How to research willingness to pay without asking "what would you pay?"

To research willingness to pay, stop asking "What would you pay for this?" and watch what buyers do with a real offer. The question can start a conversation, but it can't tell you what someone will buy. The answer may reflect politeness, a rough comparison or a budget the person doesn't control.

The method has two parts: reconstruct a relevant purchase or workaround, then test a specific offer with someone who can take the next buying step. Keep the evidence apart: past spending explains context, and a current commitment tests the offer in front of the buyer.

1. Reconstruct a past purchase before mentioning your price

Ask about the most recent time the organization tried to solve a comparable problem. That purchase need not be competing software. It might be contractor help, an internal project or a decision to keep the existing process.

An interview sequence you can adapt:

1. "What triggered the search for a different approach?"
2. "What options did you seriously consider?"
3. "What did you personally do in the decision?"
4. "What spending or internal effort was approved?"
5. "What had to happen before approval?"
6. "What happened after you started using the chosen approach?"

Clarify whether a number is a quote, an approved amount, actual spending or a rough memory (a range may be enough). Don't press anyone for confidential commercial details.

GOV.UK's interview guidance favors specific accounts and real examples over general statements about what people ought to do (GOV.UK in-depth interview guidance). Here, that means reconstructing a purchase before asking anyone to forecast a future one.

2. Keep burden, value, budget and authority apart

These are related, but none substitutes for another:

• Burden is what the current process demands: time, attention, rework, delays, awkward coordination.
• Value is what would improve if the outcome changed.
• Budget is the resources available for this kind of change.
• Authority is who can approve the next step.

Here is a made-up example. An agency coordinator reports spending eight hours a month reconciling staffing updates. Your proposed service costs $300 per month. Both figures are illustrative, not a pricing recommendation or a customer result.

It is tempting to multiply the hours by a salary and declare $300 an easy purchase. (The spreadsheet always agrees with its author.) That leaves the real questions open. Would the service actually remove those hours? Does the agency value the freed time? Who would do the setup? Can this coordinator buy it? Would a tool they already have solve enough of the problem?

Record the time estimate as reported evidence, and investigate how the improvement would happen and the buying process separately. A spreadsheet of assumed savings is a hypothesis, even when the arithmetic is right.

3. Turn the proposal into an offer someone can judge

An offer needs more than a price. Write a short offer card:

The sample describes an offer to develop, not a service Instant Expert provides. Replace every field with something your team can actually deliver. Say whether it is a manual pilot, a prototype or a working product, so the buyer knows what exists today.

Hold the package steady while you test a price, unless the package itself is the question. Change price, scope, delivery and customer effort all at once and you won't know which one moved the answer.

4. Ask for a real next step and record what happens

Strategyzer distinguishes what people say from the actions used to test a value proposition, and recommends combining interviews with behavioral evidence for critical assumptions (Strategyzer on testing methods). That doesn't make every click a purchase or every payment a lasting business.

Match the step to the buyer's real process. A user may be able to introduce the approver. A team lead may be able to arrange a review. Only an authorized buyer can approve a clearly defined pilot. Don't ask all three for the same commitment.

Keep an evidence log instead of a confidence score:

Note the date, role, exact offer, step requested and step observed. If someone promised an introduction that hasn't happened, write "introduction offered; not yet observed." That is more precise than calling the account qualified.

5. Don't invent a reason for a stalled step

Silence has several possible causes: the problem may be low priority, the offer unclear, the person busy, or the step beyond their authority. Silence alone can't tell them apart.

Follow up with a specific, low-pressure question about the stalled step. If they can't evaluate until the next planning cycle, record that constraint and any agreed date. Don't quietly file it as a rejection, and don't file it as a future sale.

A successful pilot is evidence about one package and one buyer, and a handful of willing participants doesn't establish a market-wide purchase rate. Track how they were recruited and what relationship they already had with your team.

By the end of a round, you should be able to describe the current alternative, the buyer's decision process, the exact offer and the action actually taken. That record gives you a defensible next experiment. An average of hypothetical price guesses doesn't.