"So what does it cost?"
It's a lot harder as a founder than a seller.
In a tough market, companies tighten up budgets and their processes on how, when, and why they buy software. This has made it even more common for prospects to ask, “so what does it cost?” on the first call instead of later in the qualifying stages of a deal. What people are trying to understand is: “even if I buy, have budget, etc., what hurts or prevents me from scaling?” This is a much more layered question than “what’s the price,” because the underlying concerns are almost always deeper than price. I’ve found prospects come to the negotiation table with varying degrees of understanding their real concerns, objections, or even what questions to ask – most rarely willing to admit they are unaware of how to solve their own problems.
Founder-led sellers need to show up ready to play a different game because traditionally you’d *expect* a buyer to show up with clear expectations, needs, business case — but now the prospect is pressing you about “price” and you don’t know your own formal pricing yet (great news, this is fine!).
Founders (and sellers) get general guidance on sales topics like: “well, you need to do more discovery,” or “you need a champion first,” or “don’t demo on the first call, and definitely don’t send a proposal until you meet the buyer.” These are all likely valid (and best practices for sales), but what requires more context is a deeper understanding of why customers are worried about the price of your product. There are many tactics, podcasts, blogs, and books on how to handle good discovery or run a better POV (I’m happy to recommend all of my favorites). HOWEVER, your troubles as a Founder are far more complex than just learning the sales skills and tactics. You are trying to learn how your prospects want to buy, do your product capabilities justify a purchase, customer preferences, and clear paths towards a purchase all before pricing…!
The questions you want to ask yourself before deciding how to answer the “price” questions and if your sales skills need sharpening or if you’re still in learning mode, ask yourself the following questions. Then again, then again:
Is my pricing publicly available? If not, this is why people are going to ask every. single. time. If for good reason no, how can I tell a narrative that allows people to be at ease on where we start? Who would have the authority to decide on a purchase with the number I shared with the prospect?
Regardless if publicly available vs. not, prospects are worried about scale — have I shared how we make the product cost-effective? How have I done this? Does the customer understand adoption today and into the future? Do I understand what they actually need from a usage perspective, or did I just get excited that I heard Adobe wants to buy 10,000 seats to start? (FYI, world-class buyers AND inexperienced buyers will always tell you the largest possible scenario rather than tell you they want to start as small as possible with very different incentives behind the reasoning).
If I’m anchoring past a $50k threshold, how accurate does my pricing seem? Can people trust things like uptime and do they believe in my long-term roadmap? Do they know anything about our roadmap or ability to scale? Does it NEED to be $50k to start, or am I afraid that we won’t make enough revenue otherwise?
Have I shared with the customer the best and easiest way to start with our product? Why can’t they start there aside from “let me check with my team first.” If they are checking with the team, do I know WHO that team is? Do THEY know who that team is? (Go check your net retention rate when someone started small and made a second purchase 6-12 months later in comparison to your highest paying customers. Which one is your “true ICP?”).
Do I have the right pricing levers in place to go from one tier / threshold to another? If it’s just “more enterprise,” is it clear why someone would spend more or scale with my business?
Do I know how people adopt the product and find real value that justifies why they should spend more with me? Am I consistently collecting, reviewing and refining my product adoption based on the data?
How do people buy comparable options (including my competitors) today? Is it different? If I firmly believe we are correct with our pricing model, have I educated the customer about why we have priced this way? What were their reactions? Who is right?
The list goes on, but the underlying things you need to learn as a Founder is what makes your company easy to buy from. If it is easy, feels easy, and is clear to the prospect how they’ll succeed on your platform, then you can start to build the playbooks and templates for your first AEs to be the objection-handling masters on the front-lines.