Latest / Sales Leadership with Fexingo: Quota Carriers, Sales Managers, and Revenue Teams / How to Sell When the Prospect Thinks Your Price Is Unfair
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a moment in enterprise sales that makes even veteran reps go quiet — the prospect looks you in the eye and says, 'This isn't just expensive. This is unfair.' Luna: Oof. I've seen that shut down a whole room. The procurement director, the CFO — it's not a budget objection, it's a character attack. Lucas: Exactly. And most sales training treats price objections as a single category — you get the 'it's too expensive' script. But 'unfair' is a different animal. It triggers a moral reaction, not just a financial one. Luna: So how do you decouple fairness from price? Because the prospect is conflating them. Lucas: That's the core skill. Let me give you a concrete case. I spoke with a SaaS company last month that sells compliance software. Their average deal is about two point three million dollars over three years. They were competing against a legacy vendor that charged roughly forty percent less for a product that did maybe sixty percent of what theirs did. Luna: Classic apples to oranges, but the prospect sees the same category label. Lucas: Right. The procurement director at the target company — a large regional bank — said, and I'm paraphrasing, 'You're taking advantage of us because we're in a regulatory bind. Your price is unfair.' The rep froze. Luna: Because the accusation has a moral edge. You can't really argue with someone who says you're being unfair — you sound defensive. Lucas: So what the rep did next is the move I want to unpack. She paused, nodded, and said: 'I hear you. Let me be very direct about how we arrived at this number, and you can judge for yourself whether it's fair.' Then she walked through three specific cost drivers — the number of certified compliance hours baked into their support, the frequency of regulatory updates they push automatically, and the cost of the audit trail insurance their platform includes. Luna: She reframed fairness as transparency. Instead of defending the price, she opened up the black box. Lucas: Exactly. And it worked — the deal closed at full price six weeks later. But here's the psychological principle underneath it. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely has done experiments showing that people accept a higher price if they perceive the pricing process as fair. It's not the number — it's the story behind the number. Luna: There's a famous Ariely study where people were willing to pay more for a beer if they thought the price was set by a 'fair' mechanism versus a hotel minibar. Same product, different fairness perception. Lucas: Right. So in sales, when a prospect calls your price unfair, they're essentially saying, 'I don't see the legitimate cost structure. I only see the markup.' Your job is to make the cost structure visible. Luna: But isn't that risky? If you reveal too much, they could use it against you in negotiations — 'Oh, you only have forty percent margin? Then give me a discount.' Lucas: That's the fear, and it's valid. But the research cuts the other way. When you obscure your cost structure, people assume the worst — they imagine even higher margins. Ariely's work shows that perceived unfairness increases when the pricing process is opaque. Transparency actually defuses the moral outrage. Luna: So the move is: don't hide the economics. But frame them around value inputs, not cost-plus. Show them what they're buying, not what it costs you. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a second principle at play here — equity theory. It's the idea that people compare their inputs and outcomes to a reference point. In a sales context, the prospect compares what they pay to what they get, and they compare your price to what others pay. If they think someone else got a better deal, the fairness alarm goes off. Luna: That's why some companies put pricing on the website now. They eliminate the 'someone else paid less' anxiety. Lucas: Buffer and others do that. But in enterprise sales, where pricing is often custom, you can still use equity theory proactively. One tactic I've seen work: before the prospect even raises price, the rep says, 'I want you to know that we price consistently across similar customers. Your quote is based on the same framework we use for every client in your industry segment.' Luna: That inoculates against the fairness objection before it surfaces. Clever. Lucas: And if the objection does come, there's a three-step response I've been coaching reps on. Step one: validate the emotion — 'I understand why you'd say that. It sounds like a big number.' Step two: isolate the fairness element — 'Help me understand — is it the total amount that feels unfair, or is it the difference between our price and the competitor's?' Step three: reframe the comparison — 'Let's look at what that lower-priced solution would actually deliver over three years. Here's a side-by-side of the compliance outcomes.' Luna: I like that. Because the unfairness is often anchored to the wrong comparison. The prospect is comparing your price to a stripped-down alternative. You need to re-anchor them to the full scope. Lucas: Speaking of anchoring — here's a counterintuitive finding. If a prospect calls your price unfair, don't lower it immediately. That actually confirms their suspicion that you were inflating it. Instead, hold the price and add a non-monetary concession — extended implementation support, an extra audit, a dedicated account rep for the first quarter. That addresses the fairness concern without validating the price attack. Luna: So you're changing the ratio of inputs to outputs. They still pay the same, but they get more — so the deal feels more equitable. Lucas: Right. And there's a nice example from the consulting world. McKinsey famously never discounts. But they will scope down the project to fit a budget. That preserves the perceived fairness of their rate while still giving the client a path forward. Luna: That's a good parallel. Let me ask you this — what about the sales rep who feels the price is unfair? I mean, sometimes reps genuinely believe their product is overpriced. That has to leak into the conversation. Lucas: It absolutely does. If you don't believe your own price is fair, the prospect will smell it. So before you can sell against the fairness objection externally, you have to resolve it internally. That might mean understanding your own cost structure better, or getting testimonials from customers who felt the price was fair after seeing results. Luna: The confidence piece is huge. You can't fake belief in your pricing. Lucas: And that's actually a nice thread to pull back to something — this show exists because a lot of you listeners have told us that these conversations help you show up more confidently. Which, honestly, is the whole point. Luna: Yeah. And we want to keep these episodes coming without ads or paywalls. A small group of listeners already helps make that possible through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that support is literally what keeps the lights on. Lucas: Exactly. No guilt, no pressure. Just if the show moves your work forward in some small way, that's where you can chip in. Now back to fairness — because I want to talk about one more scenario. Luna: What's that? Lucas: The prospect who says your price is unfair because a colleague in another department got a lower quote. That's an internal comparison — and it's toxic because it creates distrust inside the company. Luna: Right. And you can't just say 'that was a different deal.' You need a credible reason for the difference. Lucas: Exactly. The best response I've seen is to acknowledge the discrepancy and explain it with a structural factor — 'That earlier quote was for a two-year term with a different scope of work. Your team asked for a three-year term with additional compliance modules, which changes the pricing model.' You're not apologizing; you're educating. Luna: And if the earlier quote really was just a better deal because of a sales mistake? Then you own it. 'That was an error on our part. We've since standardized pricing to ensure fairness across all customers.' That builds trust long-term. Lucas: That's the right call. One data point I want to leave with you: a 2023 study from the Journal of Marketing found that when salespeople proactively address fairness — before the objection — deal close rates improved by eighteen percent. Preemptive transparency works. Luna: So the playbook is: state your pricing philosophy early, explain your cost drivers, and always provide a comparison frame that favors you. Lucas: That's it. And if the unfairness objection still lands, don't fight the emotion. Validate, isolate, and reframe. And never discount — add value instead. Luna: Good framework. I'd add one thing: role-play this with your team. The 'unfair' accusation is jarring — you want muscle memory for the response. Lucas: Great point. Next time you're in a deal review, have someone play the procurement director who drops the fairness bomb. See how your rep handles it. That practice alone can save a seven-figure deal.