Incremental Price Discovery
Raise high-ticket prices after each sale until buyer resistance reveals fit
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Use successive real sales as controlled evidence about willingness to pay. Start at a price that lets the seller validate the ability to close the offer, then increase the next quote by a defined amount. Record the buyer's need, urgency, perceived value, reaction, and outcome so a sale caused by an unusually acute problem is not mistaken for a universal market price. Continue across enough qualified opportunities to identify the range where buyers still understand and accept the value, and where resistance becomes consistent. The method is most suitable for high-ticket services rather than commodities. It prevents chronic underpricing while recognising that value changes by person and circumstance; the objective is not infinite increases but evidence-based discovery of a defensible price.
Origin
Moore described increasing his startup consulting price after each early sale until it reached a level the service deserved.
Core principles
- 01A completed sale validates willingness to pay at that level
- 02Price testing is market research
- 03Value is subjective to buyer and circumstance
- 04Repeated sales are needed before drawing conclusions
How to run it
- 1
Check pricing suitability
Use the method only where the offer is differentiated and variable pricing is commercially appropriate.
Watch out Do not apply the method mechanically to commodity products.
- 2
Set a validation price
Choose an initial figure that allows genuine buyers to validate both the offer and your ability to sell it.
Pro tip Treat this as a starting experiment, not a permanent identity.
- 3
Log the sale context
Record urgency, buyer type, problem value, quoted price, response, and outcome.
Watch out A crisis-level buyer may support a price that ordinary buyers will not.
- 4
Raise the next quote
Increase the price by a deliberate increment and present it to another qualified buyer.
Pro tip Pick an increment large enough to produce useful evidence but small enough to interpret.
- 5
Find the stable range
Repeat until sufficient sales reveal where acceptance remains strong and resistance becomes consistent.
Pro tip Use a volume of sales rather than one result.
Watch out Infinite increases are not the goal.
In the wild
Moore began online startup consulting at a relatively low price to prove he could close the service. After each successful sale he increased the next price, continuing until he reached a level buyers still understood and he felt matched the work.
→ Real transactions revealed a stronger market price without relying on guesswork alone.
Common mistakes
Raising every product forever
Commodity and fixed-price markets can become uncompetitive quickly; this is a bounded discovery process for suitable offers.
Ignoring buyer circumstances
A price accepted during an urgent high-value problem may not generalise to buyers with lower need.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for differentiated coaching, consulting, and high-ticket services with room for price variation.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for commodity goods, fixed retail pricing, or tiny samples with highly dissimilar buyers.
From the transcript
“you should test it because it's a really good way of seeing what your price should really be it's a good bit of market research…”
“every time i got a sale i just put the price up until i got to this point where i thought okay do you know…”
“it requires a volume of sales to really get a handle on it”
From the episode
Richard Moore: The Laws of Selling
Richard Moore