What to say when a client says your price is too high

The email that arrives the day after you send a quote

Lucia is a freelance videographer. She quoted $3,800 for a three-minute brand video for Hollis & Reed, a small bakery supplier. The next morning the owner, Dev, writes back: “This is more than we had in mind. Is there any flexibility?”

Lucia has a quick option and a slow one. The quick one is to say “sure, I can do $3,200”. It feels warm, and it ends the tension. The slower one is to work out what she can honestly change.

Why the first number does so much

In three negotiation experiments, Galinsky and Mussweiler found that the person who made the first offer, buyer or seller, tended to do better, and that first offers strongly predicted final prices. The advantage disappeared when the other negotiator focused on information that contradicted the offer, such as the opponent’s alternatives or their own target. We read the record of this study through a research database rather than the full paper.

The practical lesson is double-edged. Your quote is likely to shape the conversation, but in those experiments the effect disappeared when the other negotiator focused on the opponent’s alternatives or reservation price, or on their own target. Our inference is that a client who has a target in mind may be less anchored, which is another reason to ask what Dev has in mind instead of treating a price question as a pressure test.

The Annual Review of Psychology’s survey of negotiation research distinguishes two functions of negotiation: value creation (integrative negotiation) and value claiming (distributive negotiation). In our application of that distinction, a price cut for nothing only moves value to the client, while a trade that costs you little and helps Dev creates value. The review’s abstract does not discuss freelance quotes or discounts; the definitions and the advice are ours.

Finding a reduction that is real

This is practical guidance, not a tested method. Before replying, list what a lower price could honestly buy you. For Lucia, three things come to mind.

• Flexible timing: if she can shoot anywhere in a three-week window, she can fit it around other jobs and avoid turning work down.
• Less work: a two-minute cut takes less editing than a three-minute one.
• Client-supplied material: if Dev’s team writes the script, she saves the writing hours.

A discount with no reason attached

The weaker reply is friendly and costs Lucia $600 for nothing. In our judgment, it also teaches Dev that the first number was negotiable without conditions, which makes the next quote harder to hold. Worse, if Dev later learns she charges others the full price, “special rate” will sound like a pitch.

Another version of this mistake is to pretend the original price was higher than it was. The Federal Trade Commission’s pricing guides say a former price used for a comparison must be the actual, bona fide price at which the item was offered; a fictitious higher price makes the bargain a false one. Those guides concern advertised consumer prices and are not legal advice for your situation, but the principle is a good test of honesty.

A reduction that buys something

The stronger reply keeps $3,800 as the price for the full scope, then offers two options where each reduction has a stated reason. Dev can choose, and Lucia is not working for less without getting something back. Notice that she names what is left out, so there are no surprises.

She also does not hint that asking again would lower the price further. The options stand as offered.

If the client still says no

Dev may answer that neither option fits, or go quiet for a week. Silence can mean a budget meeting, a competing quote or a lost email. A single follow-up that adds information is enough.

If Dev says the budget is $2,000, you can say what that amount can do, or decline and leave the door open. Taking the job at a price that makes you resent it is also a loss, and it is yours to decide.

What the evidence does not show

The anchoring study used negotiation experiments, not freelance quotes, and the review is a general survey. Neither tests whether conditional discounts keep clients, win work or preserve trust. Lucia, Dev and the dollar figures are invented. Leetsoul has not been shown to improve anyone’s income or client relationships.

Some buyers will compare only the final number, and some will leave when you will not cut it. Where a contract, procurement rule or consumer-protection law applies, follow that, and ask a qualified adviser if the stakes are high.

The linked practice gives you another scene to try these options in.