If you don't ask for the sale, you won't get it. If you're solving a problem, making the sale is helping people. They came to you for help for a reason, so treat them well.
"No askie, no gettie" is something my co-founder and I say.
I'm the engineering side and struggle with it, but he's really good at it.
Nobody wants to discuss pricing. It's orthogonal to getting the desired end. You have to discuss pricing, but it is not on the list of things people want to do (if you give it to them free, they won't protest). The second is way too easy to say no to.
I think the difference is willingness to be pushy if that pushiness results in more total sales. Which I take as a symtom of general lower consideration for others, objectifying them as a system you just need to press the right buttons on to get what you want.
[edit] Another way of looking at it is what a culture considers acceptable freely-given consent. If someone wouldn’t have said yes if you hadn’t pulled out every trick in the book, is that an OK way to get a “yes”? In US business culture, it is.
Car sales is another obvious example. They don't talk price until you're committed (at least in principal) to purchasing the car.
Nobody likes to discuss pricing!
Early on in the call, tell them your price to see if they object. If they do, then get off the call. If there's objections, raise them early and either overcome them or figure out that they can't be overcome.