Upfront Price Messages
Today I am discussing the need for Technicians to clearly establish the value of our pricing system itself. If we wait until after the customer has seen the price to attempt to explain upfront pricing advantages and benefits, many times it is far too late, as the customer has already developed "sticker shock".
We recommend a procedure called the "Upfront Pricing Message", which is a narrative about the way we price jobs in flat-rate service. It is intended to be discussed BEFORE even the diagnostic event. Something like this:
"At Michael & Son, we use a menu-price system for 2 pretty good reasons, protection and fairness. Have you ever hired a contractor because their price looked pretty good, and then by the time the job was done, maybe it didn't look so good anymore? We don't do business that way. The price we quote you is the price you pay for the completed job, whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 weeks, and you won't have to watch the clock."
This gives you the opportunity to add lines like "you won't have to watch the clock" BEFORE the "clock" is running! Keith Mercurio, Service Manager at Winters Company in Boston, has an absolute gem here: "That means this discussion isn't costing us anything. While I am here, let's be sure to be thorough and get all of your questions answered."
The second issue is fairness. We handle that this way:
"At Michael & Son, we have over 180 technicians serving this market, and no 2 of us work at precisely the same speed. That means we would be giving out 180 different prices for what really is the same work if we were on Time & Material estimating. We won't need to estimate anything in your home today. We aren't here to train ourselves, we've been in business since 1976. So no matter which Tech you get, and no matter which part of town you live in, you know you didn't pay more than your neighbor for the same work."
That looks like a lot to say in a service call. We have each Tech come up with his own defense of the pricing system covering Protection and Fairness. It's a worthy exercise. Or if you like, you can continue to look into the shocked eyes of a customer as they calculate their cost-to time. "20 minutes? You charged me $450 for 20 minutes? What are you trying to do to me here?"
Learn it. Live it. Love it. The upfront pricing message can go a LONG way.
We recommend a procedure called the "Upfront Pricing Message", which is a narrative about the way we price jobs in flat-rate service. It is intended to be discussed BEFORE even the diagnostic event. Something like this:
"At Michael & Son, we use a menu-price system for 2 pretty good reasons, protection and fairness. Have you ever hired a contractor because their price looked pretty good, and then by the time the job was done, maybe it didn't look so good anymore? We don't do business that way. The price we quote you is the price you pay for the completed job, whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 weeks, and you won't have to watch the clock."
This gives you the opportunity to add lines like "you won't have to watch the clock" BEFORE the "clock" is running! Keith Mercurio, Service Manager at Winters Company in Boston, has an absolute gem here: "That means this discussion isn't costing us anything. While I am here, let's be sure to be thorough and get all of your questions answered."
The second issue is fairness. We handle that this way:
"At Michael & Son, we have over 180 technicians serving this market, and no 2 of us work at precisely the same speed. That means we would be giving out 180 different prices for what really is the same work if we were on Time & Material estimating. We won't need to estimate anything in your home today. We aren't here to train ourselves, we've been in business since 1976. So no matter which Tech you get, and no matter which part of town you live in, you know you didn't pay more than your neighbor for the same work."
That looks like a lot to say in a service call. We have each Tech come up with his own defense of the pricing system covering Protection and Fairness. It's a worthy exercise. Or if you like, you can continue to look into the shocked eyes of a customer as they calculate their cost-to time. "20 minutes? You charged me $450 for 20 minutes? What are you trying to do to me here?"
Learn it. Live it. Love it. The upfront pricing message can go a LONG way.
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