Ah I love scenarios like this; the really hard part is out of the way for you. Getting the opportunity.

I would say the most immediate thing to adjust is how much time is being spent discussing with the prospects is what they’re looking for and what they’re planning to do.

By that I mean, are they saying they want to rent chairs for an outdoor birthday, and you’re moving right to quoting and then sharing your value (delivery, set up, take down, whatever) that others don’t?

I always suggest spending way way more time talking about what they’re planning to do; why this event? Why now? Is this a recurring thing? How excited are they? Is it coming along well? Have they had any issues pulling it together? How big is the party? Alcohol? Kids? You can’t solve any of their problems by just renting them some furniture but what you can do is make them feel that you’re a part of their team to pull off a great party. This should give a sense of really what kind of money they’re putting into it, where the most money is likely going, and what they’re skimping on.

Baby shower for a mother in law that’s really annoyed by her daughter in law? Probably looking to save

You can share a little of your “passion” for parties and the headaches you always experience leading up to and especially the day of! (Always something that needs to be addressed in the middle of hauling furniture or whatever you rent). And go into your value - delivery? Set up, take down.

Then start talking numbers.

Won’t work everytime, but it will give better chances.

Of course, talk to your sales team about how the conversations go for the ones that close too.

I would add and test a form of takeaway selling in your process.

Whenever the prospect writes to you or asks a quote, instead of asnwering straight away or within a few minutes, have them receive informational materials that further sell them on you and in about a day reply to their question.

Here is why you ought to try this: if you reply instantly/within few minutes, you may come off desperate/needy and it may be repelling some good leads…

As for pricing problem - you can tackle this multiple ways, one of which is just accepting that those leads/prospects werent going to be good ones and its better off without them and solely focus on the current ones you attract and developing your backend for those customers… alternatively, you can always say to those prospects that you specialise in helping people whose main concern is their budget, and then you figure out a way later on how to compensate… OR if you suspect most of your customers main concern is price then you can give a 10-20% higher quote than normal, and then say that since the customer is first time, you will add a 10 to 20% discount and basically get paid the same you would have.

With offers there are hundred ways you can slice and dice them and if you can provide me with what you already offer/how you offer it, then I can give you some alternative ideas you can toy around with…

Also, has this been a problem in the past or recently? Did this problem start 6 months ago when you switched/hired a new marketing agency or in-house marketer or changed your marketing strategy? Maybe thats the problem…

Do you know where your current best leads are coming from? Are there multiple sources or does one source produce the highest quality leads? Or maybe its that your best leads come from one source and the rest of the sources draw in unqualified leads or bad ones which may be hurting your “real” conversion rates which may be producing below satisfactory results. Maybe this is the problem…

To be honest, the problem may be all of the listed and more, or it can only be single thing, but its quite hard togive you help without actually knowing what the majority of your current process is.

With the sales objection, you can try a few things… ask them “why”, once they reply say you understand and then lead back into the sales pitch… or you can say “well thats perfect because I specialise helping couple who have cocerns about their budget” and then go back into the sales pitch… whats more, you can add a few pressure tactics as well when presenting the offer - deadline (its a must in every sale)… you can always say that the person can pay but if their spouse has any obejctions/problems and wants a refund, you can give a refund without starting anything (this depends on how confident you are in selling their spouse now). Here is how it can look: “I understand that you need to talk to your spouse before making this decision and thats perfect because I specialise in helping couples who have budget concerns and thats why I have this one-time offer where you can pay now for 15% less and if your spouse believes that you’ve made an error or that you need a refund, you will get it no questions asked…” and if someone agrees to this, you should hand out reading materials for free to those “customers” and have them bring it home/show it to their spouse so that they dont have to sell you to their spouse but instead its your materials that are selling them.

Anyway, these are a few ideas.