In a recent video titled "Three Ways To Handle VP Head of Sales Pricing Objections" from the channel "AI, SaaS & Agentic Pricing with Monetizely," Ajit Pal Ghuman shares tactical approaches for SaaS founders and marketers facing resistance from their sales leadership on pricing decisions. The video presents three strategic methods to address the common objection that "your price point is too high" while maintaining alignment between product and sales teams.
The Delicate Dance of Pricing Objections
When your head of sales pushes back on your pricing strategy, it's easy to dismiss their concerns. However, as Ajit points out in the video, there's nuance to consider: "Your head of sales or VP of sales is always going to have their feet to the ground and is going to bring a lot of truth to this discussion… So it is not always going to be the case that they are flat out wrong."
These objections often stem from real market feedback. Sales teams interact directly with prospects daily and hear unfiltered reactions to your pricing. Yet, sometimes these objections aren't fully founded in reality or might reflect a misalignment in how value is communicated rather than an actual pricing problem.
Strategy 1: Unbundle Your Product Offering
The first approach addresses a common problem: sales teams treating your product as a monolith.
"Many times sellers are not able to go into the nitty gritties of the product and they've been selling the product as one big black box," Ajit explains. This bundled approach makes it difficult to increase prices without significant pushback.
The solution? Unbundle your product into core and premium components. This strategy allows you to maintain current pricing for the core offering while creating premium tiers or a la carte options for additional value. As Ajit notes, this approach helps you "increase price point without actually notionally increasing the price point."
This unbundling creates flexibility in your pricing model that benefits both sales and customers:
- Sales can continue selling the core product at existing price points
- Customers who value specific additional features can pay for exactly what they need
- Overall revenue increases without forcing a blanket price increase
Strategy 2: Increase List Price While Expanding Discounting Authority
Another effective approach is to adjust your pricing and discounting mechanics simultaneously.
"If you're not getting a lot of discounting escalations, you probably are leaving money on the table," Ajit explains. He suggests a balanced approach: "We're going to increase the list price, we're giving you a little bit more discounting authority and we're going to be very laissez-faire in approving these."
This strategy introduces what Ajit calls "good friction" into your sales process. When sales teams must occasionally seek approval for larger discounts, it creates visibility into pricing decisions while maintaining sales autonomy. If discount requests start coming to leadership when they weren't before, it signals you've found that healthy tension in your pricing model.
The key is balance—raise prices enough to capture more value but not so much that customers walk away entirely. This approach creates a negotiation dance that can actually strengthen your sales process.
Strategy 3: Train Your Sales Team Like Prospective Customers
Your sales team needs more than just new pricing instructions—they need a complete value reinforcement program.
"Understand that sellers are like prospects or customers themselves. They need a full road show as well," Ajit emphasizes. Sales representatives face constant objections about differentiation and value. To defend higher prices, they need:
- Confidence in the product's enhanced value
- Clear talking points about differentiation
- Understanding of new features and their benefits
- Conviction from leadership about the product's worth
As Ajit cautions, "Merely increasing the price point and saying, 'Hey, you're part of the company. You should just get it' does not work." Your sales team must genuinely believe in your product's value to effectively represent it to customers.
Finding Balance Between Price Integrity and Sales Reality
The tension between optimizing revenue and maintaining sales effectiveness is natural. By implementing these three strategies—unbundling your product, creating controlled discounting mechanics, and properly training your sales team—you can effectively address pricing objections while strengthening your overall pricing approach.
The underlying message is clear: pricing changes require thoughtful implementation, not just new numbers on a page. When sales and product teams align around value communication, both revenue goals and sales effectiveness can improve simultaneously.