What To Do When Everyone Has a Price Objection

This week’s episode focuses on what to do when everyone has a price objection. Em and Lex speak to their own experiences of handling pricing objections and give tips on what to do when leads are pushing back against your pricing. They review how to navigate identifying if your pricing really is the problem, or if it’s another issue entirely.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• How to determine if someone has a pricing objection, or if the real objection is masked.
• Tips on how to get people to buy in to your price point
• Indications and tips on when you might be pricing incorrectly
• Understanding how to navigate price objections
• Examples of price ranges based on different services and items 
• How different people equate value in different ways
• Reminders on owning your worth and feeling confident in your rates
• And more!

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachcommunity

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Transcript

Lexie Smith  

Welcome back from overseas. Thank you, Darling. I had a wonderful trip everyone. I'm absolutely in love with London. Did you did you go to the loo while you were there? The toilet actually the Toilet? Toilet, not the bathroom which I mean fair, it's not like the okay let's talk about this for a second in America right we have a bathroom restroom. In fifth grade my toilet we don't really call it the toilet here. Where's the toilet? That's kind

Emily Merrell  

of feels rude. When you say toilet.

Lexie Smith  

That's like crass.

Emily Merrell  

crass. Exactly. That's the word I was gonna say. But

Lexie Smith  

to be fair, do you go and rest in the bathroom? I mean, I guess. But no, but do you go and take a bath at a public restroom? Or no? The toilet makes more sense. It does.

Emily Merrell  

It does the loo just throws me off. I don't know what's happening when blue.

Lexie Smith  

There's so many words. One,

Emily Merrell  

it reminds me a lot of Spain Spanish and like Mexican Spanish. The words can mean different things like you say a product Demento in Mexican Spanish, but you say piso in Spain, and it means flat. It's like translates to flat. And so it's like you know what it means? But you wouldn't say it in that culture. And that's how I feel like British English is to

Lexie Smith  

now 100 American English apart apartments or apartments or flats. And what was another one? Can I get your autograph is what they say when because you had to sign everything. Because we had an American card so it's connected to your autograph and then that perfectly teed me up? Every time to go? It'll go cost ya truly did truly did say that line every time and had so much joy. They're

Emily Merrell  

like, wow, we you deserve a special place in hell for saying that joke. 99%

Lexie Smith  

of them didn't even react. There was one gal at a coffee shop. I also went to Cardiff Wales, who who? What'd she say back? She's like, Oh, you know what worth it. I could pay off my flat. And I was like, girl, you speak my language. Thank you, I believe, like 5000 times it took took you to really appreciate the

Emily Merrell  

humor. I was talking to one of my clients who's an actress, and I was asking her if people ever recognize her or stop her, or ask for her autograph. And she's like, I think I've had given my autograph twice. But like most people ask for pictures when they say something. And I was like, That's so true. Just how different autographs have come over the years. I feel like I wouldn't if I saw a celebrity, what would I do with someone's autograph? I would want proof that I saw this person and that I took a picture with them.

Lexie Smith  

I worked for a I was on the promotions team of a company called Alpha broadcasting in Oregon. I'm in college for a year and they they're in charge of all the different radio stations across the Portland metropolitan area. And what I got to do is go to really cool events and basically represent the the radio show so anyways, we went to an Ellie Goulding concert, and I got to they were giving you a picture for her to sign and then you got a picture as well. So I feel like an autograph makes sense. If you have like literally like like the printout picture which I have in this case it's like one of my cool like career moments, but I also got the picture so it's like double when it's

Emily Merrell  

you put the you put the autograph in your seat.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah before I die oh yeah, like a box of keepsakes. It's like a little box of KeepKey like a shoe box and I just slipped it in there

Emily Merrell  

like there's been a terrible fire but Ellie Goulding signature is preserved so funny I

Lexie Smith  

think more so I don't lose it because like the safe is something where you know we put the things we don't want to lose even more than it is to like protect from burglars so yeah, I got the passport Social Security and like gold

Emily Merrell  

that's my favorite thing. And then tire world. I Gosh, I wish like I'm so bummed I missed to like your bridal stage of life because there's so many good stories that I could pull out I would have given great speeches at your your wedding.

Lexie Smith  

Yes, you really really. I had I gave a lot people lots of ammo. I was gonna say though, you know some people speaking of like charging for autographs like my fabulous joke. It segues perfectly, perfectly darling. It's perfectly splendid transition into what we're going to talk today, which We're gonna look at what to do or what does it mean when everyone has an air quotes price objection.

Emily Merrell  

Lexi Lexi. Lexi. First off, I just want to say if you didn't listen to last week's episode, I did a beautiful transition and chatted it out to you and you were abroad. So just listen to the transition for them should, as I should I've learned from the best price objections. So before we dig into price objection, objections Lex, I think first kind of defining, I think we should define what it is and what a price objection looks like. So I'll give an example of you're shopping for a dress, and you have a budget in mind for this special event that you're going to and you only want to spend maybe $150 on a dress, and then you fall in love with a dress, it fits you like a glove, but then you check the price tag because you're silly goose and you didn't check it beforehand. And it is $450 your body and self might have a price objection. In your mind. You knew you wanted a dress, you were shopping for a dress, but that was not what you were willing to do, even though this is the dress of your dreams. So that's one example of like a real life example of a price objection. Like do you want to give a coaching example of a price objection?

Lexie Smith  

Sure thing you silly gives you your in Quran when y'all were on one. Yeah, yep, yep. Yep. They're like, when are you not, um, you're on a call, you have a great call, okay, and you get to the price. And that's what shut it down. So they either say I can't afford that. Or they say, that's not what I'm looking to spend or, you know, my sometimes a partner is uncomfortable, but basically that ends a sale, they placed the blame on the price. So that is when we say a price objection, like it's too much, or I can do your coaching because of the price. Rather than saying timing, rather than saying it's not a fit. They highlight the cost or the price point as their why.

Emily Merrell  

And they close the door. End of story. There's no wiggle room type of thing. They see your your they see your payment plan options. They see your pay in full options. And they're just like, yeah, no, that's not what we can do. So

Lexie Smith  

I think we hear a lot of people come to us when they're not maybe having we had a an episode of what to do after a failed launch a couple of weeks back. And one of the things we hear or we have heard from coaches is, well, no one's buying because of my price. Everyone's everyone says it's too expensive. So it becomes something that a coach can fixate on, and blame as to why they are not selling or filling a roster.

Emily Merrell  

So some solutions of price objection lacks, I'm just coming to my mind is like are these the right people that they're selling to? Like? Are they selling to the right people? If they're all having price objections?

Lexie Smith  

Well, I think to that point, it's the first thing you need to do is understand if it's truly a price objection, or if it's something else,

Emily Merrell  

and how I would recommend people figure that out.

Lexie Smith  

Third question asking, honestly, and I know that can take a little bit of balls. I think there's some amount of intuition involved. But when someone has a price objection, it's either, yes, they literally can't afford it, or they don't see the value. So what we want to figure out is, which one is it? Is it truly they can't afford? Or are they using that as an easy excuse? Because they aren't placing that amount of value? So I think questions you can you can go into a series of questions to identify that you can say, you know, a crossword an issue, do you think this would be a good fit? Or if you know, this was a different price point, you know, would you would you sign up or you can start to ask some more discovery questions. If you're truly feeling like, is it really like the price point that is turning people away? To get to the bottom of if it's truly what what is the objection at core?

Emily Merrell  

And I do think a lot of people who, when it's their first time hiring a coach, there's going to be that sticker shock, that initial sticker shock, I think I think I told my first coach to eff herself, like when she told me how much she was positive I did actually. And she worked through my price objections, and she got me to the other side. But I was so blown away by how, how I thought how expensive it was. And then she offered me solutions. She broke me down into more payment plans that worked for me. So it was interesting seeing how being the person on the side of a price objection, how someone got me over the hurdle.

Lexie Smith  

I want to give an example too and Emily and I have talked about a lot, but I think price, price objections can really vary to based on the type of coach you are. Because certain people, and I'm gonna use myself, as an example equate value differently. So for example, let's take $500 for me a $500 business investment I don't blink at. However, if I walk into a Coach store, I don't even know if that would be a $500 price.

Emily Merrell  

You always go back to coach, do you want a Coach bag?

Lexie Smith  

I don't know, I have a coach wallet. And I feel like it's fancy. I didn't buy it, it was a gift. So you go into insert really expensive store and I see a handbag that's $500. And I want to like, bite people, it makes me so mad. But why $500 is $500. So why am I not even blinking spending it on my business. But I have $500 I look at the bag, and I won't. And it's how I equate value, I don't equate a bag worth of $500 value. And that's me. So I think there is psychology involved in a little bit of understanding like what and how someone equates value. And based on the type of coach you are, you might have a little bit more hurdle than you know, a coach to your right.

Emily Merrell  

And I think that's a really good example of like a tangible thing for you treating yourself. And the same can be said to your point about with business. Like I think it can be easier for someone to invest in a business coach, who is a big amount of money, because they know that they're going to see their goal and their desire. And their hope is to see an ROI on their business. While say like a health coach, while they've been in terrible pain for the last six years, they've still might not be prioritizing themselves in their health journey. And that might feel like a more challenging, a challenging thing to accept unless if it was worded in a way or this if you're a health coach listening, take notes, like you are giving them an ROI because you're saving them 1000s of dollars down the line and health bills.

Lexie Smith  

So I think that's a great point like beyond how we equate it value wise, can we see the return? And is how clear is that return? And how do we equate the value of that return? Because in all honesty, I also have had health price objections. But $500 In a business strategy session maybe will make me 1000. But if I spend $500 on a coach and heals me, I mean, that's priceless. But my messed up brain still has issues. So there's some there's some people that just aren't there yet. And that's something or point where there's going to be an element of you know, once you figure out, Is it truly a price objection or not? Like, there's only so much you can do with some people?

Emily Merrell  

Ya know, and I think that's true. So, you know, you're in this situation, this person is like a dream client. So here's the question, should you lower your prices? Like, should you say, Make this person a hell yes, no matter the price point, or? Or like, what did we do? What do you What does someone do in this situation? Like, what would you do?

Lexie Smith  

And I'm, I'm a believer that the price is the price. The price is the price, I set the price for a reason. That being said, I also believe there's always Asterix in life. So for my agency, for example, I do have a pro bono client that I have. And that's an asterix. And that is something that we had another episode recently where we were talking about, you're allowed to make exceptions when you're the boss, you can always make an exception if this is truly a perfect client and your heart is feeling called. And you really do think it's a price point they can't afford. You can like you're the boss, you're allowed to give yourself like a an Astra. Yeah, yeah, don't get in the habit of thinking, you need to do that for everyone. And that's the only way people will buy and hold lately

Emily Merrell  

completely, completely, completely agree. And I think there's so many different ways to get to the goal that you want. Like, if you have a payment plan, maybe it's making the payment plan the same price as you're paying in full. And so you're like waiving the extra prices for the payment plan, or if it's a payment plan, it's extended payment plan.

Emily Merrell  

So instead of four payments, it's six payments, and you know that when you are taking on extended payment plans, there are risks involved. So I just want to add that caveat to it like there are things that can happen people can drop off, but again, you're making it a lot easier for them to say yes, especially if they came in being like my monthly budget was 500 bucks and your payment plan was 975. How can we get to five 100 bucks,

Lexie Smith  

can we extend it? So you can, you can definitely get creative. Let's also talk about, you know, we kind of touched on this in how people perceive value. But also, what are some indications that you might be pricing wrong? Like, what are some factors to consider?

Emily Merrell  

Well, I think the way that people react when you say their price is a big thing, first and foremost, if someone's like, oh, yeah, that's what I was thinking when you when you have the when you say, add the price conversation versus, oh, wow, that's a lot more than I anticipated, you can kind of understand by just reading people's face and body language. I do think and we've talked about this in other episodes, just preparing people for the costs. So if there's something on your website or something on an onboarding, where it's like, working one on one starts at so people know what they're opting into before they get on a call. Those are the two things that come to my mind. Lakhs What

Lexie Smith  

about you? Yeah, so I think there is true to a price point matching and audience. So I don't think it's a dead, dead ringer winter, during

Emily Merrell  

winter. Instead of saying, No, you're like, mixing theory, I

Lexie Smith  

don't think you are a dead giveaway the bullseye. If you're charging $100,000 for your start your business class, correct. It's a young entrepreneur. So I think they're, you know, you have to be be mindful. And that's for a business coach, you need to be mindful of your price point and your audience. If you're a health coach, and you want to charge $5,000, you need to go to a more fluid crowd. There's just some realities in there. The other thing is the life cycle of how long it's going to take and what's involved to sell that client. A great example here is b2b versus b2c. I was on a call yesterday and helping a source A outside sales company for a client of mine. And I'm getting like all the prices of what the agencies would cost. And he's like, Well, what's what is it b2b or b2c? Because we have very different prices for that, and a very different process. And it's so true, if you're selling a small seminar as a coach, or a six week course, that's $1,000, your sales cycle for that. And the steps involved will typically look a lot different than if you're selling, you know, maybe to a corporation, a $15,000 price tag or $50,000 price tag, there's going to be different steps, different processes. So I think it's worth looking at your price point to your audience, and also the process based on the audience and price point.

Emily Merrell  

I think that's such a wonderful thing to point out and that so many people, they they just miss price themselves to the wrong audiences, they're like, to your point there, have corporate pricing for someone who's just starting their business, or they and that that happens to most are like, Oh, they're an entrepreneur, I'm going to, you know, it's going to be $25,000 for a four month mentorship with me, we're going to meet once a month, you're like No, as an entrepreneur, you are going to be needing that hand holding, you're starting a business like you need to change your prices because of that, in that being said, that means you can have different prices for different audience sets. Maybe you have something that that is just for the like beginning entrepreneurs, that is a sweeter price point or a lower price point. But then when they've reached a certain threshold, you have like a more accelerated offering.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, 100%. And I think too, if you are going higher ticket, just keep in mind, it takes more No more like and more trust, so just might take longer. And so maybe you need to figure out other ways to nurture other ways to qualify. That's just the reality. I'll talk to anyone in b2b sales across any industry and the sales cycle is longer. It's proven that way. So just a couple things to think about. I hurts me when people immediately run to to just okay, no one can afford it. I priced it wrong. I'm going to lower the price, when it's I wish it was that simple. It's not that simple. There's a lot more things to look at. Are you articulating the value properly? Right? Are you truly getting across? What transformation you're delivering? Who are you marketing to? Are you getting the right people on the phone? And how warm are they when they get on the phone? You know, if they just came from a an ad or they've seen you once they might, they might need to be in your world a little bit more. So defaulting to price, you know, is an easy cop out.

Emily Merrell  

I 1,000% agree with that Lex and I'd also say timing is everything. And this goes back to our earlier episode like we were looking for a very specific coach recently. And so we were on the hunt for a specific coach. And we said are called a whole bunch of coaches until we found the person that we ended up choosing to work with. But similarly, when people joined, ready, set coach, they might have been in our network or they might have been in our community for a while. And the time wasn't right, they might have been ins, they might not have had the confidence to commit to coaching, they might not have had the idea. percolating enough. And then the timing hits. And timing is a huge factor, I think in tackling price objections, because if it's not the right time, and you're forcing, like a round hole and a square peg or whatever it's called, it's not going to it's not going to fit, but when timing aligns, and this is a need that this person is actively seeking out, the price objection is typically easier to figure out.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. 100% I also think there's there's things at play, like the economy, seasons of the year, yeah, like, April, excuse my language, beep, April, right taxes and property taxes, like lots of money in the bank, it's gonna be a little bit harder sometimes to sell, in theory in that month, like, the fact is, when you're a human selling to humans, we need to factor in the human component, if at all, if your career coach who is selling to someone who just got laid off, and they're in a single income household, literally, there's a reality to that, no matter how awesome you are, you're at your job. That might be an instance where you do need to get creative, or are you mispricing to your audience. Yeah. And also,

Emily Merrell  

I love that I, I think for career coaches, and this is just something that I feel like, could be valuable for certain price objections where I've seen this done before, and maybe this isn't for everyone. But like someone who doesn't have the income coming in. Maybe they take a percentage of the job that they they land. And there's like an agreement that way, like you take a percentage, oh, okay, we're gonna work together. It's this deposit. And then once I get you that job, and that means that person has to also get them that job. There's a guarantee in that, but they're taking 10% of what that salary is. And so they're making maybe 10k from $100,000 job.

Lexie Smith  

I think there's two permissions here. There's permission to get creative and permission to say the price is the price. I do think they both come at different stages of your coaching business. I think Emily and I are at your prices, your price point, but definitely when I was getting started, it felt better to get creative. So permission either way. Guess what? It's your business. Yeah.

Emily Merrell  

And your boss says you got this. Can you do the boss thing, Lex? I like when you do the boss thing?

Lexie Smith  

What's the boss thing or mission?

Emily Merrell  

Oh, time off.

Lexie Smith  

That's Hey, Hey, boss. Can I go to London for a week? Sure. Lexi approved. Thanks, boss.

Emily Merrell  

I think it's funny either.

Lexie Smith  

This is why we're human like that coffee shop lady in Cardiff, Wales, who gave me a little little punk back. Oh, totally.

Emily Merrell  

I've got the giggles right before bed. I should just call you instead of talking to my husband, you'll probably appreciate it more. Okay, so in conclusion to this episode, lacks homework for individuals who are struggling with price objection, who want to take their price that is probably perfectly priced, and throw it out the window. The homework that I have for you, and I'm gonna give homework today and you can give homework today to LAX. But I want you to look at how you're offering it to the point earlier like Are you are you showcasing what the transformation is? Are you really highlighting like the value of this program? Or are you so fixated on the price that it's paralyzing you from moving forward? To

Lexie Smith  

do I think I think the auditing is perfect, right? Is it truly the price objection? Have you mismatched your audience? Are you not articulating the value correctly? Like really start to dive deep and think through that if that feels hard to do by yourself? Phone a friend phone a coach, pop in the RC community ask for feedback, right? That's a great place to to have others weigh in do a little bit of market research. Can you find other people selling at this price point? Don't allow yourself to immediately resort to okay I have to chip in myself.

Emily Merrell  

Totally and you are worth your price. So remember that

Lexie Smith  

hills to the Yes.

Emily Merrell  

So we will see you the next time. I'm ready to

Lexie Smith  

coach podcast Cheerio. Cheerio.