Name a price and handle the buyer's first reaction, practised in a recorded role-play.
Write your price sentence on a card now, word for word, exactly as you would say it to a buyer. Then find someone who can give you about forty minutes and play that buyer.
You have worked through the module and you know the method. Knowing it does not stop you freezing when a real buyer looks surprised at your price. When sellers freeze, the same things tend to happen. They forget the words they planned, the silence feels unbearable, and they offer a discount nobody asked for. You get past this by saying the price out loud a few times before it counts.
The exercise is a recorded role-play of the price moment. You run it twice with a partner, review both recordings and finish with one change you have decided to make. Set aside about forty minutes, and keep at least ten of them for the review.
You need a partner, a phone to record with and a brief. The brief is a short written note that tells your partner who they are, what their problem is and the impact you agreed in discovery. It also gives them one instruction: react to your price with surprise. Keep the brief realistic. You are practising the reaction you are most likely to meet, so there is no point writing a buyer nobody could win over.
Your price sentence is the exact sentence you use to state the price. Write it on the card before you start, word for word as you will say it.
Priya is rehearsing before her real meeting with Joel, who runs two cafes in Tiong Bahru (an invented example). She writes a brief for her friend Aisha to play Joel. It says: you are Joel, and you worked out that the books cost you about S$6,500 a year in your time and extra accountancy (an example figure). When you hear the price, look surprised and say something like "that's more than I expected." If asked why, say a friend pays his bookkeeper less. If Priya holds firm, ask for a discount.
Start recording, then play the last few minutes of the proposal walkthrough in the order the module taught. Recall the value first, using the buyer's impact figure in the buyer's own words. Lesson 3.1, Make the value clear before you say the price, shows how to build that recap. Then state the price plainly and once, and hold the silence until your partner speaks, as in Lesson 3.2, Say the price plainly, then stop talking.
When your partner reacts, find out what is behind the reaction before you answer it. A clarifying question does this well. If they say it is more than they expected, ask what they were comparing it with. Once you know what the buyer is comparing against, you can compare scope instead of defending your number. If they ask for a discount, trade: offer a concession only in exchange for something in return, within the limits you set in Lesson 3.3, Trade concessions instead of giving discounts. Stop the run when the price conversation reaches a natural end. That might be an agreement, a next step or a clear objection to come back to.
Priya's run-up and price follow Lesson 3.1, using her figures from there: Joel's impact, then what option two does, then S$450 a month. Aisha says, "Oh, that's more than I expected." Priya waits, then asks what she was comparing it with. Aisha says a friend pays his bookkeeper about two-fifty. Priya asks what that bookkeeper does and learns that the friend has one outlet and no till checks, so she can compare scope. Near the end, Aisha asks for fifty dollars off. Priya offers fortnightly till checks at a lower fee in place of weekly ones. Aisha, as Joel, chooses to keep the weekly till checks at the full price.
For the second run, brief your partner to react in a different way. This tests whether you are following the method or a script. If you catch yourself answering a question your partner did not ask, make a note of it. You could try silence followed by "Hmm", or a question about terms, such as whether the year must be paid up front. Another option is a straight request for a lower price, such as "Can you do it for four hundred?"
Listen to both recordings and check four things in each:
Filler words in your price sentence. Count every "only," "just," "around," "investment" and "um." Silence. Time the seconds from the end of your price sentence to your partner's first word, and note whether you broke the silence yourself. Whether you asked what was behind the reaction before you answered it. Whether you traded or gave. Every concession you offered should have come with something in return.
Priya found two filler words in her first price sentence: "it's just S$450 a month, roughly." She held the silence for about four seconds. Then she filled it herself with "and that includes the catch-up work." In the second run she held the silence until Aisha spoke.
After the review, write down the single change that would have made the biggest difference. Leave out everything else you noticed, because a list of five gets ignored. Make the change specific enough that a partner could check next time whether you made it.
Priya's change is to drop "just" and "roughly" from her price sentence. After saying the price, she will also look down at her notes so she does not fill the silence.
When you finish, you should have two recordings, each with a different buyer reaction. You should also have a note of the filler words you used and how long you held the silence in each run, plus one written change to how you present price that a partner could check next time.
Find your partner, hand them a brief with the first reaction, and start the first run.
Record the role-play twice with a different buyer reaction each time, then write one change you will make to how you present price.
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