In this sales‑coaching segment, Christian Polk and speaker B discuss how to respond when a prospect bluntly asks “just tell me how much it is.” The conversation emphasizes that revealing price too early erodes perceived value and authority. Instead of stating a flat price, the coach advises salespeople to (1) acknowledge the prospect’s directness, (2) pivot to a value‑building question about the prospect’s needs, (3) frame the offering as a custom solution rather than fixed packages, and (4) avoid over‑agreeing or rewarding rude behavior. The coach also warns against mentioning pre‑set packages, which can invite the prospect to cherry‑pick a price. By using these tactics, the salesperson can defuse the price‑first demand, re‑establish control of the conversation, and guide the prospect toward a decision based on tailored value.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about you just tell me how much it is?
How about you shut the fuck up and let me finish? I'm kidding. That's what we wish we could say. But I'll teach you what to say instead, because when somebody just asks for the price straight up, but there's no value built, you can't just say the price because most of you guys just go, oh yeah, it's $3K, but like, I'll explain it. And they go, oh yeah, if it's $3K, I'm definitely good. It's because there's no value built. So you say this instead. Yeah, but like, how much is it? Oh my God. Let me just say how refreshing it is to get on a call with somebody that just wants to get straight down to business. So many times I get on calls with people who just want to talk, talk, talk about everything except for actually making a decision. So I'll definitely get into price. With price, we have different packages that, you know, have different prices. So it just depends on what you need and what you don't. So in order to make that best suggestion, I just need to know a little bit more about blank. Boom. Now ask them another question. You guys ever use a provider before? When you said this, what do you mean by that?
So overall, this is pretty good advice. They just try to bulldoze and try to ask for the price up top. There's a couple of reasons why you don't want to go into it. Like, number one, the value is not there. But number 2, they're also not respecting your authority at all and they're trying to circumvent the sales process. So if somebody doesn't see you as an authority, the likelihood that they're going to buy from you is pretty low. So they need to see you as somebody who can actually help them. The caveat I would make with what she's doing, there is no need and no benefit for overexaggerating how much you agree with somebody like, oh yeah, no, I totally love that. You were just a dick to me just then. Like, why would I reward that behavior? You can agree without being overdramatic about it. And then when we go into the frame, I'm always not going to say like, oh, we have different packages. I'm going to say like, hey, what we do is custom based off of what you need, and then we can create a custom package. The reason being, if you tell them the different packages thing, you will still run into the asshole every now and again of like, hey, just tell me what all the packages are and I'll tell you which one's the best fit for me. I never want to run into that. So instead of that, I'd be like, oh yeah, man, we'll definitely go over everything. Just so you understand what we do, it's fairly custom. It's just going to be based off of current state versus like really where you're wanting to be. And then once I understand that, I can run you through it exactly what that would look like for you specifically. So help me understand, and then I'll go ahead and I'll ask the question. Use that on your next sales call. I promise you, you'll defuse it and get the call back on track.
