What to Say When a Wealthy Prospect Tells You You're Too Expensive

0:01Nicholas Ferraro:Hello, this is Mark Satterfield, and welcome to the Velvet Rope Playbook. Tonight's chapter, What to Say When a Wealthy Prospect Tells You You're Too Expensive. Nicholas Ferraro knew the woman sitting across from him could afford his fee. That wasn't the problem. Nicholas was 54 and owned a landscape architecture firm in Greenwich, Connecticut. it. He designed the grounds surrounding large estates. Gardens, pools, terraces, outdoor kitchens, guest houses, and the occasional tennis court someone insisted needed to look as though it had been there since 1927. Nicholas hadn't started out designing gardens.

0:41Nicholas Ferraro:His grandparents owned a small nursery in northern New Jersey. And as a teenager, Nicholas spent his summers loading bags of mulch into station wagons and delivering shrubs to suburban homeowners. He hated it. He went to Cornell, determined to become an architect and never work around plants again. Then, during his junior year, a professor introduced him to the work of Frederick Law Olmsted. Nicholas became fascinated by the idea that you could shape how someone experienced a place without their necessarily realizing you were doing it. Eventually, he became a landscape architect. Thirty years later, his firm worked primarily with affluent homeowners whose properties were worth anywhere from$5 million to$30 million.

1:26Nicholas Ferraro:Which is how he met Elizabeth Harrington. Elizabeth was 59, had recently sold the specialty cosmetic company she'd started at her kitchen table 26 years earlier. Her husband David had spent his career in private equity, and they'd recently purchased a 12-acre property outside of Greenwich. The house was spectacular. The grounds weren't. Elizabeth wanted Nicholas to completely rethink them. They spent nearly two hours walking the property. Nicholas asked about how they entertained, where they ate breakfast, whether their adult children visited, where future grandchildren might play, and even which rooms they tended to use at different times of the day.

2:06Nicholas Ferraro:Several weeks later, Nicholas presented his ideas. Elizabeth loved them. Then Nicholas told her what his firm's design fee would be. She's paused. That's considerably more expensive than I expected. it. And here's where a lot of professionals get themselves into trouble. They hear too expensive and immediately start defending the price. Nicholas could have explained how many hours his team would spend on the project. He could have talked about his 30 years of experience. He could have listed everything included in the fee. But instead, Nicholas asked, when you say more expensive, what are you comparing it to?

2:46Nicholas Ferraro:Elizabeth told him she'd spoken with another landscape architecture firm. Their fee was about 40 % less. Now Nicholas knew something useful. Because you're too expensive isn't really an objection. It's a symptom. You need to find out what's underneath it. Too expensive compared to what? There are several very different things a prospect might mean when they tell you that you're too expensive. They may literally not have the money. They may have another proposal that's considerably less. They may not understand why what you do is different, or perhaps they simply don't believe the result is valuable enough to justify the investment.

3:27Nicholas Ferraro:Those aren't the same problem, which is why immediately defending your price is usually a mistake. You don't know what you're defending it against. Nicholas now knew Elizabeth wasn't objecting to spending money. She was asking why she should spend considerably more money with him. That's a much better conversation. Nicholas didn't criticize the other firm. Instead, he explained something Elizabeth hadn't considered. The other proposal was primarily about landscaping the property. Nicholas was proposing something different. He wanted to rethink how the family would actually live on the property, where guests naturally moved after dinner, what Elizabeth saw when she looked through the windows in February, not simply June.

4:12Nicholas Ferraro:How the pool related to the house. Where David could drink his coffee without looking directly at the garage. Suddenly, Elizabeth wasn't comparing two prices for the same thing. She was comparing two different outcomes. And that's often where a price objection really lives. About six months later, Nicholas had a very different conversation. Marcus Chen was 43 and had made considerable amount of money selling a cybersecurity company he started with two college friends. Marcus and his wife had purchased a modern home overlooking Long Island Sound and wanted Nicholas involved in redesigning the property.

4:51Nicholas Ferraro:Marcus loved Nicholas' work. He liked his ideas, and then he saw the fee. There's no way I'm paying that much for landscape design. Nicholas asked a few questions. This time, the problem wasn't comparison. Marcus simply didn't place enough value on what Nicholas did, and that's okay. This is where I think another principle becomes important. Not every price objection needs to be overcome. Nicholas could have kept selling. Instead, he essentially said, I understand. Based on what you're telling me, I'm not sure we're the right firm for this project. That's a form of takeaway selling. Nicholas wasn't threatening to walk away.

5:33Nicholas Ferraro:He wasn't playing some clever sales trick. He simply stopped trying to convince Marcus to buy something Marcus didn't value enough. And that changed the conversation. Marcus asked, what do you mean? Nicholas explained that his firm was probably excessive if Marcus simply wanted someone to make the property look better. Their best clients wanted the exterior environment considered with the same attention they'd given the architecture and interiors. If that wasn't particularly important to Marcus, there were plenty of excellent firms that would be a better fit. Notice what Nicholas just did. He didn't lower his price.

6:09He didn't defend it. He gave Marcus permission not to hire him. And there's something psychologically interesting about that moment. Until then, Marcus assumed Nicholas wanted the project. Now Marcus had to decide if he wanted Nicholas. The dynamic changed. That's one reason takeaway selling can be so effective when you're selling expensive services. Most prospects are accustomed to people pursuing them. Follow-up emails, sales presentations, incentives, people explaining why they should say yes. When you genuinely communicate that working together may not make sense, you introduce something unexpected.

6:48Selectivity. And selectivity can be particularly powerful with affluent prospects. They're accustomed to buying things. They're less accustomed to being told, I'm not sure this is right for you. But there's an important warning here. This only works if you mean it. Fake scarcity, manufactured indifference, and pretending you don't want someone's business are sales tactics. Successful people are pretty good at detecting those. Real takeaway selling is simply being comfortable acknowledging that not everybody should hire you. So what happened? Elizabeth hired Nicholas, not because he persuaded her that his price wasn't high.

7:27It was high. She hired him because she came to understand why the additional investment produced something she valued. Marcus didn't hire him. And that's equally important. Nicholas didn't lose a sale he should have closed. He avoided a client who probably would have questioned every recommendation and resented every invoice. Sometimes that's a very profitable outcome. So here's what I do the next time you hear too expensive. Don't immediately explain your value. Don't start listing credentials. Don't start negotiating against yourself. Ask a question. When you say it's too expensive, what are you comparing it to?

8:09Or is it more than you expected to spend? Or are you not just convinced the results justify the investment? Then listen. because now you can discover whether you have a price problem, a value problem, a differentiation problem, or simply the wrong prospect. And if it's the wrong prospect, be willing to say so. Based on what you're telling me, I'm not sure this makes sense for you. You might be surprised what happens next. Sometimes they'll agree. Good. You save both of you a lot of frustrations. Sometimes they'll start explaining why you do want to work with them. And now you've change the conversation completely.

8:49If you sell expensive services to affluent clients, your job isn't to become inexpensive enough that nobody objects to your price. It's to become sufficiently valuable to the right people that your price makes sense. And those are the words I'd emphasize, the right people. Because when someone says you're too expensive, don't automatically assume there's something wrong with your price. Find out what they really mean. Then decide whether you should overcome the objection or whether this is simply someone you should allow to walk away. Because sometimes one of the most profitable things you can say to a prospective client is, maybe we're not the right fit.

9:27And if you'd like more practical ideas for attracting affluent clients, positioning yourself more effectively, and converting more of the right prospects without chasing them, then visit getwealthyclients.com. When you're there, you'll find my books, programs, resources, and even information about different ways that you can work with me personally. That's getwealthyclients.com. And if you're enjoying these ideas, subscribe to the Velvet Rope Playbook wherever you like to listen to podcasts. That way you won't miss the next episode. And one last favor. If you know someone who sells a high value service and would find this useful, pass this along to them.

10:06That's one of the best ways you can help me grow the podcast and perhaps help somebody else get a little bit better at attracting the clients they really want. This is Mark Satterfield. Thanks for listening to this chapter of the Velvet Rope Playbook. I'll be back at you soon with something new, but until then, bye for now.