we don’t.
Mark Hunter :
But let’s put all that aside. Let’s get back to you, the salesperson right now because here’s the whole thing. Society has trained people to negotiate on price whenever and wherever they can. Well, you’ve conditioned it. Yeah, I’ll never forget the, the negotiating class that I’m doing. And I probably have shared this story before, but the VP of procurement comes up to me and says, man, I gotta share with you this. I tell all of my buyers, all my procurement people that if the customer can’t, that if the salesperson can’t deliver the price, whether it be online or in person, whatever, with straight body language, solid voice and eye contact, you know, there’s a discount to be had because they don’t believe in the price. Yeah, many times I have seen this time and time again that, that buyers are just automatically told to reject the price.
Mark Hunter :
Just flat out reject the price and see what the salesperson does. We see this too often. I get this all the time. You see? And it comes back to that. The salesperson who doesn’t believe in the value that they’re going to offer, you see, why don’t they believe in the value? Because they’re believing in the product and not the benefit. One of the reasons that I talk so much about creating value for the customer is it’s not only for the customer to create the value, but for you, the salesperson, to understand the value. Because when you begin to realize the magnitude of what your sale can do for the company, then you begin to believe in your price. But if you don’t, you won’t.
Mark Hunter :
And this is, this is the whole challenge. I mean, it’s why airlines can sell airline tickets at vastly different prices. And some people will say, that’s a bargain. Some people will say, it’s way too much. You know, it. It is amazing. But sporting events are the same way as tickets go on sale to an event. And as you get closer to the event, maybe the tickets go up or down because fans are seeing different value propositions about what it’s worth to them.
Mark Hunter :
You see, here’s the whole thing. I can never put a price across the table to a customer until we understand value. We understand value, not just the customer, but I have to understand value. Why? Because I have to believe in it. When I believe in the value that you’re going to receive, I’ve suddenly become confident of my price. And again, if I don’t believe in my confidence and the confidence of what you’re going to be able to create my voice, my email, whatever it is, I’m going to be hesitant. You see, what happens is this. The value cuts both ways.
Mark Hunter :
But there’s also another piece that many times what happens is customers will sit there and say, just give me a quick price quote. Just give me that quick price. And, you know, I’ll see. And we fall for this because what the customer is doing is really looking at you as a commodity, and they’re looking at the solution as a commodity. Wrong. Wrong. I never want it to be seen as a commodity. I never want to be seen.
Mark Hunter :
Because when it becomes a commodity, then. And suddenly, hey, you know, have you ever had a kid’s birthday party where you take balloons? You take balloons, the birthday party now. It’s amazing what you can spend on balloons these days for A kid’s birthday party. But to that kid, right then at that party, price is totally irrelevant. You see, the value proposition to the kid is absolutely astronomical. Mom, dad, you know, why didn’t you pay more? You know, I. I don’t care what the price is. I want these balloons.
Mark Hunter :
And they, and they got to be that special type of balloon. Now we can sit there and say, well, I would have bought more, but the price, no, no, because you know what the occasion is worth to your child. So you pay it and suddenly, then quivering over another buck or two over another doesn’t make a sense. Well, you know what? I can go down the street and buy balloons a little bit cheaper at this store versus who cares. You want to get the right balloons because it means everything to the kid. Oh, wait a minute. If I don’t put helium in the balloons, if I just blow them up. Yeah, but helium elevates the balloons and puts them up high in the room outdoors, whatever it might be.
Mark Hunter :
What I’m getting to is it’s the value proposition that that balloon may only be worth, you know, a dollar to one person, but to another person, it’s worth three to four dollars. You see, we have to understand the value proposition. What we are looking to sell you. How is it going to help you? How is it going to help you? What’s going to be the benefit? Why is it important to buy it? Now, where does this fit? I’ve gone through this ad nauseum in so many of my videos, and yet salespeople drive past it because they simply jump back to the product. This is why I hate. You know, one of the things I love doing is doing sales kickoff meetings. But why is it that sales kickoff meetings, 80% of it is spent talking about the product and only 20% about selling. Isn’t it a sales kickoff meeting? Maybe it should be the other way around.
Mark Hunter :
We spend far too much time talking about the product. Now, here’s what’s very important, is that you got to understand the context and to put this in context. And I’m going to pull in a little bit of the product, but I’m going to talk about the benefit. We’ll say that you want to get some work done in your yard, you want to have your yard landscaped fantastically wonderful. Now, you can hire a guy that’s just going to move dirt, or you can hire a person who’s going to absolutely create the architectural design that you want. Oh, the guy who’s going to move dirt is going to be a lot cheaper. He’s going to be a lot cheaper. He’ll just move dirt around and it’ll look pretty good.
Mark Hunter :
Or you want the person who’s going to design your backyard the way you want it to be. Think about it. You’re going to, you’re going to naturally have, that’s the person you’re going, you’re going to hire. Now, you may quibble amongst, you know, all those, you know, the various people who do design your backyard. But ultimately, who’s going to get the deal? The person who’s going to get the deal is going. The person who’s going to get the job is going to be the one who’s going to be able to capture best what it is that you’re looking for, what it is that you are looking for. That’s who’s going to get the deal. And the person who in turn conveys confidence that when they’re done, you’re going to have what you’re looking for.
Mark Hunter :
It’s not about just moving dirt or, or throwing some shrubs in or tearing out this or. No, it’s about creating the look and the feel and giving you the confidence that that’s what it is. Ooh. You see, this is what’s interesting. I’ve used the word confidence three times. Have you picked up on it? Confidence determines significantly the price you will get for anything. Why? Because if the customer is confident, they are certainly willing to pay more, right? Hey, I walk into Walmart, okay, and I’ll pay a few dollars for something and if it doesn’t work, no big deal, a couple dollars, it’s okay, it’s fine. But if I walk into a high end store and pay significant money, I want it to work.
Mark Hunter :
Now what’s the difference? It’s the confidence factor. See, when I’m only paying a few dollars, I don’t really have to worry about confidence. But if I’m suddenly going to put out 5,000, 10,000, $20,000 to redo my backyard, I want confidence. Confidence matters. You see, customers will haggle on price when they don’t have confidence in the outcome. When they have absolute confidence in the outcome, it is amazing at how they will pay more. Now, how do you overcome this? You overcome this by sharing with them examples. This is how we’ve done.
Mark Hunter :
This is what we’ve done. It is amazing. But the stories you share of the challenges that you’ve gone through to be able to make other people be successful, whatever it might be, is going to do more to create confidence than you’ll ever imagine. Now some of you might be saying mark, but they view me as a commodity. They compare me with everything. Then my whole goal is how do I create scarcity? How do I create scarcity? I create scarcity because hey, you know what? We’ve only got two teams that can, that can really do this project to the level that you want them to. And right now I can get them, I can get them scheduled, but as soon as they start in the project, they’re not going to be available for a couple months and we’re going to miss the season. And you want your backyard ready to be able to enjoy the summer, right? You see, I can, I can create.
Mark Hunter :
Now do not create artificial scarcity. Oh man, I talk about that in my book integrity first selling. You cannot create artificial integrity because if you do, I mean artificial scarcity because if you do, that’s not selling with integrity. But if, if there’s a genuine supply issue, genuine issue with labor, whatever, go ahead and put that out there. The idea being is that you have to create value and when the customer sees value and confidence, they will pay the price and they’re not going to push you for lower prices. Here’s the thing. So many sales wind up becoming discounted because the salesperson fails to believe in it. This is why I say you never ask the customer if this is an okay price.
Mark Hunter :
What do you think of this deal? No, you tell them, you tell them, you tell them what the price is. You say, hey, based on everything you’ve shared with me and what you are looking for. In other words, you always restate the issue that the customer is dealing with before you give them the price. Don’t give them a naked price. Don’t. It’s dumb. Dumb. You have to make sure that you know why the issue is important to them, the other options they’ve tried, why your solutions better than others.
Mark Hunter :
The timing you have to be able to get, you’ve got to know those things because when you do, you are going to be confident and you’re going to be able to tell them. I’ve been able to help salespeople so many times, walk them through this and in the pre meeting to close, you know, okay, salespeople, okay, we got this. You know, two o’, clock, you know, teams call or zoom call, whatever and, and okay, let, let’s go through, let, let’s discuss why is the customer needing us right now? Let’s go. Check, check, check, check, check, check. And I want you to go through that checklist and what that’s going to do is it’s going to allow you, the salesperson, to have more confidence. This is absolutely critical. More discounts are given because the salesperson doesn’t believe in the price that are given based on the demands of the customer. Hey, you can get the price that you’re looking for.
Mark Hunter :
And the last thing, I’m just going to tease you with other episodes on it. You have to be prepared to walk away. You have to be prepared to walk away. If you do have to discount, make sure something comes off the table. Never, never, never, never. Just cut the price. To cut the price. No, something must come off the table.
Mark Hunter :
Don’t have time to unpack that. Do a separate episode on that one. Hey, I’m Mark Hunter. Leave me a review on your favorite podcast app, would you? Right now. Just, just, just, you know, on Spotify or Apple Music, Amazon, wherever, just leave a review real quick, would you? And if you haven’t picked up the book Integrity first selling, pick it up. Want you to grab it. Got a sales kickoff meeting. You got issues in your company, call me.
Mark Hunter :
Let’s talk. It’s what I do. I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. You’ve been listening to the Sales Hunter podcast. Two episodes a week, one like this and a second one where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. I’m Mark Hunter, sales hunter. Great selling.
