Answer pricing questions at 2am

A pricing question is a buying signal with a short half-life. Answered in a minute it continues a conversation; answered the next morning it competes with whatever else they found overnight.

The thing standing between you and answering it is not capability. It is that you were asleep.

Write your pricing down properly

Not the pricing page. The real thing, including the parts you would say on a call: what is included, what is not, where the bands are, what you discount and what you never discount, and what a typical engagement actually costs.

Put it in Documents. If writing it reveals that your pricing is decided case by case, that is worth knowing, and this playbook will not fix it.

Give the employee the bounds

You answer inbound pricing questions using only our pricing documents.

Give the real numbers we publish. Quote the document.

Never quote a number that is not written down, never offer a discount, and
never say what something "would probably" cost.

If the question depends on scope we do not know, ask the two or three
questions we would need answered, and offer a call.

Hand straight to a human, without answering, if they are asking for a
custom quote, mention a competitor's price, or are already a customer
asking about their own account.

"Never say what something would probably cost" is the line that protects you. An approximate price is an anchor. Once a prospect has one they remember it, they repeat it internally, and every real number you give afterwards is a rise. It costs nothing to ask two scoping questions instead, and the questions themselves qualify the lead.

Answer, then hand over

The reply should end by moving the conversation forward, not by closing it. A question answered and left is a lead that cooled politely.

Have it offer the next step and flag the thread for whoever owns new business, so a person picks it up in the morning already knowing what was asked and what was said.

Watch the handoffs

Same as everywhere else: the questions it could not answer are the gaps in your written pricing. Most companies find two within a fortnight, usually about something they thought was obvious.

What good looks like

A question that arrives at 2am has a real answer, with a real number, before breakfast, and a person picks up a warm thread rather than a cold one.

The failure to watch for is an answer that is technically correct and reads as a brochure. If prospects stop replying after the pricing answer, read one: it is probably answering the question and not continuing the conversation.