There are many reasons why a client doesnt' buy from you: e,g right from a poor company record to product performance or even sales persons' inability to create the 'right image' or any combination of these.

Frankly, if price was the main reason for losing a sale, it would be a lot easier to get the order, simply reduce the price. However, experience suggests, there are solutions customers will pay a premium for. Customers decide to buy from you, if they believe you promise to offer something that has value to them and cannot be obtained elsewhere at a cheaper price.

Do you know real reason why you lost the order?
The only way you will know the real reason is to ask (at a right time ;-). Understanding why you lost (or even gain !) presents a great opportunity to improve your future sales approach & developing your next offer. Unfortunately there are very few sales people I've come across, go back & search real reason for loosing (or bagging) the order.

The common reasons for not giving you the order.
Here are typical common responses you've probably heard & what they really mean.

  "Our budget was rationalised at the last minute."
You may not have addressed concerns of the decision maker to insulate your sale from this outcome. The decision maker is mostly at a higher level than you were dealing with. This decision maker if convinced would have been able to revise the budget to accomodate our 'solution' which is critical for there business problems.

 "We didn't need all the options & features you offered. We found out it was high priced for our needs."
Understanding real needs & paint areas helps you prepare the offer ideally suitable for the customer needs. Identifying options/features which have no value helps you to eliminate to be outpriced or valued as a high price solution.

 "Your offer doesn't address all our objectives."
In this situation, you may have offered the lowest price, but since you didnt' offer a solution which the client is trying to accomplish, you were not selected as the best option.

Improve your Enquiry to Order ratio.
The insight you can gain from understandin the 'real' reason why the client did not choose your offer, can actually improve your credibility, indicating genuine interest in why your solution was not the best. It will also help you understand the decision making process.

Easy escape of confessing, "Order was lost because of price", will severely affect your future chance of developing relations with the customer. It will also cause a serious credibility issues within your own organisation.