Problem and solution
My team can't handle price objections
The buyer says 'that's more than we expected', and within seconds your rep is offering a discount nobody asked for. It is a habit, not a character flaw, and habits can be rebuilt with short, repeated practice.
Practical guidance for call training. Practice with DIRI AI is for coaching, not for rating or ranking people.
What it feels like
You listen to a call, or hear about one afterwards, and the pattern is familiar. The rep names the price, the buyer breathes in, and the rep rushes to fill the silence: 'but we can look at that', 'I'm sure we can do something'. The value that took twenty minutes to build is gone in ten seconds, and the buyer has learned that the first number was never the real one.
As a manager you feel caught between two bad options. Telling reps 'hold the price' sounds like pressure and does not teach them what to say. Stepping in on live calls does not scale and undermines them in front of the customer. Meanwhile margin leaks quietly, and the reps themselves feel uncomfortable, because they sense they gave something away but cannot explain what else they could have done.
Why it happens
Silence after the number feels like failure
The pause after a price is short in real time but feels very long to the person who said it. Most reps fill it within two seconds, usually by reducing the price or adding a reason. The buyer was often just thinking, and the rep answered a question that was never asked.
They defend the price instead of understanding the objection
'It's expensive' can mean at least four things: more than the budget, more than a competing quote, unclear value, or a way to start negotiating. A rep who responds with a discount treats all four as the same, and so never finds out which one is real.
Value was never tied to the buyer's priorities
If the conversation before the price was about features, the price has nothing to stand against. When the buyer has said what matters most to them, the number can be linked to it. Without that, the only lever left is to make the number smaller.
There is no safe place to say the number aloud
Plenty of reps have never practised the sentence that contains the price. In training they discuss objections, they do not say the figure and then stay quiet. Saying it calmly is a physical skill, and like any skill it needs repetition before it works under pressure.
A method you can use this week
- Agree one shared rule: no concession in the first reply Tell the team plainly that the first response to a price objection is a question, not a discount. This takes the guesswork out of the moment and gives reps permission to stay calm. It also lets you coach one behaviour, which is easier than coaching confidence in general.
- Teach the clean delivery of the number Practise saying the price as a statement with a downward finish, followed by a full stop: 'The annual licence is nine thousand pounds.' Then stop talking. Reps should count a slow three in their head before saying anything else. Do this aloud until it no longer feels rude.
- Use a first question that finds the comparison After the pause, the reply is curious, not defensive: 'Help me understand, is that higher than what you had in mind, or compared to something else you are looking at?' The answer tells you whether you face a budget limit, a competitor or a value gap, and each of those needs a different next move.
- Anchor back on what the buyer said matters Pull in the priority the buyer mentioned earlier: 'You told me the biggest cost today is the time your team spends re-keying orders. If we remove most of that, how does the number look against it?' This does not defend the price; it changes what the price is compared with.
- Offer a trade, not a cut If a concession is genuinely available, attach it to something: a longer term, a smaller scope, a quicker decision. 'If we agree this month, I can hold the start date and include onboarding.' A concession with a condition stays negotiable; a free one resets expectations for every future deal.
Drill: Number, pause, question
A team drill for fifteen minutes in pairs, or a solo version for one rep. One person plays the buyer and reads the objections; the other practises the response. Switch after every round.
- Round one, three minutes: the rep says only the number, 'That comes to six thousand four hundred pounds a year', and then says nothing. The partner counts three seconds silently. Repeat until the pause feels ordinary.
- Round two, three minutes: the buyer says 'That's more than we expected.' The rep answers only with the comparison question, 'More than you had budgeted, or more than another option you are looking at?' and then listens without adding anything.
- Round three, four minutes: the buyer answers honestly, once with 'another supplier is cheaper' and once with 'I need to justify it to my director'. The rep chooses a reply that returns to the priority named earlier, for example 'You said reliability was the sticking point, so what does an outage cost you?'
- Round four, three minutes: the buyer pushes for a discount. The rep offers a trade with a condition and states it in one sentence. The partner says whether it sounded firm or apologetic.
How you know it worked: You will know it is working when the pause no longer feels awkward, when the first reply in every round is a question, and when the pair can say which of the four meanings of 'expensive' the buyer meant.
How DIRI AI helps
DIRI AI gives your reps a private place to say the number out loud and stay in the silence. Pick or write a situation where the buyer raises price, set difficulty and client type, and the AI customer, clearly labelled as AI, reacts to what the rep actually says. If the rep offers a discount at once, the customer behaves as a buyer might, and the rep sees the consequence in the conversation itself.
The report includes a rule-based score from 0 to 100, quoted key moments from the rep's own transcript, the effect of each moment, one concrete next change and better phrasings. Ask each rep to look at the moment right after the number: how long was the pause, and what came first? Reps can repeat the same situation and compare attempts, and their history stays in their account.
Use this as a shared routine for the team, not as a way to rank people. Practice is for training and coaching, and the report must not be the only basis for decisions about people. Managers can use the reports as a starting point for a coaching conversation in a one-to-one. The AI cannot replace real customers or your own judgement about pricing, and the score is a practice guide. Team plans and a team pilot of 90 days for up to 10 advisors exist; the Free plan, no card, is enough to try the routine yourself first.
Try it on a practice call
Free plan: 3 calls a month, up to 5 minutes each, no card. You talk to a customer played by an AI, then read a report that quotes your own words.
Questions people ask
Should reps ever give a discount?
Yes, when it is a deliberate trade and not a reflex. The aim is to stop discounts that appear in the first five seconds, so that any concession is linked to a condition such as term, scope or speed of decision.
How do we practise this without making reps feel judged?
Keep it short, rotate roles and review one behaviour at a time, for example the pause after the number. Avoid scoring reps against each other; make the point of each session a single change they can try on their next live call.
What if the buyer really has a lower competing quote?
Ask what is included in that quote and what the buyer values most. Do not criticise the other supplier. If the offers are not comparable, say so with specifics; if they are, a trade may be the right response.
How often should the team practise?
A fifteen-minute session once a week on one scenario is easier to keep than a long monthly workshop. Repetition of the same pause and the same first question matters more than variety.