Episode 25: When They Say 'That's Too Expensive' — What to Do Next

Those four words. You know the ones.

You've done the work, built your pricing properly, sent the quote — and then it comes back: "that's too expensive." And suddenly all the confidence you had disappears.

In this episode, I'm talking about what's actually happening in that moment, what it means (and what it doesn't), and what to do next that isn't immediately reaching for a discount.

We cover:

• Why "that's too expensive" is almost always budget information — not a verdict on your work
• The two questions that fire at once when a client pushes back, and why the emotional one tends to drive the response
• A real enquiry I had for a wedding cake — and what happened when I handled it properly
• Three practical responses you can use when the pushback comes
• Why guilt-discounting costs you more than just the money
• The mindset shift that changes how these conversations feel

If you've ever said yes to a price you knew was too low just to make the discomfort stop — this one's for you.

Connect with Annie:

For structured support, training and accountability:
Join The Home Baking Business Academy Membership

https://anniebennett.co.uk/the-home-baking-business-academy/

For regular delves into baking business matters, including taking part in podcast episodes:

https://anniebennett.co.uk/#subscribe

For free tips, insight and real-world business talk:
Follow me on social media

https://www.instagram.com/thehomebakingbusinessacademy/

https://www.facebook.com/thehomebakingbusinessacademy

https://www.tiktok.com/@hbbacademy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-bennett-hbba/

For her website with all this and more:

anniebennett.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to the Profitable Baker Podcast, the show for bakers who mean business. I'm Annie Bennett, founder of the Home Baking Business Academy, and every week I'll be sharing practical lessons, mindset shifts, and inspiring stories from bakers who are building businesses they love. Because success in this industry isn't about who bakes the fanciest cakes, it's about who builds the strongest business foundations. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Profitable Baker podcast with me, Annie Bennett. Now, this episode is the third in our May pricing series, and over the last couple of episodes I've been talking about how to price properly, understanding your real costs, building a price that actually reflects the value of what you do, and having the confidence to charge what your work is worth. Now, you can do all of that work, you can build a brilliant pricing structure, you can know in your bones that your prices are right, and then someone will look at your quote and say those words. That's too expensive. For a lot of homebakers, even experienced ones, even ones who've been running their business for years, those words can knock everything sideways. The doubt creeps in immediately, the internal negotiation starts, the discount appears before you've even had a moment to think. So today I want to talk about that moment. What's actually happening when someone says your prices are too high? What it means and what it doesn't mean. And what to do next that isn't immediately caving, second guessing your entire pricing structure, or spending the next three days wondering if you've got it all wrong. This is one of the most practical episodes I've done in a while, and I think you're going to find it useful. So let's get into it. I want to start by separating two things that tend to get tangled up together in a baker's head the moment a client pushes back on price. The first is the practical question. Is this person going to book with me or not? The second is the emotional question. Have I got this wrong? Am I charging too much? Is there something wrong with my pricing, my work, my business? And here's the problem. When someone says that's too expensive, both of those questions fire at the same time. The practical and the emotional arrive together. And because the emotional one is usually louder, it tends to drive the response. You say yes to a discount, you apologize for your prices, you offer something smaller, something reduced, something that brings down the cost to a level they seem comfortable with. Before you've even had a chance to think about whether that's actually the right decision for your business. And what I want to do in this episode is create just a little bit of distance between those two things. Because the practical question, will this person book, deserves a clear-headed response. And the emotional question, have I got this wrong, deserves a calm, honest look rather than a knee-jerk reaction. Let's start with the emotional one, because I think if we can settle that first, everything else becomes a lot clearer. When someone says your prices are too expensive, the most common interpretation, the one that plays out in a baker's head almost instantly, is that they've made a judgment about your work, that they've looked at what you've offered, weighed it up, and decided it isn't worth what you're asking. And I want to challenge that because most of the time that is not what is happening at all. When someone says that's too expensive, they are almost always telling you something about their budget. They are telling you what they were hoping to spend, or what they've seen elsewhere, or what they had in mind when they started inquiring. They are not, in most cases, making a considered judgment about the quality or value of your work. The phrase that's too expensive is almost never really about you. It's about the gap between what they expected and what you've quoted. And that gap can exist for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with whether your pricing is right. They may have Googled celebration cake cost and got an outdated or misleadingly low result. They may have had a cake made by a friend for the cost of ingredients and assume that's the market rate. They may be comparing your quote to a supermarket cake, whether that's unconsciously or consciously. They may simply have a budget that was never going to reach a properly priced handmade cake from a skilled baker. None of these are a reflection on your work. None of them are a signal that you've mispriced. So the first thing I'd encourage you to do in that moment is to resist the immediate emotional response. Take a breath. Remind yourself that this is budget information, not a verdict on your value. Now let's talk about what you actually say, what you reply, because I think this is where a lot of bakers really feel stuck. They know somewhere that they shouldn't just fold, but they don't know what else to do. The silence after that's too expensive feels long and uncomfortable. And filling it with a discount feels like the easiest way to make the discomfort stop. So let me give you some actual responses you can use. I don't mean scripts to memorize word for word, because we don't want to be doing that, but frameworks for how to handle this moment with confidence but also with warmth. The first response I want to give you is simply ask a question. When someone says your prices are too expensive, a perfectly reasonable thing to say is, can I ask what budget you were working with? That's it. Simple, warm, non-defensive. And the reason this question is so useful is that it gives you information. Because right now you don't actually know why they've pushed back. You don't know whether their budget is £50 away or £20 away or £200 away from their quote. You don't know whether they're comparing you to another baker or to the supermarket. You don't know whether there's any flexibility in what they're asking, whether a smaller cake, different colours, or a different style could bring the cost to somewhere that works for both of you. Asking about their budget opens a conversation, and conversations are almost always more productive than the alternative, which is either a silent negotiation in your own head or an immediate retreat. What you hear back from that question will tell you a lot, and it will help you give an honest, informed response rather than a panicked one. So let's talk about what happens next once you know their budget. There are a few scenarios, and each one has a different right answer. The first scenario is that their budget isn't far off what you've quoted, and there's a genuine way to meet it that doesn't undermine your pricing. Maybe they want a three-tier cake and a two-tier would bring it into their range. Maybe they've asked for elaborate sugar flowers and a simpler finish would reduce the time cost significantly. Maybe there's an element of what they've requested that's genuinely optional and removing it creates real savings rather than just eating into your profit margin. Now, if that's the case, if you can genuinely get to their number by offering something different rather than just doing the same thing for less, then a conversation about options is absolutely the right response. This isn't discounting, this is adjusting the scope to match the budget. And that is a legitimate business conversation, and there's nothing wrong with having it. Let's look at the second scenario, which is that the gap between your quote and their expectation is significant. Let's say their budget is £80 and your quote is £160. There's no smaller version, no simpler finish, no adjusted scope that helps you get to £80 without working for a fraction of your costs. And in that case, the honest answer is that you can't help them at that price. And that's okay. I know that feels uncomfortable to say, but taking a booking at a price that doesn't cover your costs or that covers your costs but leave you nothing really doesn't help you or your business. It gives you the order, yes, but it ties up your time, your oven, your ingredients, and your energy. It means you're not available for an order that would actually be profitable. And it slowly and quietly erodes the sense that your business is worth running. A booking that loses you money, it's not a win, it's a hidden cost. Now the third scenario is one I want to spend a little more time on because it's the one where I see the most damage done. The third scenario is that there's no good reason to discount, but you feel guilty saying no, so you do it anyway. Their budget is too low, and there's no smaller version of the order that makes sense. But the conversation has reached a point where you feel cornered. You want to be nice, you don't want to lose the booking, you don't want to seem difficult. And so you say something like, Okay, let me see what I can do. And you come back with a price that you know as soon as you say it is too low. I'm not going to pretend that I don't understand why this happens. The impulse to be accommodating, to avoid conflict, to say yes when no is harder, that's a really human impulse. And in a home baking business where so much of what you do is personal and connected and relationship-driven, it can feel especially difficult to hold a line. But I want you to think about what discounting in that scenario actually communicates. When you quote £160 and then under pressure you accept £100, you haven't just lost £60 on that order. You've also told that client that £160 wasn't your real price, which means that if they come back again, they'll start lower. And they'll probably tell their friends that's what they paid. And the reputation you build in that interaction is not she's a brilliant baker who's fairly priced, it's she'll negotiate if you push. That reputation does real damage over time, not in a dramatic, obvious way, but quietly. In the orders you attract, in the conversations you have, and in the way clients approach you. I want to give you a few more specific responses for that moment. The moment when the pushback comes and you feel the pull towards the discount. The first one is what I'd like to call a graceful, confident hold. Something like, I completely understand that budgets vary, and I want to be up front with you that this is the price for what you've described. I've priced it to reflect the time and skill that goes into it, and I wouldn't be able to do it justice at a lower cost. Now that's simple, it's honest, and it's not defensive. It doesn't apologize for the price and it doesn't justify it in a way that sounds like you're pleading your case. It just holds the line warmly. The second response is a redirect to scope, something like if budget is a concern, I'm happy to talk through whether a different size or style could work for you. I just want to make sure anything we do together reflects what I do properly. Now this opens a door without lowering your price. It says, I'm flexible on the brief but not on my rate. And the third response, the one for when you genuinely can't help them, is I think my pricing might be at a different level to what you're looking for on this occasion. I wouldn't want to cut corners to get there because the work wouldn't represent me well, but I hope you find the right person for it. Now that last one feels really scary to say. But the number of clients who, when met with genuine warmth and confidence, either come back later when their budget allows or refer someone else or simply leave with a good impression is higher than you think. You don't lose people permanently by being honest about what you charge, you lose them by pretending to be something that you're not. Now, let me tell you about an inquiry that I had a few years ago. It was for a three-tiered wedding cake with handmade sugar flowers to be delivered to a venue around a two-hour drive from me, so that would have been four hours driving altogether. They told me their budget was £250. So I had two options. I could either reply saying sorry, I can't do that, or I could help them out by offering alternatives. Of course, I chose the second. I replied explaining what they could have for that budget, and although I discouraged collections of wedding cakes, I suggested that that would decrease the price significantly, and with a few modifications on the design, I could make it come within their budget. I also quoted them for exactly what they wanted, which was £650. They came back to me a few days later saying they'd re-looked at their wedding budget and would be happy to pay the £650. Sometimes we forget that our customers genuinely have no idea what a cake costs. They aren't taking the mick or being cheeky, they just don't know. It's like, and I often give this example, and I don't know why I always choose patios, but if I was wanting to install a new patio in my garden, I really wouldn't have a clue what that would cost. I would imagine a few hundred, probably into the thousands. But if I sent a tradesman a message saying, I need a new patio and my budget is 500, I shouldn't be surprised if they replied that they can't do it for that price, and here's what they charge. So what I'm saying is when you say or when you hear that's too expensive, what you actually mean is that's out of my budget. Now I want to talk about why this often feels so hard. For most home bakers, their business grew out of something personal. You love baking, you're good at it. People started asking you for things. At some point it became a business, but the roots of it, the love of the craft, the pleasure in making something beautiful for someone's special occasion, those roots are still there. And that means when someone questions your price, it can feel like they're questioning something more than just the quote. It can feel like they're questioning whether what you love is worth anything, whether you're good enough, whether you deserve to be paid properly for it. That is a lot of emotional weight to carry in a conversation about cake. And I think part of the work here, part of what shifting from a hobby baker to a business owner really means in practice, is learning to separate your worth as a human from your worth as a business. Not in a cold transactional way, but in a way that allows you to have commercial conversations without it feeling like a personal referendum on your skills and your value. You are not your prices. Your prices are the cost of your time, your skill, your ingredients, your overheads, and so on. They are a business decision. And they can be discussed, negotiated around, and occasionally declined without it meaning anything about who you are. That is the reframe that I think actually changes how these conversations feel. Not a script or a tactic, but a genuinely different way of understanding what's happening. So let me leave you with a few things to take away from today. The first is this that's too expensive is almost never a judgment on your work, it's budget information, treated as such. The second is that your first move in that conversation should almost always be a question rather than a concession. Ask about their budget, open a conversation, get more information before you decide what to do next. The third is that there are options in that conversation that are not full price and discount. You can adjust the scope, you can adjust, you can offer a different product, you can hold your price warmly and clearly, and you can decline the booking with kindness. Discounting is one option, it's not the only one, and it's often not the best one. And the fourth is that how you feel in that conversation, the discomfort, the guilt, the pull towards a yes is completely normal. But that feeling is not a reason to discount. It's a sign that you're still doing some of the mindset work that comes with running this kind of business. And that work is ongoing. It doesn't suddenly become easy, but it does become easier. So if what we've talked about today has been useful, if you've been in that conversation and you know exactly what it feels like to hear those words and reach for a discount before you've even had a moment to think, then I'd love to have you inside the Academy membership. This month's content is all about pricing. Not just the maths of it, but the psychology, the mindset, the conversations, the moments when it gets hard and what to do in those moments rather than just retreating. Because knowing your numbers is one thing, being able to hold your prices when someone pushes back, that's where the real work is. And that's the work we do together inside the Academy membership. All the details are in the show notes. And if you found this episode useful, please share it with a baker who needs to hear it. And if you have a topic you'd like me to cover, a question that's been sitting in the back of your mind, something that comes up in your business and you're not quite sure how to handle, do let me know. That's genuinely how a lot of these episodes get made. So thank you so much for listening. Until next time, take care of yourselves, take care of your businesses, and the next time someone says that's too expensive, remember, it's not the end of the conversation, it's just the beginning of one. See you next time.