When’s the last time a member of your sales team complained to you that your prices are too low?  Not too high, but too low? I’m betting your answer is never.

Back when I was managing pricing and sales in Corporate America, I certainly never heard it.  What I did hear was plenty of frustration that leadership’s high pricing and margin expectations made it difficult for the sales team to successfully compete.

Here’s an exercise to flip that narrative on its head.

How It Works

Gather your sales team and split them into two groups. Tell them they’re about to compete in a debate, high school style. One team will argue that your prices are too low. The other will argue they’re too high. Each team has one week to gather evidence, build their case, and prepare to present it. Hand each team leader a slip of paper with their assignment and keep the assignments confidential.

This is not a pro-and-con exercise. Each team should focus exclusively on the evidence that supports their assigned position. A defense attorney doesn’t walk into the courtroom and volunteer her private doubts about her client’s innocence. Anyone who’s ever been on a debate team knows you’re sometimes assigned to defend the side you don’t personally agree with, and that constraint is exactly what makes the exercise valuable. Their job isn’t to be fair. Their job is to win.

This feels counterintuitive for a reason. Leaders are trained to weigh pros and cons, consider risks, and make balanced decisions. That’s exactly what this exercise is not. The goal isn’t a considered decision. Instead, it’s a thought exercise where your only job is to fight hard for one side: the case for higher prices.

Offer a real prize. Extra vacation time, a cash bonus, a team outing – – whatever genuinely motivates your people. A meaningful reward will push them to dig deeper and argue harder.

The Reveal

When the teams gather the following week, both discover they were secretly assigned the same position: your prices are too low.

Now you have two teams who spent a week hunting for every shred of evidence that your pricing has room to grow, and they found it. Deals that closed without a single price objection. Customers who got dramatically more value than they paid for. Segments where your value proposition is far stronger than your pricing reflects. Competitors charging more for a weaker offering. One team might pull win rate data and flag that nearly half their deals closed without any negotiation at all. Another might identify a customer who doubled their usage but renewed at the same rate for the third year running.

You’ll probably need to award the prize to both teams because the second group to present has an obvious structural advantage. That’s fine. You’ll have plenty of extra margin to cover it.

The Conversation You’re Not Having

This is the conversation most sales teams never have. Not because the evidence wasn’t there, but because no one was ever asked to go find it.

What comes out the other end is a clearer picture of your actual pricing position and immediate opportunities hiding in plain sight.