When you own a business, you naturally want to make money, and determining what a fair price is for your product or service is a very important part of that business.

When you’re marketing your business, you’ll find that some potential customers ask, “how much does it cost,” before asking any other questions, but as a salesperson, you know this question shouldn’t be answered immediately.

How should you respond when people want to know how much your product or service costs? Keep reading for some answers.

How to Respond When Someone Asks How Much Something Costs?

Responding in the right way when someone asks you how much your product or service costs is crucial. You don’t want to immediately answer them, but you can’t make them wait too long to get the answer, either.

You have to be polite and informative, and it must come through that you care about their question. Here are some tips to know what to say and do when someone wants to know how much something costs.

1.  Keep in Mind That After the Answer, You’re Done

When you’re trying to sell a product or service, the sales pitch is over once you answer their question and disclose the price.

If this is considered a one-time purchase for the customer, you can disclose the price sooner rather than later, but if you’re selling financial services or something similar, for example, it’s good not to answer the question right away.

2.  Realize That Their Interest Is Piqued

If the customer asks for the price of your product or service, you have piqued their interest. For this reason, you have to be very careful what your answer is.

Because of this, you can tell them that you know their interest is piqued and therefore, you’d prefer to go into detail a little more to make sure that that particular product will meet their needs.

3.  Give the Customer a Price Range

You can tell the customer that the product or service costs between a certain amount of money and another amount; in other words, answer that the price is usually “between XX and XX amount of dollars.”

Then, immediately start asking additional questions so you can ascertain their specific needs and their reasons for buying in the first place.

4.  Keep in Mind That This Is More Commonplace With Emails

For potential customers to ask, “how much does it cost,” is more commonplace when they send you an email. It is less commonplace when they meet with you in person.

You’ll want to sound professional, so the first thing you need to do is thank them for the opportunity, then go right into asking them questions and explain that you need to do this to make their experience more personalized.

5.  Always Assure Them That You’re Going to Answer the Question

You don’t want the customer to think you’re going to string them along for a long time or that you’re not planning to answer the question. Assure them you intend to answer their question but that you need to find out some additional information first.

Tell them that once you completely understand what their needs are, you’ll be able to provide them with a more accurate quote.

6.  Keep the Rules of Email Communication in Mind

When corresponding with a potential customer through email, remember not to answer questions they haven’t asked yet, always mimic their tone – casual versus formal, never send attachments unless they specifically ask for them, and keep the emails short, which usually means three to five sentences each time. Try to copy the overall feel of their emails, but keep the emails going for a while.

All of these tips center around one basic suggestion: tell them you need to find out more about what their needs are. Then ask two or three questions to get started.

Tell them you always personalize the product or service to meet customers’ needs, and try to get to know them before answering them. Your goal should be for them to contact you in person so you can ask those questions.

Communication via emails makes the process more of a challenge because they may simply not want to talk to you over the phone. But try to arrange a time to do that anyway. If it becomes clear that they aren’t interested in talking on the phone, go ahead and give them the price, but try to get as much information as possible from them first.

You also don’t want to take too much time giving them the price. Let’s face it, at some point the price of the product or service will have to be disclosed, and the last thing you want is for them to feel like you’re trying to avoid giving them a price at all.

Getting information from them also helps you determine exactly what their needs are so you can decide for yourself whenever possible what it’ll cost them.

Conclusion

Depending on the product or service you sell, it’s best not to give a customer an exact cost before you explore what their needs are. Many products and services do not come with a one-size-fits-all price and therefore, you can personalize what you’re selling and give them their own special price.

You’re not trying to string them along; you’re merely trying to find out what they need so you can provide them with additional information. This way, by the time you give them the price, they’ll realize that it’s a steal.