How to Sell Smarter in a Slower Market
“Should I lower my prices?”
If you’re running a business and have felt a slowdown over the last few months, you’ve probably asked yourself this question at least once.
As we talked about last week, a lot of business owners are feeling the squeeze. Potential clients are taking longer to commit, referrals that may have once come steadily have slowed, and clients you may have worked with for years are downsizing or hesitating to engage all together.
After years leading strategic planning initiatives at Boeing and more than a decade helping purpose-driven women build businesses that last, I’ve learned that in every economic dip, the most successful leaders aren’t the ones who lower their prices or sell harder. They’re the ones who reposition faster and smarter.
When markets tighten or buyers grow cautious, it’s rarely a pricing problem. It’s almost always a positioning problem.
When uncertainty rises, people often spend less, and they buy differently. As we close out the year, understanding how buyer psychology shifts is your biggest advantage. The clearer your message and conviction, the more confidently clients will choose you.
In this week’s blog, we’re going to talk through four buyer types, how they behave, and how you have to shift your marketing in order to connect with them.
The Four Buyer Types
Harvard Business Review researchers John Quelch and Katherine Jocz identified four psychological buyer types that consistently appear in periods of uncertainty. Their research, How to Market in a Downturn, is as relevant now as it was in 2009.
The patterns they noticed after studying companies’ failures and successes through every recession since the 1970s offer a lot of insight we can use to reframe the way we are marketing our own businesses.
It likely won’t come as a surprise, customer buying psychology depends on a variety of factors, including the disposable income people have, how confident the buyer feels about the future, the level of trust they have in the companies they are doing business with, the economy, and their own attitudes toward consumption.
Even though every person is different, when we dig into these four buyer types, we can draw some important conclusions and adapt our marketing and sales strategies accordingly. So, let’s dive in.
Type 1: Slam-on-the-Brakes Buyers
These buyers are in full protection mode. They’ve stopped all non-essential spending and are laser-focused on keeping what they already have. On the surface this may sound like a lower-income segment, but even financially secure clients can fall into this category when they face personal or professional uncertainty.
If this group is part of your audience, they’re not looking for innovation, aspiration, or big growth, they’re looking for safety and stability.
So, how can we engage these buyers?
Lead with safety, not scale. Show how the product or service you offer fills an important or essential need, especially if they need to stabilize their systems or protect their revenue base.
Focus on risk reduction. Showcase how your business helps them prevent loss, chaos, or wasted effort.
Offer smaller, contained engagements. Making big investments is often a non-starter, but smaller options like audits, intensives, or retainers that help them feel safe taking the next step can be an empowering step forward.
At the beginning, I raised the question I hear a lot - should I lower my prices?
The short answer, as counterintuitive as it may be, is no. Discounting your prices does not make people trust you more. If anything, it makes them wonder, especially for formerly high ticket programs, products, or services, whether you might be scrambling as well.
One of my clients, a financial coach, pivoted from promoting long-term investment strategies to “financial triage” sessions that focused on clarity, priorities, and quick wins. Those sessions sold out, not because of the lower price, but because they met the client’s most pressing problem, right now, and gave them the stability they needed to think more strategically. They also built critical trust, which opened the door to longer term engagements.
Type 2. Pained-but-Patient Buyers
This group is the largest group by far. They’re often cautious but willing to spend when value, ROI, and outcomes are clear.
Think about your client base. If you’ve noticed them asking more questions, cutting back on the services they previously used, or negotiating harder, they’re likely in this group. To meet them where they are:
Anchor every message in measurable ROI. Show them why and how the product or service you offer actually helps them close a gap they’re experiencing. For example, if you’re a visibility strategist, you might talk about how refining their strategy will shorten their sales cycle and help them stabilize their pipeline and cashflow with more right-fit clients.
Use proof, not promises. Real case studies, client testimonials (especially video), and data matter here more than ever. People want to see and hear about the results you helped others get, and they’ll use that as a gauge for whether you can help them as well.
Be transparent about your process and the expected outcomes. Give them a deeper glimpse into your methods. This doesn’t mean you have to share all the ingredients in your secret sauce, but people need to understand how you work, how you’ll guide them, and what results they can expect.
As a reminder, this is not the time for vague or generic transformation language (“find your voice,” “step into your power,” or “scale your business”). Be specific and clear. One of my clients shifted her focus from “empowering teams to thrive” to “reducing miscommunication by 40% in hybrid environments.” Her mission was the same, but her ROI was a lot clearer.
Type 3. Comfortably Well-Off Buyers
These buyers feel confident in their ability to weather instabilities in the economy. As a result, they’re still investing but more selectively. They’re looking for high-caliber partnerships that help them refine, optimize, and protect what’s working. For them, positioning your service as a strategic advantage.
How will your offer help them sustain their growth without increasing costs?
How does it simplify their business operations or prevent employee burnout?
How does it expand their visibility, influence, or impact?
Be specific about your language. Speak to efficiency, alignment, and long-term positioning in clear language and again, root it in ROI.
Lastly, don’t oversimplify or “downmarket” your message to seem accessible. Premium buyers equate low prices with low value, so keep your standards high.
Type 4. Live-for-Today Buyers
The Live-for-Today buyers represent the smallest segment. They tend to be younger, live in urban spaces, and are more experience-oriented. They will remain loyal to brands that are aligned with their values and identity.
You can best engage with this group by leaning into purpose and transformation. Think impact orientation rooted in passion and conviction.
Offer experiences, like retreats, collaborations, and potentially masterminds, that feel creative and emphasize connection and impact. Authenticity really matters to this group, so don’t attempt to green- or purpose-wash just to sell your program or service.
Additionally, this group is less focused on traditional ROI measures, but they do care a lot about impact and the emotional ROI of the work.
When I launched my Built to Last retreat in Egypt last week, this audience was the first to say yes. They weren’t buying logistics or an itinerary. They were buying connection, legacy, and impact. That’s the power of conviction-based positioning, even in uncertain times, when delivered to the right audience.
Why Lowering Prices Isn’t the Solution
It’s tempting to believe that dropping your prices will drive more sales, but research and my own experience consistently show the opposite.
Brands that slash prices too quickly often:
Dilute their perceived value.
Train buyers to wait for discounts.
Undermine trust by signaling panic.
Meanwhile, brands that stay visible, credible, and consistent outperform when the market rebounds.
If your primary client base falls in the Pained-but-Patient group, meet them halfway without discounting your prices. Offer more accessible entry points by breaking larger packages into smaller components, focus more on the triage side of things if that applies to your business, or showcase how investing in your product, program, or service is a high quality alternative to other more expensive options.
If you take nothing else from this conversation, remember that when you hold your value and adapt your message instead of your price, you signal confidence and stability to every buyer type.
Apply This in Your Business
If you want to stay strong in a slower market, here’s where to start:
Identify Your Dominant Buyer Segment.
Which of the four types makes up most of your audience right now? Dig into their concerns, address their most urgent problem right now, and tailor your language accordingly.
Revisit Your Messaging.
Replace aspirational messaging with essential phrasing, so they know that your service isn’t optional. Make sure this is rooted in integrity and not sensationalized. The BS detector is extra sensitive right now, especially since we’re in a low trust environment.
Lead with Proof and Partnership.
Show evidence of results, be transparent about your process, and demonstrate that you’re a strategic ally, not a risk. When you can speak from experience, either your own or your clients’, this builds an immense amount of trust.
Protect Your Energy and Pricing.
Your boundaries and pricing signal professionalism. The right clients aren’t shopping for the cheapest solutions. They’re searching for a solid investment that signals safety, stability, and the ability to address their most urgent needs.
In Uncertain Times, Trust Is the Strategy
Economic downturns don’t just separate strong businesses from weak ones; they separate the strategic from the reactive.
You don’t have to sell harder. You have to sell smarter, and that means the way you talk to your ideal client has to change. Be clear about who you serve, how you serve, and why your work matters for them.
If your pipeline has slowed or your message isn’t landing the way it used to, it’s time for a recalibration, not a discount. The businesses that survive and thrive in uncertain times aren’t the cheapest. They’re the clearest.
Let’s architect your next move together. It starts with a Recalibration Session, where we’ll pinpoint the buyer you’re selling to, align your message to your conviction-driven idea, and refine your strategy, so it reflects the authority you’ve already earned.
In uncertain times and slower markets, trust is the real currency, and clarity, conviction, and connection build it faster than any discount ever could.
