Answering What Is Your Best Price by Text or Message
"What's your best price?" is a process question, not a math question. Here is a message-by-message way to answer it without dumping gross or going silent.
A Saturday text lands at 11:14 a.m.: "What's your best price on the black Tahoe?" No greeting, no name, no "is it available." The rep has two bad habits available. One is to ignore it until Monday. The other is to shave $800 because the lot is quiet and a bird in the hand feels like a deal. Both habits train the next ten buyers to send the same one-liner.
Answering what is your best price by text or message is a scripted process with a manager-defined floor, not a personality test. The advertised price is the answer. Everything else is qualification and a next step. If your store cannot say that in one sentence, every phone on the floor becomes a mini desk with no worksheet and no witness.
This guide is for BDC reps, sales associates, and internet directors who answer Marketplace, SMS, and web-lead chats. It is operational, not legal advice. How you advertise price, fees, and discounts is regulated; confirm wording with counsel or your state regulator. If the thread is on Facebook, follow current Meta commerce and messaging rules rather than inventing your own.
Why Answering What Is Your Best Price in One Number Usually Backfires
The question sounds like it wants a number. What it usually wants is certainty: is this the real price, and is there a hidden second price at the desk?
What "best price" means to the buyer
Buyers use that phrase for different jobs:
- They want confirmation that the advertised figure is the cash price, not a teaser.
- They want to know whether you will negotiate in the chat so they can skip the visit.
- They are collecting numbers from several dealers to screenshot into a group text.
You cannot tell which job it is until you answer the advertised price and ask one question. Dropping a new number first does all three jobs for them, badly, and only the third one benefits.
What it costs the store
- Gross given away with no trade, no terms, no commitment.
- A screenshot that becomes the opening bid at the next store.
- A rep who now believes every one-liner deserves a cut.
- A listing that looks dishonest because the "best" price is never the one in the ad.
A related pattern is the shopper who will not talk about anything except money. That is a type you can diagnose; see handling price-only shoppers in online conversations. This article is narrower: the exact reply when the question is "best price."
The rule to write down
Advertised price is the only price that exists in a text or Marketplace message unless a manager puts a different number on a written worksheet. "Best" is not a second column in the DMS.
A Message Framework for Answering What Is Your Best Price
Keep the thread short. Long explanations look like stalling.
Reply 1: availability, advertised price, one question
Structure:
- Yes, it is available (or no, and offer a comparable).
- Advertised price is $X.
- One question: timeline, trade, or whether they can come in a named window.
Illustrative pattern:
The 2019 Tahoe is still here. Advertised price is $27,900. Are you looking to come see it this weekend, or do you have a trade I should know about before we talk numbers in person?
That is an answer. It is not a dodge. It refuses a second number without refusing the question.
Reply 2: if they repeat "best price"
Do not get creative. Restate the process:
$27,900 is the advertised price. We do not negotiate that over text. If you want a written offer that includes your trade or a payoff, the clean way is a short visit or a phone call with the numbers in front of both of us.
If they name a number below your floor, do not counter in the same channel. Invite the worksheet process or walk.
Reply 3: if they go quiet or get angry
- Quiet after a clear advertised price: follow your store's cadence; do not chase with a discount. A follow-up cadence for Marketplace leads still applies.
- Angry that you will not "do better" in chat: stay short, offer the visit, then stop.
- "I'll be there if you do $Y": that is an offer, not a question. Take it to a manager and a worksheet, or decline. Do not accept a verbal deal in SMS.
When the advertised price is wrong
If the listing price and the DMS price disagree, stop the conversation and fix the record. Do not split the difference in the thread. The buyer did not create that error; your export or your posting process did.
Handling Edge Cases in the Same Thread
Not every "best price" message is the same car in the same condition.
The unit is pending, in recon, or sold
Say so immediately. Quoting a best price on a car that is not available is how you get a wasted trip and a one-star story. Offer a comparable in stock, with its advertised price, not a vague "we can find you something."
They want a payment, not a price
Do not invent a payment in a text. Payments depend on term, rate, taxes, fees, down payment, and credit. Those are not chat-window math. Say the advertised cash price, then invite a structured conversation where a qualified person can run numbers with the right disclosures. This is not legal advice; your F&I and advertising practices belong with counsel and your state regulator.
They ask you to beat another dealer's number
Ask for the stock number, VIN, or listing of the comparable so you can see if it is the same truck. Often it is a different year, different miles, or a different option package. If it is a true match, the decision is a manager's, on a worksheet, not a rep's in Messenger.
They want out-the-door in the same breath
That is a different question. Do not mash a fee total into a "best price" reply unless your store has a documented way to present taxes and fees in that channel. Point the rep to the out-the-door process rather than guessing a total. See handling out-the-door price requests from online leads.
Training and Guardrails for the Floor
A good reply dies if the next rep on shift does the opposite.
Pocket card (physical or in the BDC binder)
| If they say | You say | You do not say |
|---|---|---|
| What's your best price? | Advertised price is $X. Still available. One question. | What do you want to pay? |
| Can you do better? | We don't negotiate advertised price over text. Visit or call for a worksheet. | Let me talk to my manager and I'll text you a number. |
| I'll give you $Y. | I can take that to a written offer process. Are you able to come in [window]? | Sold, come get it. |
Manager intercepts
Define when a manager must enter the thread:
- Any number below advertised price.
- Any promise about payments, approval, or "we can get you done."
- Any buyer who claims they were quoted a different number by another person at your store.
Audit five threads a week
Pull actual messages. Score:
- Advertised price stated.
- No unauthorized second number.
- A next step offered.
- Availability confirmed against current inventory.
Reps improve when they know someone reads the thread. They improvise when they think no one does.
Listing Discipline That Makes "Best Price" Easier to Answer
If the public number is mushy, the chat will be mushy.
- Put a real advertised cash price in the listing.
- Do not use "starting at," "$1," or "call for price."
- Keep price, mileage, and photos aligned with the vehicle record.
- When price changes, update the listing the same day so the text answer matches what the buyer sees.
A clean listing lets the rep copy the number instead of negotiating it.
How PostToMarket Automates This
"What's your best price" gets ugly when the listing price, the inventory record, and the car on the lot are three different facts. The rep then improvises a fourth number in a text.
PostToMarket keeps those facts in one workflow. Bulk CSV and Excel import with a row-level error log catches empty or broken price fields before a unit is queued. AI-generated titles and descriptions from the vehicle's specs, editable before posting, make it easier to publish the actual advertised price instead of a template that says "call us." Inventory statuses and mark-as-sold keep you from quoting a Tahoe that already left. The leads inbox lets managers see how "best price" questions are being answered across the team. Per-rep queues and the mobile dashboard keep posting work from burying the live conversation that just came in.
PostToMarket is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta. It does not guarantee that a buyer will accept advertised price or that Facebook will distribute every listing. It does reduce the operational mismatches that force reps to invent a "best" number in the thread.
Answer the Question. Do Not Invent a Second Price.
The professional reply to "what's your best price" is the advertised price, availability, and a next step. Anything else belongs on a worksheet with a manager, a trade, and a real commitment. If your team cannot say that the same way on every phone, you do not have a pricing strategy. You have a chat lottery.
PostToMarket gives you unlimited vehicles in inventory, import error logs, AI listing copy you control, per-rep queues, and a leads inbox built for managers who actually read threads. Starter runs $59 per month for a solo seller or independent lot with one login. Dealership runs $299 per month for up to 13 team logins.
Start your 10-day free trial with secure Stripe checkout. Get the inventory and the inbox on the same process before this weekend's "best price" texts start. Cancel anytime.