For B2B tech and service providers, do you usually discuss pricing in the first sales presentation or do you prefer introducing this in the second call/presentation?

It depends on many factors such as : urgency, specificity of the product/service, price sensitivity, and so on.

I usually discuss pricing in the second call/presentation.

But in below case, I will discuss pricing in the first sales presentation cost is the customer’s top priority (must within budget).

Focusing on price is never a good sign. In the first call i want to understand my customer. What is important? What does my customer need to be successful? What pain do he have? and so on. If i know my customer and his pain point i can start to have a conversation about what we can bring to the table. If you really bring value that always results in saving money, time or anything else which then also brings value to the pricing discussion. For example: If i only know that you need something to go from a to b i could offer you a fancy car which costs you 50k but if i know what distance you want to go, if you have to shift things from a to b and so on i could also offer you a ice ebike which only costs you 5k or if that´s not a regular thing i could offer a train ticket for just 100 €. If the customer just sees a price without any relation to what he needs and what it brings you loose him in the first call. So my best advice from nearly 20 years experience - Get to know your customer first before communication prices.

We usually discuss pricing in the second (or later) presentation, as the first one is usually about understanding the challenge and whether we are a good fit.