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Many founders fall into the trap of discounting to win business, inadvertently devaluing their expertise and margins.
Explore how to shift the conversation from price to perceived value, so you can confidently hold your rates and win clients who truly understand what you bring to the table.
Identifying why buyers push for discounts and how to address the root objection
Practical scripts to pivot conversations from "how much?" to "what results?"
Strategies for reinforcing your unique value proposition without relying on price drops
Alan Elston is the founder of Pitch Hero and has over 25 years of experience delivering deals worth more than £3.5 billion. He helps founders master the art of the pitch by combining decades of high-stakes deal-making expertise with modern strategic communication.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Caitriona: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Caitriona, and I'll be your host today. For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.
I'm pleased to introduce Alan Elston, who's the founder of Pitch Hero. In this session, Alan will explore how to shift the conversation from price to perceived value, so you can confidently hold your rates and win clients who truly understand what you bring to the table.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session. Today's webinar will be recorded, and we will send a follow-up email to you with the recording and further resources later today. Over to you, Alan.
Alan Elston: Thank you. £5 – is it expensive or is it cheap? Think about it.
If you go back to the 1920s, £5 was about a weekly wage. But what does £5 buy you today? A cup of coffee – not everywhere you go, but it will in some places.
Is it a lot of money or not? It depends on the context we're talking about. Is it £5 for a bottle of water, for lunch, for a taxi ride across London, or £5 to solve a £500 or a £5,000 business problem?
Suddenly, that seems like an absolute bargain. The water, not so. Lunch is cheap, the taxi ride is, and so is solving a problem.
But the price hasn't changed. The only things that have changed are the context and the perception of value. We're going to talk about that today, because a lot of us are in a business where we're selling ourselves – our time, our expertise, a service – and we need to put a value on that.
One of the things that knocks us sideways is when people say, "It's too expensive." So today, we're going to look at some ideas about how we start to position that and broaden out the conversation.
If we've talked about £5, what about £500? I don't know what you charge, but we're going to use this as a base point for today's conversation.
So is that a lot of money? Again, it depends. What's it for?
For knee surgery, £500 would be considered quite cheap if you went privately. But what is £500, and how much is it worth? The first poll today asks that question.
Imagine a client comes to you and says, "£500 – that's too expensive." What's your instinctive reaction? Is it to explain, to discount or to get really uncomfortable?
We're getting interesting responses. Explain is definitely in the lead, and get uncomfortable is quite strong too, but discount is not so strong. 60% say they would explain the situation and start to justify, and 29% say they would get uncomfortable.
Let's cover that 29% first. It's very easy to get very uncomfortable in these situations, because we hear other things when people say it's too expensive. It's a brick wall of objection.
The natural and easiest default is to be uncomfortable in that space, because they're not just saying you're expensive. They're saying, "I am questioning you. I don't see the value here."
The easy response to "It's too expensive" would be, "Okay, I'll take some money off – does that make it better?" And if we choose to explain, what are we explaining for, and what's the context of our explanation?
Thank you for your feedback. 59% said explain, 9% discount, and 32% said it's uncomfortable. I suspect the tendency is there to do all of those things to unlock this.
So here's the thing: don't answer the question straight away. I want you to think about a mindset shift, and I want your mindset to be curious.
When I was at drama school, about 10 years ago now, one of the lecturers always used to say to us during our voice work, "Go about the script with light interest." So don't answer the question straight away, but be curious about why it's too expensive.
How might you go about doing that? You could say, "Tell me a little bit more about that – what is it expensive in relation to? Give me some context."
But the most important thing is that you take your ego out of it, so you don't become combative. You need to really start to understand what's at stake and what is being said.
So let's diagnose. Let's think about our tone, our approach and how we respond. We're going to get curious – "Tell me more" is really the signal we're putting out to people.
First of all, money: "I genuinely cannot afford it." What do you do with that? If someone genuinely cannot afford it, it's not necessarily the end of the road, but it may mean something significant has to shift, or that they can do it further down the line.
The next one is value. There's a perception that says, "I do not believe this is worth £500, I don't believe you, and I don't see how this will add any value."
If that's the case, then you've got to go back and match your value with their need. So we rebuild the value. We look at outcomes, benefits and the cost of doing nothing.
The cost of doing nothing is a real challenge very often when we sell consultancy services. Your biggest competitor is doing nothing, because people don't know what good looks like. They only know what they've always had and the context they've always worked in.
So if people don't see value, then potentially we've got a problem, and we need to go back and rebuild that. Moving along, there's trust and risk: "I'm not convinced this will work."
Maybe then you need to show evidence, proof and credibility. Maybe you need to run a pilot or provide some kind of risk reassurance.
Possibly, it's about timing. Someone might say, "I want this, but I can't quite justify doing it now. The timing isn't right."
Maybe then it's about strengthening and working on the relationship. The final component is "I want a deal", and we'll dig a little deeper into that in a few minutes.
There's an emotional exchange taking place here, and we're looking at the emotions of the buyer. But what about your emotions as the seller? What does £500 mean to you?
You're running a small business, and what we tend to do is look at that sum of money and think, "£500 – wow, I could pay my rent, my car insurance, or go on a short holiday with that." We tend to relate it back and say, "Gosh, that's a lot of money."
Or maybe you're the kind of person who says, "£500? I got £1,500 a month ago, and it was such easy work. Actually, I'm worth way more – three times this amount."
In my career, I've done lots of charity events where people have made promises and said, "There'll be loads more opportunity. It'll be great exposure for you." But you don't get paid at all.
What you end up doing is working with a group of amateurs who are highly strung and highly emotional, and the work is 10 times harder than if you're working with a professional production company that's paying you a lot of money. So think about what the £500 means to you.
Here's the thing: does it feel like a lot, is it balanced, or does it feel right? You need to be comfortable with that.
When we're talking about how you price things, it's very hard to price your worth. And I'm going to confess something to you – I have grappled with this my entire career.
Very often, people are asking me to deliver something for them, and it's very hard to know exactly how to value it. The cop-out question is, "What is your budget?"
Sometimes they say a low figure, and you think, "I can't do it for that." Sometimes they say an exceptionally high figure, and you swallow hard and say, "Yes, we can make that work."
Whatever pain you're feeling around pricing yourself and your work, I share that with you, and I've been there. I suspect that is the case with most people who run a small business – the solopreneurs, if you like.
But really, we shouldn't be pricing our worth. We should be pricing the value of our work and the impact that we have.
That includes our experience, our expertise, the preparation that's required in order to deliver, the market that's out there, and what that market will bear. How much does it normally cost to hire somebody of your calibre to do this kind of work? How much did it cost you to get this work, and how many months have you been working on it?
What if you're the only person who could do this? There's a certain sense of scarcity. And what will the outcome be? Where is the risk that I'm taking on board, and where is the non-billable time?
All of these factors need to be taken into consideration. Let's get a feel for what you're thinking with the second poll.
You've agreed to do the job at £500. It's a figurative amount, by the way – replace it with whatever amount is relevant to you. How do you feel about going out and delivering that piece of work: excited, comfortable or really quite uneasy?
Let's have a look at the poll now. This is interesting. 19% are feeling excited, 61% comfortable, and 19% uneasy.
That would suggest to me that the pricing you're going out with is about what your expectation would be, and you're relatively comfortable to go out and deliver for this price. I don't know about you, but when I've gone out and delivered work, and it's been very exciting, it's because I've been getting a really good rate; it's great work, and it's an enormous opportunity.
But on the whole, we become acclimatised to what we earn and what our rate card is, so most of the work we do actually feels quite comfortable. The uneasy response is interesting, because of what happens to us emotionally if we go out and deliver work we're not comfortable delivering.
Where we feel we've underpriced ourselves or we're worthy of more, an interesting emotion starts to kick in, and we start to become resentful. That's a really dangerous place to be.
Thanks very much for your comments, everybody. It's really interesting what you're saying there. It suggests to me that most of you participating today are comfortable with how you price.
So the question you must always answer is this: whatever you are selling, whatever your rate card is and whatever that amount is, are you happy to go to work for that amount? If you resent delivering for the amount that you've agreed, no good can come of it.
This is interesting, because very often we hammer people on deals. A few years ago, I built a house, and it's all very well saying you'll hammer every single supplier down to make sure you get the lowest possible price.
But if they resent being there and they resent the amount they're being paid, then they're not going to do a very good job. That's certainly the same for the way I go to work, and I'm sure it is for you as well.
So think about that emotional exchange that's taking place. Whatever price you quote, you must be happy to go and do the work. Otherwise, the potential damage is significant – you will not deliver well, and you will not perform at your best.
Let's have a look at another one of those components, which is the credibility part of value. It's often quite challenging to establish credibility, and there's a tendency to spend a great deal of time talking ourselves up. But very often, what gives us credibility is not necessarily what you might think.
A year or two ago, my now business manager and I were discussing on the phone how we were going to work together, and it was like an interview. I was speaking to Smita, and I said, "Tell me, how long is it going to take to get to the point we need to get to?"
She pondered for a moment and said, "A year." And I said, "How can that be? I watch Instagram posts, and I've talked to other marketers, and they're telling me it can be done in a matter of weeks."
She paused and said, "They lied." At that moment, I thought, "I believe you, and I trust you. You're not giving me glamorous marketing flimflam – you're actually telling me the truth."
As a result, my trust went up. It was an unpleasant truth, and it wasn't what I particularly wanted to hear, but it was the truth. Interestingly, a year on, that's what it's taken, and that's what the delivery has been.
So credibility often isn't about showing off and saying exactly what you think the customer wants to hear. Sometimes you've got to tell them what they don't want to hear, but that's actually where you prove real value – it's the truth.
Now let's talk about negotiation for a moment. If we go back and look at those objections, there was money ("I can't afford it"), value ("I don't believe it's worth it"), trust and risk ("I'm not convinced this will work"), and priority and time ("I want it, but I don't want it now"). The final one is "I want a deal".
You may be like this yourself, or I bet you've got a friend like this – they always get the deal, don't they? I've got plenty of friends like this: "Got a new car – got £3,000 off it, didn't I?"
"How did you do that?" "Well, I was negotiating hard." Every single thing they do, they get a deal, because money and everything else matters to them.
The flip side of this, by the way, is when you quote your price to a client and they say, "Great." And suddenly you think, "Well, that's it – they don't want to haggle or push back; they've just accepted it."
It reminds me of that lovely Monty Python sketch: "Don't you want to haggle? You've got to haggle!" You've got to go backwards and forwards on price.
Some people will accept the price if they see it as fair, and the job is done. That means you've hit it right.
But there are other types of people. For the hustlers out there, it doesn't matter what price you tell them – they want a deal. They don't necessarily want it cheap, but here is the million-dollar statement: they want to feel like they've won.
So you have to give them what they want – the feeling that they have won. Think about that for a minute. Whatever it takes, they will not buy from you until they feel they've won.
That's fine, but in every good business negotiation, you have to win too. Because if you lose and they win – not that they care – then you can't do business together.
So if you are going to give them a discount, it's not really a discount – you're trading. You're trading a small reduction in the price for something else that has an enormous amount of value to you.
By the way, future promises are not currency. I've been promised this many times – "There'll be so much work that will come out of this for you, you won't believe it" – but no, I need something concrete.
So you might agree that you'll do a case study on this particular piece of work, which you can then use in your marketing activity. It might mean they introduce you to somebody else in the industry where there's potential revenue generation. Maybe you can film the event and use that as marketing.
Maybe there's another participant who can get involved, or maybe you change the scope – but there has to be some form of trade. If you're dealing with a hustler, they love to go back and forth, haggle and negotiate with you. That's what they enjoy doing.
They are prepared to give something, but you've got to find out what that is. So don't be afraid to go back and forth with them, because they love the tussle and the game. Get involved and be bold with them in what you're looking for.
They may catch you on the spot, by the way, and you might have to go away, have a think about it and decide what you'll go back with. But be prepared to trade.
If you know these people in advance, know where your bottom line is, how far you'll go, and what you're looking for that has real value that they can give you. So always think about what that might be.
When you come across that type of person, think about the hustler. Always let them win, but you have to know you're winning too. As long as you know, you don't need to tell them.
So here's the million-dollar question for poll number three. The customer wants to work with you and says, "I would love to do this. You are exactly the right person I want to work with."
You've sold it beautifully, and you have maximum trust and credibility. But they say, "I want to do this, but I haven't got the budget."
As a side point, don't ever tell anybody they can't afford it. It's the biggest dent to the ego. We have to make it third-party – "It's not in scope right now" or "I don't have the budget at the moment" – but don't ever say "cannot afford it".
It's bad language to use. It affects people's egos and makes them really quite defensive, so be really careful. "I haven't got the budget" – fine, no problem.
So let's go back to the poll. They want to work with you, but this £500 genuinely is not in the budget. What do you do: discount, change the deal or walk away?
Interesting – 75% of you are saying change the deal. Only 11% want to discount, and only 14% of you would walk away.
All of those can often be the right thing to do. There's no such thing as the wrong answer here.
Sometimes, walking away is the right thing. You've invested enough time and energy in this; there's nowhere else to go with it, and you need to walk away.
With discounting, I'm not saying don't ever discount, but as we discussed earlier, you need to make sure you're getting something back too. If you're discounting, you're trading – that's what discount should mean in your head.
But 76% of you are talking about changing the deal. So what does that mean, and how would we actually change the deal? Here are some thoughts.
Maybe we could change the scope of the work, which might reduce the price a little. Maybe we could change the timing – but if they haven't got the budget, is the timing going to affect that? It's a conversation you could potentially have.
These are all conversations you can have with the client as you look to find a way through. Maybe it's about the payment structure. How would it fit within budget, and is there something we could do over a period of time?
Maybe we change the product offer. Maybe we don't go for this one and look at something different – something that's more cost-effective. Be aware of using the word "cheaper".
Maybe there's a referral you can get. Even though they may not be able to work with you right now, and even though the intention is strong, maybe they could refer you to somebody who could.
Is there any other kind of free, scalable value? How do we stay connected, and how do we take the pressure off? There are lots of different things you could potentially do in changing the deal.
The option is always there to walk away. But even if you can't do a deal right now and you've hit a genuine logjam, they've given you time and attention, and you've had a dialogue, so there's an opportunity to stay connected.
When Smita and I were building up Pitch Hero, we wanted to have a mechanism in place that enabled us to stay in contact with people and provide some kind of value, even if there wasn't an opportunity for direct engagement. That's what Coffee Club was all about, and still is.
We're looking to build that so we can add value with free resources, without having to have direct engagement with people if their timing or budget isn't right. But what we are doing is maintaining a relationship.
If you've got great credibility, you understand their position and their budget, and they see the value of your product, you will do something together in the future. Your job now is to take the pressure out of the situation and maintain the relationship.
Then they will become great advocates and fans of yours. That's really important, because it will come back to you and you'll get the benefit of it in the future. So that's food for thought around budget.
Let's go right back to the beginning: £5 for a bottle of water, or £500. Which is expensive? The answer is that they both are – they're both expensive, and they're both incredibly cheap.
The key thing I want you to take away from this is that price depends. So when you hear someone say, "That's too expensive", it depends on the context.
Everything depends on context. You're either expensive, or you're very cheap, depending on who you're talking to. Maybe you're too cheap for some people, but context is the key ingredient.
So I would invite you to become curious, with that light interest. Remember: "Okay, tell me a little bit more about that. Expensive compared to what?"
Think about curiosity and start to probe around it. But don't put pressure on the situation. Do it lightly and see what you can unearth.
There are three things I would ask you to take away with you today. First, all prices need context – £5 is not expensive or cheap until you know what it's for. Second, when you hear the objection, just get curious.
Third, always make a diagnosis before you decide. You wouldn't go to a doctor and have them write the prescription the moment you sat down in the chair. They have to diagnose before any decision is made.
You would expect them to ask you questions, prod, probe, and have a look – that's what they do. You are in the same role when you're looking at price, and it's your responsibility to make that diagnosis.
If you're engaged in a good conversation with a client, then you have the right to ask those questions, and they will want to engage with you. Otherwise, they'll shut you down and move on. So do it right – be gentle, but make your diagnosis.
Context, curiosity and value. It's incredibly difficult to sell your time and expertise and put real value on it.
What we tend to do is look at what we've sold for in the past, what we think the market will bear, and what kind of value we think we'll add. But ultimately, all that matters is that you're providing the right value at the end of the day.
It's human nature that we will always undervalue our own expertise, because if I can do it, everyone can do it, can't they? But the reality is that the value we deliver is what's most important, and most of us undersell ourselves and don't realise how good we are.
So don't discount straight away when you're faced with "That's too expensive". Communicate, and do everything you possibly can to keep the conversation human. Thank you.
Caitriona: Alan, we've had a few questions come in. Let's take this question from Renu: "What do you do if the price that you're happy to go to work for is higher than your competitors'?"
Alan: Has the client compared you against them? If Renu could add more information into the chat, that would help.
It's a bit like a client saying, "You're charging £750, they're charging £500, and I don't see the difference between you." If that's the case, then it's an opportunity for you to start talking about the additional value you can bring. That's a different type of conversation, about outcomes.
If it's apples and pears, or if it's apples and apples, then the client can make that direct comparison. Then you've got to ask yourself whether you can differentiate yourself.
If I can't differentiate myself, why am I charging £250 more than my direct competition? Maybe I am overpriced.
These are all questions you've got to ask, but I would say the first step is to ask, "How do I differentiate myself, and how do I show that I can add more value and offer something better?"
Caitriona: Thank you. We have a question from Neela, who says: "My company, Craft Gurus, creates reflective experiences for problem-solving using Indian aesthetic principles, coaching skills and art. I have often been approached by charities to run free or highly reduced-price sessions. I'm happy to do a few, but what could I trade with them?"
Alan: Interesting. I think people in the creative industries are always subjected to people coming and saying, "We love what you do, and we'd love you to come in and do something, but we have no budget."
The first thing you need to do is look at what they've got budget for. What do they spend money on? They spend money on buildings and staff and other resources, but they're not prepared to spend any money on your resource.
So maybe they're saying they don't value what you do very highly. The first thing is to ask, "What would I need to do to get budget from these charities and organisations? What's really important to them, and is there an adjustment that can be made?"
The other side of it is that if I am going to do these things for very low cost or for free, there has to be a very strong reward mechanism. That means you need to structure exactly how you will be rewarded for the work you're going to put in.
So you might say, "If I come and do this workshop for you, my expectation is that you will become a case study for us and write referrals, and that we can use you as we go to market with other organisations."
Some charities have very high status and credibility, so that could be an enormous pull and establish you in a marketplace you couldn't otherwise be in. Just understand that you're trading.
Caitriona: Thank you. We have a question from Everton: "I rate my poetry above average and would like to sell poems as posters online for £18, but the algorithm advised that the sweet spot is £12. Should I increase my price to £18? After all, I cannot trade."
Alan: That's an interesting question. The algorithm is saying £12, but you want to charge £18. The first question I would ask is why you want to charge £18 rather than £12.
Is it because you've decided that's what you believe your work is worth? If you want to differentiate yourself, try them at £18, but be ready, if required, to come back in line with what the market will bear.
Algorithms are clever because they look at the whole market, draw an average and say, "Roughly, for this type of work, this is what is normally charged." So again, it goes back to the question of differentiation.
If yours are better, presented better, or the poetry is better, then you can differentiate yourself, and people will understand that. This is why people spend £5,000 on a Birkin bag – they see the value, and there's a perception as well.
If you can differentiate yourself, great, but you're going to have to work harder to differentiate yourself from the majority.
Caitriona: Thank you. We're just coming to the end of the session, but we do have time for one final question, from Shita: "I'm a product business selling scarves, and sometimes I get a response that it's too expensive. My first instinct is to explain the value – pure material, quality, artisan-made – or to give a discount. I can't change the package, terms of contract or offer a free trial in this example, unlike a service business. Do you have any advice?"
Alan: I assume you're working with cost plus. So let's say, for example, it costs £8 to produce and land the product, and you're selling for £10, so there's a £2 margin.
I think if people don't see the value and they don't see how it's differentiated, you either have to change your customer or change the perception of the product by presenting it in a different way.
Changing that perception may be about how it's packaged or the people who are wearing it. It may be a whole host of different things.
But you either change the perception of the product so that people see the value, or you change your customer to people who actually do see your value. They're not discount seekers – they recognise the qualities of what you're selling.
Caitriona: Thank you, Alan, for your presentation, and thanks to everyone who joined us today. We'll be sharing the recording and further resources in a follow-up email this afternoon.
Alan: Thank you very much.
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