How sales engineers handle: "Can you give us a discount? We're a startup with limited funds."
Restate the objection in the buyer's own words, confirm it, then answer with a demo path or architecture diagram rather than a slide.
Score your response
Why this objection hits sales engineers differently
SE objections are almost always technical on the surface and commercial underneath — the real skill is decoding which one is really being asked.
Sales Engineers own technical validation — demos, proofs of concept, and answering the objections the AE cannot. That framing changes what a strong response to "Can you give us a discount" actually looks like — the underlying job is still to acknowledge, but the surface behaviour is role-specific.
The tactical move for a sales engineer
Restate the objection in the buyer's own words, confirm it, then answer with a demo path or architecture diagram rather than a slide.
Sample response tuned for sales engineers
"That's a fair point, and I hear it a lot. Before I respond, can I ask — when you say "can you give us a discount", what's the specific concern behind it? I want to make sure I address the real thing, not the version I assume you mean."
Common trap for sales engineers
Over-answering with technical depth the buyer did not ask for, which creates new objections instead of resolving the original one.
Key points a strong response covers
- Avoid immediate discount offers
- Explore their growth trajectory and funding
- Discuss value vs. cost for startups
- Consider creative payment structures if warranted
Follow-up cadence
Written technical response document co-owned with the AE, delivered inside the mutual action plan within 48 hours.
Want to rehearse this as a sales engineer? Run a roleplay where the AI buyer says "can you give us a discount" verbatim, then grades your response against the sales engineers rubric.
The role-specific guidance on this page is derived from LemCoach's live practice rubric, which scores reps against role-appropriate benchmarks — an SDR is not graded like a closing AE, and a CSM is not graded like a BDR. The objection itself is one the AI buyer actually uses inside our practice scenarios.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rehearse this as sales engineers do it
The AI buyer raises this objection and grades your spoken answer against the sales engineers rubric.
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