When a customer says "it's too expensive," don't defend the price. Give them reasons the item is worth it. If you can't name three, the problem isn't the customer. It's that you haven't done the work to believe in the product yourself.
Hermann Simon put it this way in Confessions of the Pricing Man: price serves as an indicator of quality when buyers are uncertain about a product's underlying quality. That happens when they're looking at something entirely new to them or something they rarely buy. You know this from your own life. Walk into a car dealer after eight years and the sticker shocks you, because you don't buy cars often.
Here's where most stores lose the sale. The associate can't get the customer past "it's so expensive," so they sell the cheaper item instead. It's on sale, the customer says fine, and the premium merchandise sits. The associate feels they did their job. Your margins say otherwise.
I saw the worst version of this in Denver. A salon window had a sign that read, "Men who use this report thicker hair." I walked in and said, "I want that." The young woman behind the counter said, "It's really expensive." I asked her, "Do I look homeless? Why did you say that?" She said, "I just want you to know it's really expensive." Then her manager came over and backed her up: "We don't sell a lot because people think it's so expensive." She wasn't balding like I am, so she couldn't see the value. She was selling from her own wallet, and it cost the store the sale it had already made through the window.
The fix: find something in your store that costs more than you could personally pay for. Find three reasons somebody would love to own it. The way it hangs. How it holds its value. The longer battery. The years it will last. Then lead with those reasons when a shopper considers it. Customers who tell you it's too expensive are really telling you they can't yet see what it's worth. That part is your job, not theirs.
Selling from your own wallet is a habit training breaks. SalesRX online retail sales training teaches associates to name what an item is worth instead of apologizing for the tag, then an unannounced mystery shop measures whether they do. For more on handling price objections, see retail sales strategies.