You will be able to set price against the cost of the problem the buyer already agreed on.
Think about the last time a price surprised you. A haircut that cost twice what you expected, or a repair quote that made you wince. Now think about what you were comparing it with. Probably the last haircut you had, or a figure you had seen online. The price did not feel high on its own. It felt high next to something.
Price is always judged against something. The buyer will make that comparison whether you help or not. Your job is to make sure the comparison they reach for is the right one.
When you say a number, the buyer's mind looks for a reference point. Without help, it picks whatever is nearest: what they paid last time, a competitor's quote, a figure a friend mentioned, or simply the feeling that S$5,000 is a lot of money.
None of those is the comparison that matters. The comparison that matters is the cost of the problem you are solving, because that is what the buyer is actually choosing between: keep paying for the problem, or pay to fix it.
That is why discovery spent so long putting a number on the impact. In lesson 4.2 of the Discovery course, Put a number on the impact, with the buyer, Joel worked out on a scrap of paper that the books were costing him about S$6,500 a year in his own time and extra accountancy. He calculated it and he confirmed it in writing. That figure is the right comparison for any price Priya names.
The impact figure only works if it is fresh in the buyer's mind when the price arrives. So bring it back just before you name the number. Not ten minutes earlier, not in an appendix. In the two sentences right before the price.
Here is how Priya does it when she reaches the price in her proposal walkthrough with Joel: "When we met, you worked out that the books cost you about six and a half thousand a year, between your Sunday nights and the extra your accountant charges. Option two takes that off your hands and adds the weekly till checks. It's S$450 a month, which is S$5,400 a year."
The prices are Priya's, used as an example. Notice the order. Joel's number, in Joel's terms, then what the option does, then the price. By the time he hears S$5,400, he is already holding S$6,500 in his head, and that is the number he compares it with.
Hafiz does the same with Rachel and Kelvin. Rachel's impact worksheet, from the Discovery course, came to about S$13,800 a year in correction time, complaint handling and the cost of replacing a driver. Before giving his price, Hafiz says: "Rachel's figures put the overtime problem at around S$13,800 a year, before the night shift makes it harder. Here is what fixing it costs." His example price is S$480 a month for the firm's sixty staff, which is S$5,760 a year, plus a one-off setup fee of S$1,500. Kelvin hears both numbers side by side.
The figures come from the buyer, not from you. Lesson 4.2 of the Discovery course explains why: a number the buyer worked out is believed, and one you supply is doubted.
When a buyer mentions a cheaper competitor, it is tempting to make that the comparison: explain why you cost more than them, line by line. That puts the conversation on the wrong ground. You end up arguing about who is cheaper, and the cheaper seller usually wins that argument.
Keep returning to the problem. The question is not whether you cost more than another bookkeeper. It is whether the buyer's problem gets solved, and what it is worth to them to solve it. If a competitor genuinely solves the same problem for less, that is useful for the buyer to know, and lesson 5.1, It is too expensive, covers how to compare scope and outcome honestly when it comes up.
Sometimes you recall the impact, name the price, and it still looks too high. If the buyer's problem costs them S$2,000 a year and your solution costs S$5,000, no wording will make that feel fair. It is not a presentation problem.
It is a discovery problem. Either the impact is bigger than you found, which means you need more questions, or the buyer is not a good fit for what you sell, at least not yet. Go back to the Discovery course, lesson 7.2, Disqualify early and say so kindly. Better to find this out before the proposal than in the middle of it.
Sometimes there is a smaller option that does fit the size of the problem. If so, offer it honestly. Do not try to inflate the impact to justify the price. A buyer who later realises the numbers were stretched will not trust anything else you said.
For the activity below, you need the impact figure the buyer confirmed for one of your live opportunities. If you do not have one, that is worth noticing too.
Write the two sentences you will say just before stating your price in your next proposal, using the buyer's own impact figure.
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