Yes, I’ve performed your price “wagging” a few times and it can work well.

It can quickly raise eyebrows (how much did you say?) or move the conversation forward (nobody thinks twice about budgets.)

Sometimes, I feel like I should have been a psychologist figuring out the different personalities in these types of meetings!

Thanks and keep in touch!

Tom

I’ve been in those meetings more times than I care to think about (on both sides of the table). I’ve never understood it.

Luckily, when you know your business and you know your target audience, you can “wag” a price range estimate pretty accurately during those initial meetings to get a feel for whether or not it works with their budget constraints. I typically say something like, “I don’t know exactly what this will cost, every client and project is different. But for a similar client and a similar project the price range was $X and $X+50%. Will that range work for your budget?”

Again, this is straight out of Mahan’s book. It revolutionized my prospective client meetings, turning them into qualification sessions instead of sales meetings.

Thanks for an insightful post! I’m a regular Fast Company Expert reader and found this originally on their site.

I recently went through this scenario with a client. Big meeting, eight “honchos” around a table, everybody sharing the same vision, etc. Then, Boom! “No budget.” “Let’s keep in touch.”

After poking around and reading your works, I’m impressed! Great material for me to glean new ideas from and look forward to much more!

You have a new fan

Thanks,

Thomas Clifford
—Corporate Filmmaker
“Making it easy for you and your company’s story to jump off the screen and into your customer’s heart.”