When a cold email reply asks "how much does it cost?", give the number. State a range, name the one or two things that move it, ask a single question that narrows it down, and offer a short call. Hiding the price behind "it depends" makes people think it's expensive, and most of them stop writing.
Ana is a photographer who shoots menus and interiors for restaurants. She emailed a cafe owner named Kofi, and he wrote back a single line: "How much?" Here is what she sent, and why each piece is there.
Why they ask price first
A stranger who asks for the price in their first reply is usually doing a quick filter. Is this in the range of things I'd consider, or is it a waste of time? They aren't being rude. They're protecting their afternoon.
That's good news. A person who asks the price is picturing buying. A person who isn't interested doesn't ask. The danger is not that Kofi will find the price too high. It's that you'll make him work for it and lose him before he finds out.
If you have a public price list, link or paste it. If you don't, this is the moment to decide on one. The same hesitation shows up when founders talk to customers in person, and the pricing conversation flinch explains why it happens and what to do about it. And the broader case for putting a number up front is in say goodbye to the demo gate.
Give a range, not a riddle
"It depends on your needs" is accurate and useless. A range is accurate and useful. Ana's reply:
Hi Kofi, good question. A half-day shoot for a cafe, which covers about 25 edited photos of the menu, space and staff, runs $700 to $1,100. Most cafes land around $850.
Notice she names what the money buys. "Half-day", "25 edited photos", and what the photos show. That lets Kofi compare it with what he has in mind. If you can, include one figure from the middle of the range so he has an anchor.
Make sure the range is real. If you quote $700 to $1,100 and then a normal job comes in at $1,600, you've broken trust before you've started. Use prices you've actually charged. If you're brand new and don't know yet, pick a number you'd be happy to work for, and revise it after five jobs.
Say what moves the price
Two or three factors, in plain words. This is the part that turns a range into something the buyer can place themselves in:
The price moves with three things: how many photos you need, whether I'm shooting food styled by your kitchen or my own setup, and how soon you need them. A rush job inside a week adds about 25 percent.
Say the factors that really do change your cost or time, and no more. Listing eight variables makes the price feel complicated, and complicated feels expensive. If a factor is something you can't predict until you see the place, say that too: "Parking and stairs can add time on-site, so I'd confirm on the call."
Ask one qualifying question
You can't narrow a range without knowing something about the job. Ask one thing that lets you place him in it, and make it easy to answer:
Roughly how many menu items do you want photographed, and is it for the website, delivery apps, or both?
One question, not five. If you ask for a pile of details in your first reply, it starts to feel like a form. The right question is one whose answer would change your quote, which also shows Kofi you aren't pulling numbers from the air. If he comes back with "about 15 dishes, for delivery apps", you can say "that's probably closer to $700."
Offer the call
With the number and the question out, end by offering a way to finalize it:
If you tell me the number of dishes I'll send an exact quote today, or we can do 10 minutes on the phone Thursday at 11 or Friday at 2 if that's easier.
Ana
This gives him two paths: the low-effort one (reply with a number) and the personal one (a short call). Many people prefer to reply by email, so don't force the phone. Other ways of closing a message are in cold email call to action examples.
When the price is too high for them
Sometimes the number ends the conversation: "That's more than I was thinking." Don't rush to discount. First ask what they had in mind, or what they'd be comfortable with. Then decide if you can offer a smaller version of the work instead of the same work for less.
Understood. If $850 is too much, I can do a shorter shoot with 10 photos of your best sellers for $450. Would that be closer?
Trimming the scope protects your rates and still gives the buyer something they can afford. Dropping your price for the same work teaches him that your first number was negotiable. If neither works, thank him and leave it. A buyer you decline politely often returns when the budget does.
If you aren't sure you can do a smaller version, say so, and offer to look into it. Never promise on the spot what you can't deliver.
When the work is custom and a range feels dishonest
Some jobs really can't be priced from a one-line email. A kitchen remodel or a custom software build can run from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on details you haven't seen. A range that wide is useless, so don't pretend. Give the smallest job you do and the usual one, and say why you need to see more.
Our smallest jobs start around $5,000, and a typical one runs $12,000 to $18,000. I'd rather not guess on yours without seeing it. A 20-minute site visit lets me give you a fixed number, and there's no charge for the visit.
Only offer a free visit if you mean it. The aim is the same as before: the buyer should know within a minute whether this is in their price range, and what the next step is.
Write down what you quoted
Record every quote the day you send it: who, the number, what it covered, the date, and what they said. A shared spreadsheet or your CRM works. Three weeks later, when Kofi comes back and asks "what was the price again?", you will not want to scroll through your inbox, and you will not want to quote $900 when you said $850.
The record also teaches you something. After twenty quotes you can see how many people reply to the price and how many go quiet, and which wording got the most conversations. That tells you more about your pricing than a competitor's website does. If you also want to know what to do with the replies that come after, what to do when a reply comes back is a short routine.
Rocketship takes the same approach in its own sales: its prices are published on the pricing page, with no demo needed to hear them. Its AI worker reads replies like Kofi's in your own Gmail and answers the common ones in your voice, and the whole exchange stays in your sent folder, so you can see exactly what was quoted. See the AI workers for how it handles replies. If the reply you got was a request for details instead of a price, read how to respond when a prospect says send me more info.
Answer the price question quickly and plainly, and the conversation keeps going. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.