This content was created by Christian Polk. This content was uploaded by Christian Polk. This is a YouTube video titled "The $5000 Mistake that KILLS Every Sales Pitch" (created 2026-01-28) containing a brief, instructional exchange between two speakers (labeled SPEAKER A and SPEAKER B) about sales technique. The excerpt is sales coaching focused on how to state prices confidently (example: $5,000), avoid “upspeak” or upward inflection that signals seeking approval, and use downward inflection to convey competence and authority; one speaker gives examples and practical advice (including a note about Australians and common coaching points).
Chapters
The biggest mistake that salespeople make is they get through their entire pitch and they ask their number. So it sounds like this, hi, we'd love to do business with you. We'd love to have your project. And the cost of this service is $5,000. If you ask your number, you are begging people to negotiate with you. If you are asking for a raise or you are asking for a certain salary and you ask it, you are signaling to the other person. I don't really believe this number and you shouldn't either. So the power.
So what she's pointing to is what is just normally known as upspeak. So this could.
Happen when you are seeking rapport, which means you're seeking approval from somebody.
So when you ask the price or you, you go ahead and you state the price like, hey, in order to go ahead and get you to XYZ outcome, the investment referred is going to be 5000. We always want to go down with our inflection. The reason B is because we're showing that we're not looking for approval, we're not looking for rapport. It's actually breaking rapport. Tone. What this is going to signal is competence and confidence. People who are confident internally, they don't need approval from the external. So the biggest thing you need to focus on when you are saying things that you are supposed to be confident and competent in, it needs to be a downwards inflection when you're asking questions in discovery. You also have to be careful when you are pushing the call forward. I'm not using too much upspeak. I know my Australian homies have some problems with this, right? It is one of the number one things I'll work with if I'm working with an Australian. So you just got to be careful with your upspeak because what it conveys is you just seeking rapport, which means you're unsure about yourself and you need approval from someone else, which just lowers your authority. Not as many sales.
