Quoting for trades without dropping your price

Ask a trade why they lost a job and the answer is almost always price. Ask the customer and it very often is not. It was that somebody else replied the same day, sent something they could understand and rang back once.

Price matters. It matters considerably less than the three things around it.

Speed decides more than anything

The first credible quote sets the reference point for every quote after it. It also arrives while the customer is still enthusiastic, which is a state that decays quickly.

A quote sent within 24 hours is competing on merit. A quote sent a week later is competing against somebody the customer has already started to imagine doing the work.

If a full quote takes time, send an acknowledgement the same day with when the quote will arrive, then hit that date. Nearly all of the advantage is in being responsive rather than in being fast at pricing.

Make it readable by somebody who does not do your job

A quote that says "supply and fit as discussed, £3,400" asks the customer to trust a single number with nothing to hold on to. When a competitor sends a breakdown, yours looks like the vague one even if it is the better job.

• Itemise labour, materials and anything variable, without exposing your margins line by line.
• Say what is included and, more importantly, what is not. Making good, waste removal, scaffolding, parking, certificates, decorating afterwards.
• Put timescales on it. Start availability, working days on site, anything that depends on lead times.
• State what you need from them. Access, power, water, clearing a room, a decision on a finish by a certain date.
• Say how long the quote is valid. Materials move and an open ended quote is a liability.

Offer options rather than one number

A single price is a yes or no decision. Two or three options turn it into a choice about which one, which is a far better conversation to be in.

A good, better and best structure works in almost every trade. The important part is that the middle option is the one you actually want to sell and the others exist to give it a context.

It also stops the customer building their own cheaper version out of a competitor's quote and yours.

Follow up once, properly

Most trades never follow up at all, which is why following up once puts you ahead of most of the people you are quoting against.

A single message three or four days later asking whether they have any questions and whether the scope is what they expected is enough. It is not pushy and it frequently uncovers the actual objection, which is usually a detail rather than the total.

When they ask for it cheaper

Do not drop the price for nothing. It tells the customer the first number was invented and it tells them there may be more to come.

Reduce the scope instead. Take something out, use a different material, have them do the clearing or the decorating. The price comes down because the job got smaller, which is honest and keeps your rate intact.

If they are comparing against a much lower quote, the useful question is what that quote includes. Nine times out of ten it is missing something, and pointing that out calmly is far more effective than defending your own number.

The one that costs nothing

Make it easy to say yes. A quote a customer can accept online, at nine in the evening when they finally sit down together, converts better than one that requires a phone call during the working day.

Everything above is free. None of it requires you to be cheaper than anybody.