Prepare strategies to deal with potential pushback

There may come a time when a prospect tries to negotiate your rates with you on the call. While you never want to agree to simply lower your rate (which begs the question: “then were you just trying to highball me?”), you also don't want to be offended or arrogant when you respond. 

Here are a few ways you can handle pushback with tact. ‍

Strategy 1: reduce scope

Rather than reducing the price, you can offer to reduce the scope of the project. This works best if there were multiple components to one project – such as three one-thousand-word blog posts and 12 social media captions.‍

‍This is the best price I can do for the scope of services I offer. Now if you want less scope, we could certainly reduce the price. For example, if we reduce the blog count to 800 words and remove any image sourcing, I could meet you closer to $X. Does that sound more within your budget?

Strategy 2: multiple price packages

Everyone likes options. Sometimes there are a lot of moving parts and the prospect needs to figure out what they truly value and are willing to pay for. This works best with projects with multiple steps or multiple deliverables to a project – such as five customer interviews, a competitor audit, and a customer avatar guide. ‍

While I think the package I mentioned is the best value for a growing team such as yours, I can definitely offer a few tiers to choose from, depending on how deep into research you’d like to get. Would you like me to send you various packages?

Strategy 3: focus on your value (and stand your ground)

If you have a set package or a project minimum, it can be possible that you do not or cannot change the price. In that case, bring the focus back onto your experience and the value you bring to the table.

‍While I understand your desire to get the best rate possible, my fee is aligned with the current market and reflective of my 5+ years of successful experience doing similar projects. I hope you understand.

While it’s nice to show some empathy, there’s no need to drag on or overcompensate your reply.‍

Go to the workbook and make a list of what you are willing to be flexible on and which elements of your work are non-negotiables.

In this step, you learned to negotiate in a way that ensures you don’t lower your own value. You’ll see it’s possible to meet the client halfway! If it’s not possible, it’s probably not the right fit.