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Plays · Plays · When the buyer says a competitor is cheaper

When the buyer says a competitor is cheaper

Use this play when a buyer tells you another vendor came in lower and the next request is a discount. It moves the conversation from "our price is fair" to the difference in value.

Before you start. The deal needs a value model with customer variables in place. If a competitor value model does not exist yet, create it before the call (step 2).

The situation

Late in the deal, the buyer says another vendor is cheaper, and the next sentence is a request to match it.

Why it matters

A price objection is almost always a value gap. If you answer it on price, you accept that the two products are the same and the only question is who charges less. valueIQ gives you two things a price-only comparison cannot: a side-by-side value breakdown against the competitor's own value model, and structured analysis of their published pricing. The question becomes what each price buys.

Steps in valueIQ

  1. Open the deal and read your own number first. Left nav → Pipeline → click the deal. The Deal Metrics bar shows the payback period and the value-to-cost ratio. The app labels this VCR in places; it is Value Capture, the share of expected value your price captures.
  2. Attach the competitor's value model. Deal page → Competitors panel → Add Competitor. valueIQ estimates the competitor's customer variables using your deal's context and renders a side-by-side, driver-by-driver comparison. If no competitor model exists yet, go to Products → + New Competitor Product first. This runs the full analysis chain, so do it before the call.
  3. Find the drivers where the gap is largest. These are the drivers to talk about. A lower price on a product that delivers less on the drivers the buyer cares about is a worse deal for them.
  4. Bring in the pricing analysis. Competitive pricing analysis (structured data from the competitor's published pricing page) sits in the deal's context and is available to the Deal Copilot and to value story generation. Analyses are cached for 90 days, so describe the data as current rather than real-time.
  5. Draft the response. Deal Copilot composer → Objection response quick action. Paste the objection as the buyer said it and tag the drivers where the comparison favours you. Type: "The buyer says the other vendor is cheaper. Using our value drivers and the competitor comparison, give me a concise, confident response that doesn't get defensive and re-anchors on outcome."
  6. Follow up in writing. Deal Copilot composer → Follow-up email quick action. Pick the economic buyer as the audience. The draft comes back for your review. Nothing is sent for you.

Tip. With the MCP Server connected, run steps 5 and 6 from your assistant: "They pushed back on price. Give me a response backed by the drivers."

What to say

Do not argue the number. Agree with it and change the unit.

"You're right, their list price is lower. What we should compare is what each price buys. On [driver], your team told us [confirmed value]. Their product does not address it, so that value stays on the table. Across the drivers you said matter, the difference in value is [X], against a price difference of [Y]."

Then ask which driver they want to go through first.

What good looks like

  • The buyer stops asking about the discount and starts asking about the drivers.
  • The response you send quotes numbers the buyer has already confirmed, not market defaults.
  • The deal advances without a concession, or with one you chose because the value comparison justified it.