How to Speak to a Customer in English About Price Objections
Three response routes for the moment a customer says your price is too high, using customer English that gathers information before it moves on price.
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The renewal call is going well until the customer says the number is higher than another quote. What you say in the next fifteen seconds decides whether the rest of the call is a negotiation about percentage or a conversation about value.
Most guidance on how to speak customer in english covers apologies and refunds, and both are easier, because the customer has already told you what they want. A price objection is different: they have told you a feeling, and the information is still missing.
Why the first sentence decides the call
If your first sentence concedes, the rest of the call is arithmetic. If it defends, the rest of the call is an argument.
The third option is to ask, briefly, what the number is being compared with, because too expensive has at least four meanings: more than a competitor, more than last year, more than the budget, or more than they can justify internally.
Each meaning needs a different answer, and you cannot tell which one you have without one clean question.
Three routes, choose one
Route one, clarify the comparison. Can I ask what you're comparing us with? I want to make sure I'm looking at the same scope.
Route two, isolate the driver. Is it the total figure, or one part of the package that's hard to justify this year?
Route three, reframe to cost per outcome. If we take the twelve-month view, the figure covers the support and the updates, which last year came out at about the same as two days of downtime.
One route per call. Choosing all three at once sounds like a script, and a script is what the customer is already defensive about.
Customer English that acknowledges without conceding
These four lines hold the floor without agreeing that the price is wrong.
I understand, that's a real constraint this year. That's useful to know, thank you. Let me make sure I understand what you're weighing up. I don't want to answer that too quickly.
Notice none of them contain sorry about the price. Apologising for a price you have quoted tells the customer the price was a mistake, which is the opposite of what you need them to believe.
Four phrases that end the negotiation early
That's our best price. Closes the conversation and invites a procurement process.
I can see if I can do something on the number. Opens with a discount before you know what is actually being compared.
Everyone says that at renewal. Positions the objection as a tactic, which insults the person making it.
What number did you have in mind? Hands the pen to the customer, and they will write a low one.
A renewal call using route two
Customer: Honestly, this is higher than we expected.
You: That's useful to know. Is it the total, or is one part of the package hard to justify this year?
Customer: The support tier. We used it twice.
You: That makes sense. So the question is whether the support tier is worth keeping at that level. Two options: keep it and use it more deliberately, or drop to the standard tier and accept a longer response time. Which is closer to how your team works?
Three sentences, no discount, and the conversation has moved from a number to a decision. That is the whole objective of the first response.
Five objection lines to rehearse
It's more than the other quote. We don't have budget for this. Last year it was cheaper. I can get this elsewhere for half. I need to take this to my manager.
For each, say the three routes out loud, one after the other, until the first sentence arrives without a pause. The wording matters less than the habit of asking before conceding.
When the answer really is no
Some objections are budget facts, not negotiating positions. If the customer cannot spend the money this year, the useful move is to agree a smaller scope rather than a lower price for the same scope.
If the budget is fixed, I'd rather reduce the scope than discount the same work, because a discount now resets the number for every renewal after this one.
That sentence is honest, commercially sound, and it keeps the relationship intact.
Frequently asked questions
What do I say when a customer says too expensive?
Ask one clean question before you answer: what is the number being compared with. Then choose one route: clarify the comparison, isolate the part that is hard to justify, or reframe to cost per outcome. Acknowledge the constraint without apologising for the price, and keep the conversation on scope rather than percentage.
Should I offer a discount straight away?
Only if you already know what is being compared and the discount solves the actual problem, which is rare. An immediate discount tells the customer the original number was soft, resets your price for every future renewal, and usually produces a second request rather than a signature.