What should a kid do when a customer says the price is too high?

The instinct is to drop the price immediately, and it is worth resisting for about ten seconds, because some no answers are real and some are reflex and they sound identical.

Ask what they had in mind. That one question does most of the work here. Sometimes the gap turns out to be two dollars and the whole thing resolves in a sentence. Sometimes the person names a number so far below yours that you learn they were never going to be your customer, which is genuinely useful to find out before doing the job.

It is also worth knowing that too expensive is often not about the money at all. It can mean the value was not explained, or that the person cannot picture what they are getting. Saying what is actually included, briefly, answers that version of the objection without moving the number an inch.

If you do decide to come down, get something for it. A second job booked, a referral to a neighbor, or a review you can show the next person. A discount traded for something is a deal. A discount given for nothing teaches that customer that your real price is always lower than the one you said, and every conversation you have with them after that starts from the lower number.

Sometimes the right answer is to let them go. Not every person is your customer, and a price that everybody accepts immediately is almost certainly too low. Hearing no sometimes is evidence the number is in the right place.

One thing not to do: apologize. Saying sorry, I know it is a lot signals that you think it is a lot, and the person is taking their cue from you. Say the number, say what it includes, and then be quiet.