Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / When the Prospect Asks for a Discount Before You Quote
Transcript
- Lucas: You send the calendar invite for a discovery call. Prospect shows up, pleasantries, about ninety seconds in they lean forward and say — 'So what's your best price?' Luna: Before you've even shown them the product. Before they know what it does. Lucas: Exactly. This is one of the most common — and most unnerving — moments in sales. And most reps handle it wrong. Luna: How do they usually handle it? Lucas: They panic. They stammer out a number, or they deflect with something like 'it depends,' which sounds evasive. Or they actually do give a price, and then the prospect says 'that's too high' before the rep has established any value. Luna: That's a disaster. You've just let the prospect anchor the entire negotiation on a number with zero context. Lucas: Yeah, and once that number is out there, you're fighting uphill. So today I want to talk about a specific technique that a rep I know used to handle this exact moment. She was selling a mid-market SaaS platform, annual contract value about $180,000. Luna: That's a serious deal. Not a small ask. Lucas: Right. And the prospect — it's the VP of Operations at a logistics company — opens the second call with 'Just give me the price, we're comparing vendors.' If this show has ever given you a practical takeaway to use in your work, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Now, what this rep did next is worth the price of admission. Luna: I'm curious what she said. Lucas: She used something I call 'the bracket.' She said: 'I can give you a range right now, but I'd be doing us both a disservice because the final number depends on how we scope it. The bracket for our typical logistics customer is between $120,000 and $200,000 annually. If you tell me more about your current process and what you need, I can tell you exactly where you'd land in that range.' Luna: So she gave a range, but framed it as 'here's where you could be, now help me narrow it.' Lucas: Exactly. She didn't hide the price. She didn't deflect. She answered the question directly — with a bracket — and immediately pivoted back to discovery. That does three things. One, it shows transparency. Two, it puts the prospect in a collaborative frame instead of an adversarial one. Three, it gives the rep control over the timing of the real number. Luna: And the prospect? Did they push back? Lucas: The VP said 'Fine, but we're looking at the lower end.' And she said 'I hear you. Let's talk about what that lower-end scope looks like.' Then she spent the next twenty minutes asking about their warehouse volumes, their integration stack, their compliance requirements. Luna: Classic. She used the bracket to buy herself time to build value. Lucas: Exactly. And by the end of that call, the VP had described a problem that was clearly in the $180,000 range based on complexity. She didn't have to sell the price — the prospect sold themselves on the scope. Luna: So the bracket works because it acknowledges the question without surrendering the negotiation. Lucas: That's the key. The worst thing you can do is refuse to answer. That kills trust. The second worst is to give a single number and then try to walk it back later. The bracket is a middle path. Luna: Is there a risk that the prospect just says 'OK, I'll take the low end' and that's the end of it? Lucas: That can happen, but it's rare in practice because the low end usually includes a scope that doesn't solve their real problem. The rep's job is to make the low end feel inadequate — not by badmouthing it, but by asking questions that reveal the gap. Luna: So you're not tricking them. You're genuinely helping them understand what they need. Lucas: Right. And if after all that they still want the low-end scope and it genuinely works for them — great, you have a deal. But more often, the prospect realizes they need more. Luna: I want to go back to the mechanics of the bracket. You said the range was $120k to $200k. How wide should the bracket be? Lucas: Good question. I've seen brackets as narrow as ten percent and as wide as double. The rule of thumb: wide enough to cover the reasonable scope variation, narrow enough that the top end isn't laughably high. If you say $50,000 to $500,000, you sound like you have no idea. The bracket should be credible. Luna: So you need to know your own pricing well enough to set a meaningful range. Lucas: Absolutely. And you need to be able to justify why the top end is the top end. In that deal, the rep's top end was driven by complex integrations and high transaction volumes. She knew those levers. Luna: What if the prospect comes back with 'I need the number for my boss, can't you just give me a firm quote?' Lucas: Then you say 'I can write a proposal based on a typical scope, but I want to make sure it's accurate. Can we set fifteen minutes to review a draft before I send the formal quote?' That keeps the bracket alive and buys another touchpoint. Luna: I notice you haven't told us how that deal ended. Lucas: It closed at $180,000. Full price. No discount. The VP never asked for a discount again after that call. Luna: Because the bracket absorbed that pressure early. Lucas: Exactly. The bracket is a conversational tool, not a pricing model. It's about controlling the tempo of the negotiation. The prospect who asks for price before value isn't hostile — they're just trying to shortcut their own process. The bracket honors their question while protecting your position. Luna: And it works for smaller deals too? Lucas: Absolutely. You can apply the same logic at any price point. A friend of mine sells consulting engagements around $15,000. He uses a bracket of $10,000 to $20,000. Same principle. Luna: Any common mistakes you see people make with the bracket? Lucas: Two. First, they make the bracket too narrow — like $17,000 to $18,000 — which defeats the purpose. Second, they use it as a one-liner and then go silent. You have to immediately follow with a question that invites the prospect into the scope discussion. Luna: So the bracket is a bridge, not a destination. Lucas: Exactly. And if you bridge successfully, you never have to defend your price. The prospect defends it for you. Luna: I think that's a great note to end on. Maybe next time we can talk about what happens when they still push for a discount after the bracket. Lucas: That's a good one. We'll save that for another episode.