How to test your price in a sales conversation
The fastest pricing information a founder can get costs nothing: quote above your list price on the next deal you sell in conversation, and watch how the buyer takes the number. Then check the unit you charge in.
To test your price, quote a number above your list price on the next deal you sell in conversation, and watch the buyer in the moment after they hear it. A buyer at their limit hesitates. A buyer who says fine and asks what is next has shown you that you are nowhere near it, so the next quote goes higher. Then check the shape of the price: charge in the unit the buyer already expects to pay more for, keep free whatever spreads the product, and charge for what they value.
Which sales motion a given price allows, with the thresholds, is a separate question, answered in what your price licenses you to do. This page is how to find out whether the number itself is right.
Most founders are probably underpriced
In a keynote on breaking through growth ceilings, one speaker told a room of founders: "99% of you in here are probably underpriced."
One founder described what happened when they quoted a new price: "here's the new price, it's five times more expensive." The answer came back: "sure, just bill me or send me the invoice."
The person hearing that story read it like this: "If you were at the limit, they would have blinked." A buyer who instead answers "okay, anyway, is that it? 'cause I got other things to do" has shown you that you are nowhere close to the limit.
Quote above list and watch for the blink
On the next deal you sell in conversation, quote a number above your list price, then watch the moment after you say it.
- A buyer at their limit hesitates. That pause is the blink.
- A buyer who agrees and moves on has told you the price has room above it. Quote higher on the next deal.
The test costs nothing, and it is the fastest pricing information available to you.
Saying the price early is its own decision, and the case for saying it on the first call is in the cold email sequence. This test only asks you to notice what the buyer does when they hear it.
Lower can also be the answer
The keynote line about underpricing was followed at once by a counter-example: one company lowered its prices, for the sake of the customers it most wanted, to restart growth. The rule it was summed up with: "learn the rules and master them so that you know when to break them."
So a quick yes tells you there is room above your price. Whether you use it is still a decision about which customers you want to win.
Charge in the unit they already expect to pay more for
Your costs set the minimum you can charge. They are not how the buyer thinks about the price: "For the customer, it's how do they think and how do they want to be charged?"
Price in a unit the buyer already expects to pay more for as they grow. An agency already prices its own work per client, so a price with one more line on the bill for each new client needs no justification to an agency buyer.
Avoid a unit the buyer has to count. Metering runs or minutes invites this reaction: "My God, I'm gonna have to start counting the minutes. I don't know how to budget for that. I don't know what my bill will be next month."
Keep free what spreads the product
A second rule argues against charging per seat: "don't charge by seat because the more people that use your software, the more you'll have things like word of mouth and just more usage in general."
It reaches past seats: "Anytime I think of a feature where the more people use it, the more you'll grow, I don't want to gate that." Find the features that grow your business as more people use them, and leave them out of the price.
In anything free, give away what spreads
The same split decides what goes in a free trial, or in a free tool you hand out before the sale:
"Anything in the trial period that they really value, you should charge for that. But anything in the trial period which helps you with the word of mouth, you should not charge for that."
Five things
- Quote above your list price on the next deal you sell in conversation, and watch the moment after the number.
- If they agree and move on, quote higher next time. A buyer at their limit hesitates.
- Keep the counter-example in mind. A lower price for the customers you most want can be the right move.
- Charge in the unit they already expect to pay more for, never a meter they have to count and budget for.
- Keep free what spreads the product, seats included, and in a trial charge only for what they value.
Keep reading
- How to make AI-drafted cold email sound like you The people who use AI writing tools every day name the same failures: everyone's email has the same structure, the personalisation fixes on something strange, and one small change rewrites the rest. Their own fixes are the method.
- How to find warm introductions in your own network The people who can walk you into a target account are already in a file you can download. Match them against your list, rank each company by its strongest tie, and start with the accounts somebody you know can open.
- How to start a B2B newsletter that books sales conversations A founder's newsletter earns its place when it gives you a reason to email the people you want to sell to. Judge it on the conversations it books with them, and decide before the first issue when you will stop.