I closed a £22k deal by quoting £35k first. Here’s the pricing logic behind it.

Not a brag. Bear with me.

When I was in enterprise sales, I used to panic-price. Quote what I thought they'd accept, not what the deal was actually worth. My manager called it "pre-discounting" — when you negotiate against yourself before the client says a word.

The shift came when I started using anchoring deliberately.

The principle: buyers don't evaluate price in isolation. They evaluate it against the first number they hear. That first number becomes the reference point everything else gets measured against.

Three things I learned to do differently:

1. Quote the full-value number first, then let silence do work.

Most deals don't die at the high number. They die when you flinch at your own quote. I once quoted £35k, said nothing for 8 seconds. The CFO said "What does that include?" Not "too expensive." Curiosity is not rejection.

2. Build a comparison into the quote itself.

"This replaces 3 part-time hires and 2 software subscriptions your team already uses." Now £35k isn't vs. zero — it's vs. £85k of existing spend. Context changes the math entirely.

3. Walk down with a reason, not a discount.

If you need to come down on price, give it a reason. "That includes full onboarding support — if you want to self-onboard, I can take £8k off." Now the lower price feels like a decision they made, not a concession you gave.

The £22k deal: I quoted £35k. They came back asking about "a lighter option." I took off the premium support tier. We landed at £22k. They felt they'd negotiated a good deal. I had planned for exactly that outcome.

The real mistake isn't quoting too high. It's quoting without a structure that lets both sides feel the price is justified.

I'm still applying this thinking to Genie 007 (genie007.com) as I price it for enterprise buyers. Pricing is always a sales conversation before it's a number.

What's the biggest pricing mistake you made in your first year of selling? Curious where people trip up most.