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Someone says this to you:

"I'm looking at other options and they're cheaper. Any chance you can come down on your price?"

What do you do?

Most founders get all icky inside and because they want the deal so bad they buckle to the pressure of that question.

Then, out comes a number lower than it should be.

Last month I had Casey Brown on the Just Get Started podcast to get her thoughts on pricing and discounting. She has spent 25 years helping companies stop leaving money on the table.

She said, "When a customer beats you up on price, they're giving you a buying signal. If I said to you, Brian, that's outside my budget, or can you sharpen your pencil... I am telling you i'm interested in buying from you because if I had no interest in buying from you, I wouldn't bother doing that. Human beings have no interest in wasting their time…They wouldn't bother beating you up on price if they were just going to go back to the other guy. They'd just go do that."

The comparison is them looking for a reason to say yes. Your job is to give them one.

Without dropping your price.

The moment you discount, you've confirmed their suspicion that you were overcharging to begin with. You've also set a precedent for every negotiation that follows.

Casey shared an example that made this land.

She worked with a software company that had a 100% client renewal rate. Never lost one. They thought it was something to be proud of.

She shared a different perspective. "They had a hundred percent renewal rate. They had never ever lost a client in all the years they'd been selling the software. And it was this huge point of pride for them. And I was like, guys, your prices are way too low. If you aren't losing any business ever over price, if you aren't getting some price pushback, your prices are too low."

No pushback at all is its own red flag.

If you don't have a framework for price objections at all, start with issue #23. It covers the foundation to help you reshape the direction of the conversation:

Acknowledge → Don’t defend, confirm that you heard what they said

Ask → ask follow-up questions to make sure you completely understand

Re-anchor → Take what they said and connect the dots to re-confirm why costs are what they are.

This is that framework applied to a specific scenario, "someone quoted me less. Can you come down?"

Don't react to the price. Buy yourself some room first.

"I want to make sure I come back to you with something that really meets your needs. Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions first?"

Then:

"If we erased the price difference and both options cost exactly the same, which would you choose?"

They'll almost always say you. Now ask why.

"What is it about what we've proposed that makes more sense for you?"

That answer tells you whether there's a real gap to close or whether price is just the last lever they're pulling before saying yes.

Then isolate it:

"Are there any other concerns outside of pricing, or is it purely the cost?"

If it's only price, you've isolated the objection. If something else surfaces, you just uncovered what would've killed the deal later anyway.

People will tell you, either verbally or non-verbally, exactly what they think.

You just have to be willing to ask the uncomfortable questions.

When a buyer mentions a cheaper competitor, they're almost never comparing identical things. Different experience, different service model, different outcomes.

But nobody's helped them see that yet.

That's your job. Not to trash the other option but just to be clear about what's different.

"When we first talked, you said you needed [their problem]. We determined the fit was right because of [your differentiators]. I want to make sure we're actually comparing the same thing, because I'm not sure we are."

Casey's point: buyers don't complain about price when they fully understand the value. They complain when something's still unclear.

Close that gap but don’t try to do it with lowering the price.

Think about the last time someone mentioned a competitor or asked you to come down on price.

Did you feel backed into a corner? Did you discount? Did you ask any questions?

Write out how you'd handle it using this framework.

Practice it out loud before your next call. Get comfortable with the words.

The goal isn't a perfect script (in fact, that doesn’t exist). It's knowing where you stand on your value so clearly that a cheaper comparison doesn't rattle you. Because it shouldn't.

They came to you for a reason.

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