“We like the product, we like you, but your price is too much.”
I have taken that sentence in living rooms for twenty-plus years. Reps answer it as one problem. It is four problems wearing one sentence, and only one of them concerns the number on the page.
“Price too much doesn’t mean anything. If I were to get 20 people in a room and ask them what does it mean when somebody says your price is too much, I would get 20 different answers.”
That is me in Price Objections? Use This Framework Instead of Discounts, posted December 19, 2025 and viewed 3,450 times. The same video corrects what reps have backwards: “If the first thing that your customer says is the price is too much, that’s not the end of the conversation. That’s actually the beginning.”
Four problems wear the same sentence
TOP REP publishes the four in my method for holding price, and I teach them in this order:
- Too much compared to the other guy — a comparison problem, not a price problem
- Too much for what they understood they were getting — a value-communication failure
- Too much for right now — timing and cash flow, and frequently solvable
- Too much, full stop — genuinely outside the budget, and rarer than reps assume
Make them define the words before you answer them
Four causes, four different appointments. I do not defend a number nobody has explained to me, so my first move hands the sentence back.
“When someone says, ‘Man, that’s just way too much,’ your answer back is going to be, ‘Well, how do you mean?’”
That is from Objection Handling// Your Price Is Too Much!, 5,484 views since October 17, 2025, where I put the rule plainly: find out what price too much means before you start hammering away at the objection.
The phrasing is deliberate. It is not even grammatically correct, and that is what gets their attention. A homeowner braced for a rebuttal gets a broken little question instead.
One question separates a payment problem from a price problem
Once they have defined it, I sort it with a question that offers two doors and no third: is it the total cost, or is it the monthly payment? In the newer version I say it with names in it — “So Bob and Mary, I got to ask, is it the down payment or is it the monthly payment?”
Notice what is missing. “What didn’t I say when I’m talking affordability? Price. You keep price out of it.” Say that word while solving affordability and you have invited a negotiation about the number instead of the structure.
The fork in the road is where reps hand over margin
I ran this live with a rep in How to Handle Price Objections and Still Close the Sale, 12,048 views since October 10, 2025. He asked the right question, then answered it himself with a thousand dollars off in exchange for a little marketing.
“You were right there. You asked me, is it the monthly payment or the down payment? I gave you one. At that point, we’re at a fork in the road. I need you to ask me, Mike, what can you afford?”
Asking what they can afford puts a real number on the table from their side. I am either in their wheelhouse or I am out. Guessing at a discount costs margin whether or not the guess was needed.
Too much this month is a timing conversation
When the answer points at cash flow, I say it back to them: it is not too much, it is too much right now. That reframes the issue into timing, and timing has nothing to do with the price being too high.
Then I measure the gap. I ask what they expected the project to cost before I arrived, replay the parts they liked, and land on the distance between us: “So, it appears that we’re only $1,000 apart from each other. How long will it take you to come up with the rest?” Tone carries it — keep it down, and slow the words.
When the other bid is cheaper, take the number off the table
In Competitor Cheaper Than You? Don’t Panic, Do THIS Instead, from March 6, 2026 with 3,047 views, I say what the homeowner is actually doing: “When the homeowner brings up price, they’re not comparing numbers, they’re just simply trying to compare confidence.”
So I neutralize the only advantage the other company has. If both proposals were the exact same price, which one would you choose? When they choose me, I ask the follow-up that does the work: “Can I ask you why you would choose us?”
“People believe their own reasons more than any pitch that you will ever give.”
Then I close with their words instead of mine. Price is almost never the true barrier. Certainty is.
Discounting is the most expensive answer available
I will not drop a number to save an appointment. Once you lower price, you tell the homeowner you were overpriced to begin with. You did not save a job. You bought one at a loss and priced the next three.
When a homeowner slides a competitor’s quote across the table, I name what is happening. In a negotiation skill for competitor pricing, 2,746 views since October 25, 2025, I call that quote the rabbit, the decoy, and say out loud that showing it to me already tells me they want to buy from us at a better price. They look up and agree.
My oldest clip on this, an easy way to crush the competition from August 26, 2023 with 4,905 views, ends on why the price and value guarantee exists: to shut down shoppers and make everybody feel at peace with the decision.
Six recordings, one framework
I have taught this objection on camera six times across three years, and those recordings hold 31,680 views combined:
- How to Handle Price Objections and Still Close the Sale — October 10, 2025, 12,048 views
- Objection Handling// Your Price Is Too Much! — October 17, 2025, 5,484 views
- An easy way to crush the competition — August 26, 2023, 4,905 views
- Price Objections? Use This Framework Instead of Discounts — December 19, 2025, 3,450 views
- Competitor Cheaper Than You? Don’t Panic, Do THIS Instead — March 6, 2026, 3,047 views
- The #1 NEGOTIATION SKILL to Try When Customers Show You a Competitor’s Price — October 25, 2025, 2,746 views
Questions reps and owners ask me about this
What do I say the second a homeowner says my price is too much?
Say “how do you mean?” and stop talking. It does not sound like a rebuttal, and it makes them convert a feeling into a sentence you can work with. Everything after depends on which of the four they name, so answering first is guesswork.
Should I ever discount to save the job?
No. Lowering the number tells the homeowner your first one was inflated, and it teaches your rep to lead with a discount next time. Move down a tier, phase the work, or change the terms instead.
They showed me a competitor quote that is genuinely lower. Now what?
Do not defend your number and do not attack theirs. Ask which company they would pick if both proposals were the same price, then ask why. Homeowners believe their own reasons. If they pick the other company, you learned more than a discount would have bought.
How do I tell an affordability problem from a value problem?
Ask whether the down payment or the monthly payment is causing the issue. A homeowner who picks one has an affordability problem and is already negotiating with you. One who picks neither is not sold on the work, and offering payments there finances something they never decided they wanted.
Why do I get the price objection on nearly every appointment?
Because nothing in the presentation separated you, so price is the only variable left. That is a front-of-appointment problem. Presenting three options instead of one number moves the comparison inside your own proposal, which is what the Best, Better, Good structure does.
Where to go from here
The full sequence, including what to do when the budget genuinely will not stretch, sits in the TOP REP how-to linked above. The diagnostic underneath it runs through the five root objections.
Its closest neighbor is the three estimates objection, which is usually this one in a costume. The rest live on my objection handling framework.