If you believe in yourself and stand by your product, you can feel confident about your fee.

Sooner or later, every salesperson confronts the following situation: You want the deal badly and you need the business, but you suspect your price is too high. So, what do you do? You lower your price, rather than try to negotiate.

Many salespeople are afraid to stand by their price structure because of a single mistaken assumption: “If I refuse to negotiate my price, I’ll lose all my customers.” The reality is just the opposite. If you aren’t prepared to defend your price, your customers will lose respect for you.

Here are 10 tips that will help you negotiate the price you deserve:

1. Don’t forget you are entitled to reasonable compensation. Just as your doctor, accountant and plumber are entitled to reasonable compensation for their services, you are entitled to reasonable compensation for your product or service.

What is reasonable? Whatever you can convince your buyer that your product is worth. The operative principle is value. No buyer will begrudge you a price that makes sense relative to the perceived value of the product.

2. Don’t sell yourself short. Do you believe that what you are selling is worth the price? If the answer is yes — and I certainly hope it is — then you should expect to receive a worthy price. If you lack confidence about your product, buyers will notice your doubt.

There is always a range of prices for similar products and services. It fascinates me when some salespeople can bring in the order at a premium price, while others can’t seem to get by without discounting. There’s a simple reason for this discrepancy: One salesperson gets up in the morning and says, “My product is great, and my customers are happy to pay my price”; while another salesperson gets up and says, “My product is great, but the buyer will never pay me such-and-such.”

3. Don’t apologize. Once you have established the value of your product, present your price with confidence. Never apologize for it. If you believe your price is correct, assume your customers will agree.

4. Always be willing to walk away. I call this “Brodow’s Law.” You must be prepared to say, “Next!” or your customers will sense your uncertainty. The willingness to walk away from a sale comes from having options. It is crucial to have other potential sales in the lineup. When you know your sales career doesn’t hinge on this one deal, you exude confidence—and buyers will bow to confidence.

5. Justify your price. Once you have decided on your price, you must provide reasonable justification, so your buyer sees the value and accepts it. Here are the key proof points:

Give your price legitimacy: “My price is reasonable for the marketplace. This is the going price for this product.” If your buyers have done their homework, they’ll know you’re telling the truth. And remember—you are entitled to reasonable compensation.

Focus on the value of your product, not on the price. Buyers will pay for value. Sell features and benefits.

Show your customer that you’d like to help him out, but you can’t lower your price for one customer without lowering your price for everybody.

6. Know when to negotiate. Of course, there are exceptions. You want to leave yourself the option of negotiating a lower price, if it is in your best interest to do so. The operative principle here is saving face: In other words, you will lower your price only if you can maintain the integrity of your basic pricing structure.

In these cases, tell your customer, “I’ll accept a lower price only under the following circumstances... .” What are those circumstances? You might consider offering a discount if the customer will buy more than one product, or if the merchandise is flawed. I recently gave a keynote speech at a reduced fee for a client who had already booked me for six two-day seminars. (As a result of interest generated by the keynote, the client booked another six seminars.)

7. Make the buyer work for concessions. If you appear too anxious to negotiate your price or terms downward, the buyer will perceive you as worth less (or even worse: worthless). In one of my favorite price negotiations, a client received a proposal from a competitor of mine who wanted the job so badly that they offered to do a negotiation seminar for nothing — just to break into the account. My client tried to convince me to lower my fee, but I politely refused. In the end, my clients booked me, because they viewed my competitor’s presentation as worth its price: zero. Due to my confident negotiating posture, my seminar was perceived to have more value.

If you do lower your price, be sure to force your buyer to earn the concession. Don’t give in right away. Ask for something in return, such as additional business.

8. Qualify your prospective buyers. There are occasions when you may be wasting your time negotiating with a customer. If you think a buyer might be out of your price range (either below or above it), ask: “What kind of budget are we looking at?” or “What range are we looking at here?” You may want to let her know that you are not in the same range; you may want to sell her a more or less expensive item; or you may want to fit her into an exception category — provided you can save face.

9. Know how to deal with three typical buyer tactics.

The Flinch: The buyer says, “Your price is what?” and starts choking.

Your response: Silence. Don’t react. It’s a test — the customer just wants to see if he can get a reaction out of you. Be persistent. Repeat your price, and justify it.

The Squeeze: The buyer tells you, “You have to do better,” or “I can get it for less.”

Your response: Sell the unique qualifications of your product. Take the focus off the price. Get the buyer to agree that your product is the one she wants, so price is only a technicality. If her company really wants what you have to offer, she will find a way to pay for it. Remember my story of the competitor who offered to speak for nothing: Just because the buyer has a potential vendor with a lower price doesn’t mean she’ll choose that vendor.

Or tie a string: Offer to reduce your price only in return for additional volume, or a commitment to purchase other products at full price.

The Sob Story: The customer cries, “All I have in my budget is…” or “All we can afford is… .”

Your response: Don’t budge. Call the bluff. He may be testing to see how firm your price is. Or ask: “Are there any other budgets you can draw from?” The company’s budget for your product or service may not be the only one available to him.

10. Leave the customer feeling satisfied. Whatever you do, remember that your objective is a satisfied customer. To satisfy your customers without lowering your price:

Be a good listener. Allow the customer to get his gripes about your price off his chest. He will thank you for being patient. Help the customer to accept your fee by providing reasonable justification. Sell your unique strengths. Believe in yourself.

The major obstacle that prevents salespeople from receiving the price they want is fear of rejection. One way of dealing with this fear is to lower your price, but the better way is to overcome your fear by schooling yourself in assertive negotiation techniques. When you execute these right, both you and your customer will feel a sense of satisfaction.

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ED BRODOW (brodow.com) is a motivational speaker and negotiation expert. He is the author of Negotiation Boot Camp: How to Resolve Conflict, Satisfy Customers, and Make Better Deals (Doubleday, 2006).