How to Explain a Price Increase Without Losing the Deal

Good Morning. A new BI article asked 3 career coaches how to correctly answer "tell me about yourself" in an interview, and they all basically said the same thing: keep it short and relevant to the role. Apparently, interviewers don't want to hear about your childhood, astrological sign, or the three years you spent "finding yourself." Their loss. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

What would kill this deal right now? 🤔
30 proven sales scripts that convert 👀
How to tell your prospect prices are going up 😬
OpenAI’s sales org decoded 🔬
Sales jobs & a meme 😂

Sponsor The Follow Up | Subscribe

Sales Tip of The Day 💡

When you're deep in a deal, and everything feels like it’s going well, ask the prospect what would make them say no.

❌ "Anything else you need from me to move forward?"
✅ "What would have to happen between now and signing for this to become a no?"

The things that end up killing deals usually aren’t raised on the call.

And what you don’t know will end up hurting you down the road.

Asking directly forces them onto the table while you can still do something about them. The prospect who can't think of a single thing that would make them say no is either fully sold or lying to you. Either way, it's better to know now.

Master Every Sales Call with These 30 Ready-to-Use Scripts

Nail your next call with confidence using 30 proven templates built to convert. From first touch to upselling, these scripts are designed to keep you in control and ahead of the conversation:

Templates for every stage of the sales process, from cold outreach to closing
Customizable templates for phone, email, and voicemail
Built-in conversation flows to help guide prospects toward “yes”
Proven scripts that help you connect with leads, overcome objections, and close more deals

You’ve got the charm, now get the words. These scripts do the heavy lifting so you can focus on closing.

Get the Templates for Free 👉

How to Tell Your Customer the Price Went Up

Price increases are part of the job.

Products get better, costs go up, and at some point, someone in leadership sends an email saying new rates go into effect next quarter.

And now it's on you to tell your customers.

A lot of reps end up handling this badly. They either apologize their way through the conversation and then try to offer a discount to soften the blow, or they avoid it entirely and hope the customer doesn't notice until the invoice hits. Both are wrong.

How you deliver a price increase sometimes matters more than the number itself. Customers rarely leave over a 10% or 15% bump, but they will leave if they feel like your company is shady or trying to take advantage of them.

Here’s how to deliver a price increase to a customer the right way.

Before You Say Anything, Ask Internally

The first conversation about a price increase should happen inside your company.

When leadership tells you prices are going up, push back and ask what specifically justifies the increase and what should be communicated to customers. You need real answers before you get on a call and start winging it.

Get specific with leadership. Here’s some typical reasons:

New product development.
Rising infrastructure or material costs.
New features that didn't exist when the customer originally signed.
Market price alignment.

You want to walk into every pricing conversation with a clear, honest reason you actually believe.

For Renewals: State It, Frame It, Move On

If you're an account manager renewing an existing customer, the biggest mistake is treating the price increase like bad news you need to break gently. If you apologize, you signal that the increase isn't justified. And that opens the door for the customer to negotiate it down or feel like they're ‘owed’ a better deal.

State the new price clearly, then frame it with the reason. Here's how that can sound in a few different situations:

Product development. "Since you signed on, we've shipped [new features]. The platform does significantly more than what you originally bought, and the pricing now reflects that."

New capabilities. This is especially relevant right now with AI. If your company has added AI-powered features, those cost real money to build and run. "We've introduced [feature], which gives you [specific benefit]. That's new since your last contract, and it's part of why the pricing has been updated."

Hard costs. If you sell anything with physical materials, raw materials go up, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Lumber, concrete, shipping. State it plainly. Customers understand this one intuitively because they see it in their own costs.

Market rates. "In order to keep investing in the product and retain the team that supports you, we periodically adjust pricing to stay competitive as a business."

After the framing, move forward. Ask about their renewal timeline. Talk about what's coming on the product roadmap. Keep the conversation going past the price increase so it doesn't become the entire meeting.

For Re-Engaged Prospects: Bridge the Gap

You talked to someone six months ago, gave them a quote, and now they're back. But now the price is higher than what you originally discussed.

The same rules apply here. State the new price, don't apologize, don't open it up for negotiation.

This situation gives you a natural urgency lever. The prospect already waited once, and the price went up. You can use that to your advantage. "Prices have gone up since we last talked, and that's above my pay grade. What I can tell you is that by signing now, you're locking in this rate. I can't guarantee it won't go up again."

That's honest, and it gives the prospect a reason to move forward today instead of pushing it another six months and paying even more. The price increase already happened. You can't undo it. But you can turn it into a reason to close.

One thing to avoid in both situations: never open the price increase as a discussion. You're informing, not negotiating. If the customer pushes back, listen to what they have to say. But the starting position is that this is the price, and here's a brief explanation of why.