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Join for freePosted: Tue 16th Jun 2026
Pricing conversations don't have to feel awkward.
In this practical session led by Alan Elston, you'll learn how to quote your price with confidence, handle the silence that follows without discounting and respond to "that's too expensive" in a way that protects both your value and the relationship.
You'll leave with simple techniques and scripts you can use in your very next sales conversation.
The voice-doesn't-change technique for saying your price out loud
Three confident responses for the silence after the price lands
How to handle "your price is too high" without dropping the number
Alan is the creator of Pitch Hero. He helps execs, founders, bid teams and agencies win high-stakes pitches and investor deals through keynote story, demo choreography and speaker coaching.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, 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 very pleased to introduce Alan Elston, who's the creator of Pitch Hero. In this session, Alan will demonstrate how to quote your price with confidence.
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 session will be recorded, and we'll send a follow-up email with the recording and further resources later today.
We've also got some polls that we're going to set live during the webinar, so please feel free to answer them as they pop up on your screens. Over to you, Alan.
Alan: Thank you. One of the greatest challenges we face when selling ourselves or our business is this: how do we stop underselling ourselves?
Or maybe the question should be the other way around: how do we maximise our opportunities and get what we feel we truly deserve, and what the market will bear?
That is an interesting point: what the market will bear and what is typical in the market. We'll talk more about that today.
We'll also focus on how we say our price out loud, how we hold the line, and some little tips and tricks as we go along.
There'll be a few minutes at the end, and I'll be very happy to take any questions you have on the topic we're discussing today.
It's lovely to be back. This is my second session for Enterprise Nation, and it's great to be here.
My name is Alan Elston. As Beth said, I created Pitch Hero, and I've been in the spoken communication business for over 25 years now.
Something interesting happens here. We rarely struggle with the actual number itself. What we struggle with is the meaning attached to it.
There's always a comparison to be made. What do we charge? How much is the right price for what we're charging? We'll look at some of the factors that influence that as we go along.
Let me ask you a question. When someone asks you your price, what do you find hardest? Please feel free to comment in the chat.
Is it A, saying the number? Actually saying the number out loud? I'm going to use the figure £500 today as a generic figure throughout.
Is it saying the number? Is it handling the objection that may come as a consequence? Is it the fact that the room suddenly goes quiet? Or is it not knowing what to charge in the first place?
Let's have a look and see what happens when the poll comes up. It will be interesting to see.
I know this is a big subject for a lot of you. A number of people have registered, and it's great to see so many of you on this call.
Knowing what to charge seems to be the winner right now. That's at 41%, with people saying: "I just don't know how to charge this."
In this session, we're going to look at some of the ways we can find out and charge ourselves at the right price.
I think the clear winner is knowing what to charge. People aren't so bothered about the silence. They're quite comfortable with objections and even with saying the number. But knowing what the price should be seems to be the biggest one.
Great. Let's end that poll and keep moving. Time is tight, so we'll keep going.
Let's talk about context. A price has absolutely no meaning without context attached to it.
How much do you charge? I was on a call this morning and was asked this exact question: "How much do you charge? What is your rate card going to be?"
But where do you go with that? What do you say after that?
We need to do a little bit of research around this. We need some understanding of what really goes on here.
I have been in situations where we're working with big, multi-million-pound events. I host events as well, and I'll use that as an example today.
At big, multi-million-pound events, they're spending a fortune. They've got a huge budget for their master of ceremonies, or MC, which is the role I would be appointed for.
To them, £10,000 is nothing. To another organisation, for example a university, a group of students or someone else, £10,000 is an unimaginable number. It doesn't matter how much value you add. It doesn't matter how amazing you are. It is just an unimaginable number. It cannot be met.
So context matters. You need to ask yourself: what are they used to paying? What is their expectation? What have they got in the budget?
One way of finding this out is to get some understanding by looking at the size of the event, how many people are going to be there, the impact you're going to have and your contribution to the overall cost. Then it starts to give you an idea.
I had a client who employed me on a number of occasions over a number of years. Their rate card and what they were prepared to spend went down progressively year on year. I'll come back and talk about that in a little more detail.
One example I like to use is this: how much is the right price to pay for a cup of coffee?
Think about that now. It is not unusual to pay £6 for a cup of coffee now. But if you go into a Wetherspoons and press the button on the machine for a bottomless cup, for those of you who live in the UK, Wetherspoons is a pub chain.
There are lots of them everywhere. They do a bottomless cup of coffee, and it costs about £1.60. You can have 10 cups if you like. You could fly out of the place bouncing on coffee.
Alternatively, if you go to Iceland, where I was a couple of weeks ago running an event, you're lucky to get a cup of coffee for £5.50. And actually, you feel quite lucky.
If you go into an artisan bar and it's special coffee, hand-ground, then it could be even more than that.
We have an expectation, and the context changes. We need to know where we and our service offer fit within that context. How are they perceiving the contribution you are making?
Now let's think about expectation.
I have been in glorious positions in my life where I have been able to earn very good money because the expectation was set that this is what they should pay. That's what they want to pay. That's what their budget is, as I've alluded to before.
I've also been in situations where I've charged hardly anything, and actually it was too expensive because people didn't see the value.
So we have to ascertain what the expectation is. That comes from the conversation you have with your client before the figure is even spoken.
What is your expectation? What have you done before? Where have you been before and seen this? What kind of budgets are you looking at? What value can I add to match your expectation?
Very often, there is a gap between price and expectation. But you need to find that out and understand it before you start talking about your own numbers.
The other expectation is the standard within your industry. What does it cost to run a one-day training programme? What does it cost to do a one-hour seminar?
Have an understanding and do some research. I will say this with caution, but if you use ChatGPT or Claude, they will always pitch you at the very top. If you put in, "How much would I charge to be a consultant?", they will always push you towards the top of the scale.
They look at what they know and scour the internet to find as much data as possible. But it does start to act as some kind of benchmark.
You need to understand what those expectations are, and you do that by asking the client.
Let's look at budgets. If you ask, "What's your budget?", as I did on my call this morning, they may not tell you exactly what the budget is. But what I discovered this morning was that I understood what the revenue figures were.
I understood how profitable this particular piece of work could be for them and the contribution I would make. So I've got something I can work on.
I've also been in a situation where the client has asked, "What do you charge for this?" and I've looked to the skies for inspiration, come back and said: "£500." They said: "Great."
At that moment, you know you have come in way below what their expectation was. If we're using the £500 example, I would imagine they were expecting to spend at least £1,000.
So what I've done is undersold myself. I found myself in a tricky situation because you can never put the price up. Once the commercial is discussed, it's done.
So price often has to be judged against the expectation to pay. My service didn't change. The work I did didn't change. But the expectation in the room was that I came in underneath.
If their expectation is way higher, I have sold myself short and done myself a disservice.
Find out as much as you possibly can in advance in those conversations about how much you charge and what is standard within your industry. That is critical. And dare I say, have a look on ChatGPT as well because that can help and give you some clarity.
Let's think about the questions to ask before we're asked to quote. Ask: have you bought something like this before?
In the case of the call I had this morning, he said: "Yes, I use somebody right now. I work with them already."
I asked: "Are you prepared to share that?" He said no. So it didn't help much, but there is an expectation that they buy professional services. Therefore, they must be paying a fair market rate. Let's make that assumption.
Are they prepared to tell you what they've spent previously? Do they have an expectation of what this will cost? Is this their frame of reference?
For example, if you are a seasoned event planner and this is the sector you work in, you understand how much things cost.
If you've never organised an event before, you'll fall off your chair when you start to understand where some of the costs lie: day delegate rates, venue costs, transportation, catering and hospitality all cost a fortune.
But it's about expectation. Try to find out as much as possible before you quote.
It brings us on to affordability. If you have an expectation and your client has an expectation, then our job is to show the value that we're going to provide.
"I can't afford it" and "It isn't worth it" are very different conversations.
"I can't afford it" says possibly, "What can you afford?"
Ask the question. Let's use the £500 example. The price is £500. They say, "I can't afford it." You say, "OK, what can you afford?" They say, "£300."
Right. What can we change in terms of scope? If you can only afford to pay £300, what can we change in terms of scope that means I can meet that £300 budget?
Can we meet in the middle? Can you find more budget? Can we take it from somewhere else and bring it in here?
There are always options you can start talking about. The point is that you're now in dialogue.
The greater challenge is: "It isn't worth it." That means you're not showing the value.
One of the biggest challenges I face in my business, and my greatest competitor, is not somebody else. It's doing nothing.
For example, let's use the MC at a conference. They might say: "It's OK. We won't have an MC. We'll save the money and get Dave, the sales director, to do it."
Actually, that's not where Dave's attention should be. He should be managing his sales team, who are managing the relationships in that room. Dave should not be focused on what happens on the stage, nor does he necessarily have any experience.
Yes, he's funny. Yes, he's charming. Yes, he's a great talker. But he isn't necessarily a professional in that field.
What happens is that the value goes down. The perception is that it isn't worth spending the money on. But the reality is that they don't know what good looks like.
It's our job to prove our value. That is a very different conversation from dealing with "I can't afford it."
Then we can start to ask: what does amazing look like to you? What kind of result do you have in mind? Have there ever been times where this has gone wrong?
Paint a picture for me of what amazing value would look like at this particular event. Let's balance out the fact you've spent half a million pounds getting people here, and I'm asking for £500 to add the level of professionalism and quality that makes it memorable, so that you deliver your messages and create the shared experience you're looking for.
Now we're having a different conversation. We're not talking about price anymore.
Avoid affordability. Think about value. "I can't afford it" is very different from "Is it worth it?" And very often, particularly for anybody on this call who is in consultancy, we are competing against doing nothing.
"We just won't spend the money. We don't need to. It's an easy thing to cut. Nobody will notice." Think on.
Now, a little live poll for you. I'd love to get your comments on this. Often, when people buy consultancy, what are they actually buying?
If I have a product and I make cupcakes, for example, I know it costs me 75p to make each cupcake in ingredients. I know that a batch of 100 takes me one hour. I know that the other costs, in terms of electricity and transportation, are about 25p.
So it costs me £1 to make every cupcake, and I sell them for £1.50, giving me a 50p margin on each cupcake. One of them falls off the end of the tray, so I have to take that into consideration.
It's what's called cost plus. That's the cost of making it, and therefore that is the price I sell it for. Your margin sits on top.
When you're selling consultancy services, it's very different. So I'm interested to know: what are we actually selling?
I'm looking at the poll as it's coming through now. Your time and hours, four percent say that. Seventy-eight percent say expertise. Others say reduced risk or your judgement.
Expertise is a difficult thing to quantify. It's also a difficult thing to qualify.
My expertise: 25 years in the industry. Yes, but you can still have been in an industry for 25 years and be rubbish at it. It happens.
How do you show your expertise? That is the million-dollar question.
Thank you for participating. Can we end that poll now?
Seventy-eight percent said expertise. Great. Let's keep that in mind.
I'll come back to expertise in just a moment. Now let's think about the moment where we start to talk about the money.
"How much is it?" I was asked this very question this morning, but I was not qualified to answer it because there's some work I need to do before I present my price. The client accepted that and said: "Yes, OK. Get back to me."
I asked a number of pertinent questions and found out as much as I could. I've got an idea in my mind, which I'm going to discuss with my colleague, and then I will present my price.
Sometimes it's appropriate to do that. Other times, you have to present your price there and then.
So how much is it? What's the price going to be? I'm interested in the kind of emotion we feel when we suddenly get asked that question.
I mentioned a moment ago that a fast yes is not always a good sign when you say it. The underpriced project often means you've misjudged the budget and expectations, and you may have misjudged the scope of the work.
Don't leave money on the table. Really think about where you're going to pitch. I've undersold myself too many times.
You're going to come up with your number. Let's say, for argument's sake, your daily rate is £500. Whether it's more or less, we're using that for this example.
The key ingredient here is that we don't want to negotiate against ourselves. We don't know what the reaction is going to be.
I watched a documentary the other day about one of the chief designers at Ferrari. He said people love to criticise, judge and be scathing about their designs. They take that as really positive feedback.
The more critical and judgemental people are, the more they listen and use that feedback to inspire their design language moving forward.
I thought that was a lovely way of taking judgement, criticism and potential negativity, switching it on its head and saying: yes, we can work with that in the future. It will inspire us and shape the conversation.
Pushback, rejection and criticism are opportunities to engage in the conversation.
But the big thing here, as we move on to saying the figure, is not negotiating with yourself. What do I mean by that?
Think about the voice and confidence you're going to have as you deliver your number. You need to be able to say this in a way that is clear, concise, compelling and calm.
That is important. Be ready for some kind of response.
Before we do that, let's have a quick look at this poll. What are we showing in our voice and body language when money comes up? Confidence, discomfort, nerves or something else?
There is a certain type of person, and I was discussing this with someone this morning, who believes they are worth far more than they are.
I suspect those people are not on this call today, but they have an overinflated sense of their own value.
The classic example, for those of you based in the UK or the US, is The Apprentice. They prime those people to overinflate their sense of importance and talent. Then we all laugh as Alan Sugar, or Donald Trump as it used to be, brings them down a peg or two.
We love to see that. We love the jeopardy of it.
But I suspect most people are lacking confidence and feeling discomfort when it comes to talking about money.
Those at the extreme of overconfidence get their reaction, but for most, as you've shown in this poll, it's about discomfort. We feel uncomfortable when we start to talk about money.
Let's end that poll now.
I want you to imagine something. Imagine that professionally, your diary is absolutely full to the brim. Everybody wants you. You are in constant demand. You are completely financially secure.
Whatever that looks like for you, you have no need to earn any more money. In fact, if you stopped work today, you could live comfortably and happily for the rest of your life. You do not need this work, whether you do it or not.
You want to do it. You want to engage in this project. You want to be part of it because you enjoy this type of work, the difference you can make, the contribution you can make and the value you can provide.
But you don't need it. You want it. You'd love to do it, but the dependency isn't there.
So, your diary is full and you are completely financially secure. You don't need the work, but you'd really love to do it.
How does that shift your mindset? How does that shift your thinking when you deliver the sum?
It's £500. A sum of money that you've charged many times before and people have been delighted to pay. It's £500. As simple as that.
What happens then? We often let insecurity set in and say: "Well, normally, with this type of work for a client like this, it would be somewhere in the region of £500. But I can be flexible on that if..." You're negotiating with yourself.
The strong way is to say it very simply, without arrogance but with confidence. A calm confidence. Remember the example about not needing this, but wanting it.
"It's £500." Then you say nothing more.
You sit and wait. You sit in the silence and wait for the response, because that response will dictate where the conversation goes next.
As the chief designer at Ferrari said, it doesn't matter where the conversation goes. If they say, "Yes, that's acceptable. That meets our budget," great. They may say yes straight away, which means maybe you've come in a little cheap.
Or they may say: "It's too expensive. It's not worth it. I don't see the value. I think we'll leave that this year. We might go down a different route. I know somebody cheaper."
In my case, they might say: "We'll get Dave, the sales director, to do it." Or: "We don't need coaching. These guys know what they're doing."
Then you've got a very different conversation. And we have talked about that before.
But the confidence you have to deliver that number and say, "It's £500," is critical. It's calm, measured and confidently delivered without a hint of arrogance.
That silence is not something you should be uncomfortable with. Your body language needs to create neutrality. Don't wriggle. Don't move. Don't look left and right. Just focus on your breathing.
Nice, calm, deep breaths. Enjoy being in that silence, if there is one. The first person to speak will be your client, not you. It will take as long as it takes.
It may feel like a lifetime, but it takes as long as it takes. Be in that silence. Let them think. Let them take the lead and come forward with the next step.
To reiterate: state the price.
Become still, physically still, calm and neutral. Maintain eye contact. It's not a stare-out, but a maintenance of eye contact because you're looking for signals and response.
I confess that in the past I have been prone to filling that void. I try hard not to do it now.
It's a natural reaction because all your insecurities flood in at that moment. There's an opportunity then to fill the gap, sell against yourself and say, "I can do it for less," or, "If that's too high," or, "If that doesn't meet your expectation..." And on and on it goes.
We've all been there. We're all human beings. That is natural behaviour. But with a few tools and techniques, we can learn how to overcome it by stating the price, being still and waiting.
It's a challenge for all of us to overcome.
If someone says, "Your price is too high," that is information. It's not rejection. It is an opportunity to prove value.
"You're too expensive." Compared to what? We've talked about this. Compared to another supplier? Compared to the budget they have?
Is that budget high enough? Is it realistic? Are they comparing it to doing nothing at all, which we've talked about? What was their expectation? Are they used to buying services like this?
It is also about their understanding of the problem and how you will address it.
Very often, we don't need to sell ourselves because they see the value. But if they don't, it's worth reiterating it.
One way of doing that is to give an example. Tell a story of a client very similar to them. Explain the jeopardy. The problem was this. We overcame it by doing this. The outcome was enormous success.
Use a story in that example. It's often a way of proving the value you can add.
The final thing I'd like you to think about is this: do I want this work?
Remember what we talked about earlier around financial need. I need to make a mortgage payment. My costs are too high. I've got a holiday to pay for. My car needs repairing. All those factors come together, and we can become quite desperate.
When we're desperate, we tend not to get the business. And when we're desperate, we undersell ourselves.
We could talk about this for a long time, but ask yourself: do I really want this work?
Here's a quick story. People used to ask me to host charity events. You get no fee. They're chaotically organised, often by a cobbled-together production team. Nobody knows what's going on.
As the MC, you have to work five times harder. You don't look as good because the production values are lower. And the output is never that good.
Alternatively, you get a high fee. You work with a very professional organisation, a high-quality production company and high production values. You get treated like a prince and you get the highest possible fee. The outcome looks amazing because of the production team around you.
Anybody who goes on stage knows it's the production team around you that makes you look incredible.
Which do you want to do?
I've stopped doing those charity events now because they're not even grateful for the work you've done. It's pure stress. When you try to drive professionalism, they find it even more stressful because they have a lower bar than you do.
So think about this: do I want this work? I don't want to do those charity events anymore. I want to work with the very best, most professional production companies. That's my goal, because that's where you can do amazing work.
Think about the opportunity, the possibility and what will come next. The world always promises great opportunities next time. But be objective about whether you actually want to work with this organisation and this person.
As I say, the lowest-paid work is often the hardest work you will do because you're not taken seriously.
That changes the game. Rather than asking, "How do I win this?", ask, "Do I want it?"
We're wrapping up the session now.
Quick reminder: understand the context. Where do we sit here? What is actually going on?
Ask the important questions. Does the client understand the value? Do I understand the value I'm bringing and the contribution I'm making?
When it comes to asking for the money, think about holding the silence and being comfortable in that space for as long as it takes.
Not every opportunity is worth winning, and that needs to be taken into consideration.
Understand the expectation around price clearly. And really listen, like the designer. We love criticism and comments because they give us something to work with.
More than anything else, stay calm and think about what you can compare this to. How do I compare this price? How do I compare the value I'm delivering? Very often, that is about the story you are telling.
I invite all of you to join the Pitch Hero Coffee Club. Just scan this QR code.
You'll get the free Pitch Hero audit tool, which is AI-driven. We're building this every day and it gets better every day the more people use it, so please do get involved.
The replay of this session will be on there. There are pricing worksheets and more live workshops, so please do get involved.
The final thing I would leave you with is this: what is the one thing you're going to take away from today?
For me, saying the price is one of the most difficult things we have to do in our negotiations. We have a constant conflict between undervaluing ourselves, particularly if we're not very busy at the moment, and not seeing our true value or proving that value to our client.
It puts us in a place of insecurity and vulnerability, where we can very often undersell ourselves.
You are not alone with this challenge if you suffer from it. It is better to be here with awareness and knowledge, wanting to address it, than to be the arrogant person who overvalues themselves, because nobody wants to work with them.
Be in the place where you develop confidence around value versus what you charge. Thank you.
Beth: Thanks so much, Alan. We've got lots of nice comments in the chat thanking you for the presentation.
Everyone found it really useful. Lots of people are saying they want to try that calm, confident approach, which is great.
Sorry, everyone, we don't have time for Q&A today, but I've popped Alan's details in the chat, so please feel free to reach out to him after this call.
Alan, I don't know if you can see, but there are lots of thank yous in the chat.
Alan: That's lovely to hear. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you for your feedback.
Beth: Brilliant. Thanks for joining, everyone. We'll share the recording and further resources later today. Thank you, Alan. That was a brilliant presentation.
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