Talking about price with a new business prospect can be tricky. Talking about it too soon—when trust is low—can end the conversation, before it has even gained any traction. Talking about it too late could lead to the unfortunate discovery that the prospect is cash poor.

There are a number of ways to prompt the conversation with a prospect. Here’s a list of three that are extremely effective.

3 Effective Ways to Prompt the Conversation about Price

1. Offer an Investment Range

This works well if the advertiser asks you what it’s going to cost and it’s still early in the sales process. You don’t want to just throw out a number you think the prospect wants to hear. Keep your figures in a range that is “sufficient” to reasonably address their business goals.

Examples:

• “We work with hundreds of advertisers, and we have a vast array of tools to help them achieve their objectives. Our approach is to understand your desired business results and then use our expertise in motivating customers to respond to a message. The result is to bring you the right customers to grow your business.”
  
  
• “Now, every client situation is unique. Other clients I work with who are seeing strong results typically invest between X and Y a week. Some invest that every week and some just during selected weeks. Let’s discuss the type of ROI you’ll need to make that type of investment work for you.”

2. Quantify Desired Business Results

Once you’ve identified the Desired Business Results (need, challenge, obstacle, or opportunity) in pretty specific terms, you’ll want to quantify the desired results. Quantifying results can move easily to a return-on-investment conversation, which can lead naturally to talking about price.

Three useful ROI formulas that lead to total return on their investment:

3. Use the Assignment to Discuss the Price

“Are you going to allocate 100% of your budget to solve this problem or achieve this goal?”

If the prospect says, "no."

You would follow up by asking what percent they will allocate. And in this example, the prospect replies 75%.

You could then reply, “Great. Are you willing to look at a proposal from me for that 75%? I’m not asking if you’re ready to say yes to that proposal yet, just if you are willing to consider it.”

If the prospect says, "yes."

You can then ask what that dollar amount is so that you can build that out for them.

If you use this route, you will still need to have the return-on-investment conversation at some point, and you’ll need to decide if that is now or during your next conversation. 

Don’t be afraid to chat about price. It will help you build a better solution and increase the likelihood of closing the deal!