If your prospects say, “We don’t have the budget,” this objection is a bit different than if they were to say, “Your price is too high.” You see, if they say that your fees are high, it could mean that they actually do have the money to pay you. However, the issue is that they’re not convinced that the service they’ll receive is worth the price that you’re asking for.
But when your prospects say that they don’t have the budget, they’re putting more of the responsibility on themselves, not on you. In fact, they could be thinking, “Your price is worth every single penny, but it’s just not within our budget.” In other words, they’re saying, “We don’t have the money.”
See the difference?
So, how do you deal with this issue? Well, it really depends on what’s actually going on here.
As mentioned, in some cases, they actually do have the budget, but they’re just hoping that by giving this excuse, you’ll cave in and come down in your price. And if that’s the case, if you hold to your convictions, stick with your original number, and help them become convinced that your service is worth the money that they must exchange for it, you’ll find that prospects who at first said they had no budget will somehow come up with the money to acquire your services.
In other situations, though, your prospects truly may not have the money set aside to handle your fees. And if that’s the case, you dig deeper by asking, “Well, what kind of budget are you working with?”
Then, when they tell you their budget, you don’t merely lower your rate to fit that budget. Instead, you offer them a less costly option–a more basic service–that lines up with what they can afford.
For instance, let’s say a company wants you to complete a project in which you’d charge $2,000, and their budget is only $1,500. Here, you respond by saying, “We can still do the work for $1,500. The only deliverable that wouldn’t be included is X in order to achieve your lower figure of $1,500.”
You see, the approach here is to provide them with a level of service that’s specifically tailored to their budget. And if they want your top-of-the-line service, they’ll have to pay your going rate for it.
To put it another way, if your normal rate is $100 an hour, don’t simply give away your services for $50 an hour to prospects who say they can’t afford it. Instead, if their budget is $50, let them know that they can receive half an hour of your services.
