You do not overcome fee resistance by telling a prospect your service is better once they have already stated that your price is too high. At that point you’re arguing with them, and even if you win the argument you will usually lose the sale. The work happens well in advance of the quote: sell only to people who won’t faint when you tell them your fees, help the prospect define what success looks like, educate them on what good actually is, and be explicit about who your services are best for and who they are not for. How far you can push price depends on your market, your proof, and how well you have documented all of this before the sales conversation starts.

Nearly everything I have heard from MSPs on how to deal with price and fee resistance is completely WRONG.

You do not win this argument by telling your prospect how your service is better, or by delivering a smug, arrogant response of “I have clients who pay me more.”

Overcoming fee resistance requires a multipronged approach, starting with making sure you are selling only to people who will not faint after hearing your price. Then you need to build your case, starting with the initial engagement, all the way through to the close, doing and saying things that give you a strategic, overwhelming advantage.

Why arguing about price never works

Here is the part most MSPs get backward.

If you wait until you have delivered the proposal and then get slammed with the “your price is too high” objection, now you are arguing with your prospect. And even if you “win” the argument, you will likely lose the sale.

Nobody enjoys being told they are wrong about their own money. The moment the conversation becomes a debate, you have already lost the position you needed.

So the objection has to be handled before it is ever raised.

Why prospects cannot tell you apart in the first place

Most people cannot truly tell the difference between one provider and another, why one solution is better than another, or how to make a truly informed decision.

That is not a knock on your buyers. They do not do this for a living. You are asking a business owner to evaluate technical services they do not understand, against competitors who all say the same things, using a document full of terms they cannot interpret.

When someone cannot tell the difference between two options, the only remaining basis for comparison is price. You did not get shopped because you are expensive. You got shopped because you gave them no other way to choose.

What to do well in advance of the quote

It is incumbent on the salesperson to address this issue well in ADVANCE of ever delivering a quote to the prospect. There are three parts to it.

Help the prospect clarify what success looks like

Most prospects do not know and have not thought it through.

No one can make an informed decision about the best path forward if they do not even know where they want the path to lead them. Before you can be the right answer, there has to be a defined question, and usually you are the one who has to help them define it.

Educate the prospect on what “good” is

Once you and the prospect come to an agreement on what success looks like, it is then important to educate them on what they SHOULD be looking for and demanding from any IT company, and why.

Ideally, that should be what you actually deliver in your services.

Notice what this does. You are not claiming to be better. You are giving the buyer a standard, and letting the standard do the work. A prospect who understands what good looks like can evaluate a cheap quote on their own and see what is missing.

Convey who your services are truly best FOR, and who they are NOT for

Thinking your services are the best solution for everyone is silly.

Is a 5-star steak house “better” than a food truck selling steak tacos? Is a Ford pickup truck that runs on gasoline better than a Tesla truck that is electric? Is Breyers ice cream better than Jeni’s? Of course not. But seriously, better for WHO?

There is no brand or company that is the “best” for “everyone,” and that is okay. 7-Up did just fine telling everyone they were the UNcola.

Being explicit about who you are not for is one of the most powerful things you can say in a sales conversation, and almost nobody in this industry says it.

The comparison tool that does this work for you

One of the things you can do is create a checklist and title it “X Ways ‘Cheaper’ IT Firms Hide The True Cost Of Their Services In Their Contracts.”

Another title would be “How To Compare Our Services With Those Of Other IT Services Providers.”

The format is a simple two-column comparison. On the left, what the cheap provider does. On the right, what you do. Line by line, in plain language, grouped into categories a buyer actually cares about.

Here’s a few examples:

Governance And Risk. Are they truly providing cybersecurity protections, or just a cheap antivirus and firewall? Do they have written security policies? Do they review your cyber liability policy and ensure you’re compliant? Do they have a CISO overlooking your network on a quarterly basis? Do they adhere to a trusted security framework like NIST or SOC2?

Disaster recovery. Do they deliver protected, encrypted and preferably immutable/offline backup? Do they keep separate backup credentials? Do they monitor backup success and conduct test restores? 

Expertise of team: Do they outsource their help desk to another country, or are you working with trusted people who work for you full time? How extensive is the “bench” of people working on your network, security and strategy? What certifications do they hold? Is it “one guy” or do they have a team working on your behalf?

Billable services. Do they clearly outline what is billable versus a project fee? Are they including support outside business hours? Workstation setup? Onsite support? Repairs on out-of-warranty equipment? Where can they “hide” fees so the initial price seems cheap, but then you’re paying MORE over time?

Contract terms. Can they raise prices on support activity or inflation with no advance detail? Do they put an SLA in writing that THEY have to meet to hold them to an appropriate standard?

Then close the comparison with the point of the whole exercise: if you have just a few occurrences of billable service in a month, the savings becomes a loss, and the cheap provider is doing NOTHING to keep your network safe from ransomware and NOTHING to protect your cloud-based systems.

That document reframes the entire conversation. The prospect is no longer comparing two prices. They are comparing two different things, which is exactly what they are.

Do not rely on your salespeople to remember any of this

All of the above can and should be incorporated into your website and your pre-meeting materials, as well as your sales process.

I strongly suggest you document it in some manner via marketing collateral so you are not reliant on salespeople remembering to tell the story every time in the right manner. That is something to strive for, but it is not something to depend on.

A comparison sheet is a document. A story your best closer tells well is not a system.

The Bottom Line On Fee Resistance

Stop defending your price. Start defining the standard.

Sell only to people who will not faint at your number. Help them decide what success looks like. Teach them what good is. Tell them plainly who you are not for.

Do all of it before the quote, in writing, in a document that does the work whether or not the right person is in the room.

If you wait for the objection, you are already arguing. And you do not win sales by winning arguments.

If you want help building a sales process that handles this before it comes up, that is what my MSP sales training is built for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I handle the “your price is too high” objection?

Handle it before it is raised. If you wait until you have delivered the proposal and then get hit with the objection, you are now arguing with your prospect, and even if you win the argument you will likely lose the sale. Build the case in advance instead: help them define what success looks like, educate them on what good IT actually includes, and be explicit about who your services are and are not for.

Why do prospects only compare MSPs on price?

Because you have given them nothing else to compare. Most people cannot truly tell the difference between one provider and another, why one solution is better, or how to make an informed decision. They do not do this for a living. When two options look identical, price is the only remaining basis for a decision, so the buyer uses it.

How do I compete with a cheaper MSP?

Do not argue that you are better. Show what is different. Build a written comparison that lays out, line by line, what a cheap provider excludes and what you include across cybersecurity, disaster recovery, billable versus included services, and contract terms. A few occurrences of billable service in a month can erase the savings entirely, and the buyer can only see that if you show them.

Should I tell prospects who my services are not right for?

Yes, and almost no MSP does it. Thinking your services are the best solution for everyone is silly. A steakhouse is not better than a food truck, it is better for a different buyer on a different night. Being explicit about who you are not for builds enormous credibility and filters out the prospects who were going to grind you on price anyway.

What should be in an MSP service comparison sheet?

Four categories cover most of it. Cybersecurity protection: antivirus, e-mail security, dark web monitoring, phishing testing. Disaster recovery: server backups, e-mail backup, cloud file backup. Billable services: after-hours support, workstation setup, advanced administration, on-site visits, out-of-warranty repairs. Contract terms: whether pricing is fixed for the term or can be raised for activity or inflation without notice.

When should the price conversation happen in an MSP sales process?

Long before the quote. The initial engagement, the discovery meeting and the education you provide are all part of building the case. By the time you present a number, the prospect should already understand what success looks like, what good includes, and why cheaper options cost more than they appear to. If the first time price gets addressed is on the proposal, the process failed earlier.