I was on a call with a founder last week when she mentioned something that probably sounds familiar to many of you:

My immediate response? "When pricing is “the issue”, the value isn't clear enough to them."

Because here's the deal: people afford what they want to afford.

If I offered you a brand-new Ferrari for $10,000, you'd find the money – even if you claimed to have "budget constraints" five minutes earlier. Why? Because the value proposition is blindingly obvious. You know you could sell it tomorrow for 10x that amount.

This principle applies to your product too, just in a less extreme way.

When potential clients say they can't afford your solution, what they're really saying is:

"I don't see enough value in this to justify the cost."

It's not that they literally don't have the money. Most organisations – especially established ones – have budgets they can tap into when something is truly valuable.

What's missing? Crystal-clear communication of how your solution connects to what they actually care about.

The painful problem is that your value is buried under jargon, features, and explanations that make perfect sense to you but land as alphabet soup to everyone else.

Before: "Get exclusive early access to our training platform for clinical preceptors"

After: "Finally get paid to train students"

Same product. Same functionality. But the second version speaks directly to what healthcare workers actually want – compensation for the work they're already doing for free.

The transformation? Stripping away the jargon ("clinical preceptors," "training platform") and leading with the outcome that makes someone's day better.

Before: "Comprehensive project management solution with advanced task dependencies, resource allocation, and portfolio view capabilities"

After: "Stop asking 'who's working on what?' ten times a day"

Both describe the same features. But one makes you read it twice trying to understand what it does, whilst the other makes you think "oh thank God, yes."

Before: "Real-time data visualisation and cross-platform reporting with customisable KPI tracking"

After: "See which marketing campaigns are actually making you money – updated every hour"

Notice the pattern? We're not removing the capability – we're just showing why anyone should care about it.

Before: "Applicant tracking system with automated screening workflows and integrated communication tools"

After: "Cut your hiring time in half without drowning in CVs"

The technical features are still there (automated screening, communication tools). But now they're connected to an outcome that makes the reader think "I need that" rather than "that's nice."

Each "after" version does three specific things:

This isn't about dumbing things down. It's about removing the translation layer between your technical solution and your customer's actual life.

And the nuance most people miss is that "lead with the outcome" is solid advice, but only if the outcome is more recognisable than the pain.

Take content creation for entrepreneurs. Sure, the outcome of consistent posting is "grow your business", but that's vague and distant. The pain of "I keep ghosting my audience and feel guilty about it" is immediate and specific. That's what makes someone stop scrolling.

The question to ask yourself: What would make your ideal customer nod and think "yes, that's exactly what I'm dealing with right now"?

Sometimes it's the promise of something better. Sometimes it's the relief from something annoying. But it's always the thing they recognise fastest.

Because when someone says "we can't afford it," they're not running the numbers on budget allocation. They're failing to see the Ferrari at $10,000.

Your job is to make that value impossible to miss. 😉

Now, here's where it gets interesting: when you're selling to organisations with multiple decision-makers, each stakeholder needs to see their version of the Ferrari deal.

The technical lead cares about implementation simplicity. The finance person cares about ROI. The programme director cares about user adoption.

But here's the critical part: you don't need to explain your entire solution to each person. You need to lead with their specific "aha" moment.

Same product. Different entry points. All crystal clear.

After doing this transformation exercise with founders week after week, I realised the pattern was consistent enough to systematise.

So I built a GPT that helps you strip away the jargon and get to the heart of your message. It asks you the annoying questions ("but why would anyone care about that feature?") until your landing page copy makes someone think "oh, that's exactly what I need."

And here's why this matters for tech founders specifically: If you can't clearly explain your value before you build anything, you're gambling thousands on features nobody wants.

This is step zero of the Silicon Valley playbook – validate your messaging before you validate your product.

Even if you've already started building, getting this right now will save you from adding features that sound impressive but don't move the needle.

This GPT is designed specifically for non-technical founders who know their solution works but struggle to explain why it matters in language that doesn't require a translator.

Here's the thing: I'm launching a referral scheme for the newsletter, and this GPT is the first reward. Refer just one person who subscribes, and you'll get immediate access to it.

Not because I'm trying to be clever with growth hacks, but because I genuinely think if you found this newsletter useful, you probably know someone else who's stuck in the same place, e.g. trying to sell something valuable but hearing "we can't afford it" when the real issue is "we don't clearly see the value yet."

The bottom line: When someone says they can't afford your solution, they're giving you feedback about your messaging, not your pricing.

Your product doesn't need to be cheaper. Your value just needs to be clearer.

Make it impossible to miss the Ferrari deal you're offering.

You got this ❤

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Code explained in plain English for founders who need to work with developers