Most people who struggle with price objections do not lack a clever reply. They lack practice at the moment itself: the pause after the number is spoken, the sentence that starts to apologise, the urge to fill silence with a discount. That is a speaking skill, and speaking skills improve with repetition aloud, not with reading.
This article is a set of drills. If you want the thinking behind a price concern, our guide to “It's too expensive” covers what the buyer may actually mean. Here the goal is different: to make your delivery steady so that your judgement has room to work.
Why the number is hard to say
When you quote a price, you are exposed. The customer can accept, push back or go quiet, and your brain treats the silence as a verdict. Common reactions are rushing the number, adding “but” straight after it, or lowering it before anyone has objected. All three signal that you do not believe the figure yourself.
The fix is mechanical. You rehearse the sentence until it comes out at a normal pace, and you rehearse what you do in the silence that follows. Nothing here requires a trick.
Drill 1: The flat number
Write the price sentence you actually use, for example: “The Standard plan is [your price] a month per person.” Say it ten times. Rules:
- No lead-in such as “so basically” or “it's only”.
- No trailing explanation. Stop when the sentence ends.
- Same pace as the words before it.
Record yourself once and listen. Most people hear a small rise at the end, as if asking permission. Aim for a falling tone, like any other fact.
Drill 2: Count to three
After the number, stay silent and count to three in your head. Then speak only if the customer has not. This is uncomfortable at first, and that discomfort is the point of the drill.
Run it twenty times in a row, alone. Then try it with a partner or a practice call. The customer usually fills the silence with a real question or a real objection, and either one is more useful than your nervous talking.
Drill 3: The early price question
Customers often ask “How much is it?” in the first minute, before you have learned anything. Prepare two replies and practise switching between them:
- Give the figure plainly if you have a standard price: “Plans start at [your price] a month. Can I ask what you would use it for, so I can point you to the right one?”
- Say what you need first if the price truly depends on their situation: “It depends on team size and usage, so I would be guessing. Two quick questions and I can give you a real answer.”
Do not dodge. Avoiding the question entirely tends to irritate people and invites the objection you are trying to avoid. Practise both replies aloud until each takes under ten seconds.
Drill 4: The three-sentence reply
For “it's too expensive”, build a reply with three short parts:
- Acknowledge: “That's fair, I would want to understand it too.”
- Ask: “Is it more the total amount, or whether it is worth it for you?”
- Listen: stop talking.
Say it, then answer yourself in three different ways: a hard budget limit, a comparison with something cheaper, and unsureness about the benefit. Notice that your next move changes each time. If you reach for the same response every time, you are reciting, not responding.
Drill 5: The firm no
Practise the case people avoid. The customer says: “No, we can't spend that.” Write two lines you are comfortable with:
- “Understood. I will not push. If the situation changes, you know where we are.”
- “Thanks for being direct. Would it be alright if I checked in next quarter?”
Do not invent a discount, a smaller package or approval from a manager that does not exist. Ending cleanly protects your credibility and often leaves the door open honestly. Rehearse leaving the call without defensiveness; it feels unnatural until you have done it a dozen times.
Put the drills in sequence
A single ten-minute session could look like this:
- 2 minutes: drill 1, the flat number, ten times.
- 2 minutes: drill 2, count to three, ten times.
- 3 minutes: drills 3 and 4 with someone answering back.
- 3 minutes: drill 5, the firm no, then one line noting what you would change.
Do this three times a week and keep the same scenario for a week before switching. Familiarity is what lets you notice small differences in your delivery.
What good looks like
You will know it is working when:
- The number leaves your mouth without a preface.
- You can sit in a silence of three seconds without adding anything.
- Your questions change depending on what the customer said.
- You can accept a no without a hurt tone.
These are observable, so you can check them on a recording rather than trusting a feeling.
Practising with a customer who answers back
Solo drills fix delivery. They cannot fix timing with a person who interrupts, hesitates or changes direction. For that you need a partner. A colleague works but is not always available, and sometimes they go easy on you.
DIRI AI lets you rehearse by voice with an AI that plays the customer, so you can run the price scenario as often as you like. After the call you get a report on what happened. The objection of the week page is a quick way to pick a focus, and our wider guide to objection handling practice shows how to build a list.
Related: When a buyer says It's too expensive, How to practise sales objection handling, We Have No Budget: Phone Responses That Work. Free tool: Sales Glossary.
Try it once
Pick one drill, do it today for two minutes, and keep the recording. DIRI AI has a Free plan with 3 calls a month of up to five minutes each, with no card needed. Start on the Free plan and run a price-objection scenario while the drills are fresh.