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Your proposal is rejected: too expensive, says the client.

Take this situation apart. Each piece goes in one box: yours, or not yours. There is no third box, and almost nothing falls in one piece.

Yours
  • Your price, your explanation of the value, and your choice of clients.You can learn to explain the value better, substantiate your price, or conclude this was not your client. Sort first, decide after; lowering your price out of fright is none of the three.
Not yours
  • The client’s judgment and his budget.What he can spend and what he thinks it is worth is his household. “Too expensive” is not a fact about your work; it is a fact about the meeting between your price and his wallet.
  • What the competitor charges for the same thing.The prices around you are the weather of your market: information, not an order to drop. There is always somebody cheaper, and he is competing on something you may precisely not want to compete on.
The reasoning. Sometimes the answer is adjusting the price; more often it is adjusting the client.
Practise this situation

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