Three questions that decide whether a number is safe to say out loud
- Is it something I do the same way every time, like a service call, a drain clear, a filter swap? Then say the number flat. Hiding a fixed price is what makes a fixed price sound negotiable.
- Does it depend on something I cannot see down a phone line, like access, age, or what is behind the wall? Then a range, and I name the thing that moves it in the same breath. A range without a reason sounds like I am making it up.
- Would I be angry to honour this number when I got there? Then it is not a price, it is a guess. It costs far more to walk a number back on someone's kitchen floor than it does to never say it.
What I say, and what sends them to the next guy
Most jobs like that land between four and seven hundred. What moves it is whether the shutoff still works, and I will know that in about a minute once I am looking at it.
I can't give prices over the phone.
The service call is eighty nine dollars, and that comes off the repair if you go ahead. Swap in your own number, but say it plainly.
There's a fee for coming out.
I would rather give you a real number now than a cheap one I have to raise in your driveway.
It depends on a lot of factors.
If it turns out to be the worst version of this, you are at the top of that range, and you will hear that from me before I touch anything.
We'll figure it out when we get there.
I can tell you exactly what today costs. The repair I have to see first.
Let me have someone call you back about pricing.
When they push for one number anyway
- Say the range once more, then stop talking. The pause does the work. Filling it is how the range turns into the bottom of the range.
- Ask the single question that narrows it most, then narrow the range out loud so they can hear the number responding to a real answer.
- Give them the one certain figure you have. The visit fee is a promise you can keep on the phone, and a kept promise about a small number is what buys belief in the big one.
- If they only want the cheapest number and nothing else, let them go. That call was never going to end in a job you wanted.
Nobody ever lost a job by being clear about money. They lose it by sounding evasive about it for ninety seconds while the customer decides you are hiding something.
I answer the phone for contractors and this is the conversation I have all day. callbobai.com.