Discussing The Cost of Contracting Jobs on Your Website

Posted by David Chism | Wed, May 13, 2015

 Discussing The Cost of Contracting Jobs on Your Website

I am going to let you in on a lit­tle secret. What you charge to paint someone’s home, fix a leaky pipe, or remod­el a kitchen is not top secret. In fact, it nev­er has been! I know you do not want your com­peti­tors to know your hid­den tal­ents, but the fact of the mat­ter is this: If a com­peti­tor wants to know what you charge for your ser­vices, they will find a way. 

Guess what? It is ok that they know. There is not real­ly any­thing to hide.

What I would like to accom­plish in this post is to encour­age you guys to do some­thing that might be out of your com­fort zone. I would like your com­pa­ny to begin open dis­cus­sions with your prospects online about the cost and prices of your line of work.

Let me explain a bit more of what I mean. If you begin to post ideas of what things cost to your poten­tial cus­tomers and do this more than your com­peti­tors (stay on top of this), you will build more trust and cred­i­bil­i­ty with your prospects. You can become the go to place that con­sumers vis­it to learn what it costs to paint an aver­age size bed­room, repaint kitchen cab­i­nets, or what a price range would be on a kitchen remodel.

Exam­ple from a Pool Contractor

This is not some­thing that I just came up with on my own and am pray­ing it works. Believe me, it works. Take for exam­ple, Riv­er, Pools and Spas. This com­pa­ny start­ed blog­ging back in 2009 and start­ed post­ing arti­cles that dealt with cost. They held noth­ing back. They were an open book, answer­ing ques­tions con­sumers had about their line of work (installing fiber­glass pools). Over the next sev­er­al years, their blog became the most pop­u­lar pool blog in the world. It also made them the most trust­ed pool com­pa­ny in their area, mak­ing it so much eas­i­er to sell work. When they got a lead, peo­ple had a gen­er­al idea up front of what a pool cost, so their clos­ing rates went through the roof!

My friend, Mar­cus Sheri­dan, (now a con­sul­tant) who start­ed the Riv­er, Pools and Spa’s blog, spends most of his time preach­ing” a very sim­i­lar mes­sage to what my blog top­ic is all about: being trans­par­ent and hold­ing noth­ing back from your audi­ence. (Fol­low Marcus’s blog here)

So with­out going into much detail in this blog post, the take­away is sim­ple: start think­ing through what ques­tions con­sumers have about your line of work and the cost involved, and start cre­at­ing con­tent that will answer those questions.

But David, a kitchen remod­el could cost $15,000 or $200,000. There are so many variables.” You know that paint­ing an exte­ri­or could be as sim­ple as $3,000 and as com­plex as $100,000. How on earth can we edu­cate a prospect on what it cost to paint an exterior?”

If you have a ques­tion sim­i­lar to the above, you are think­ing too big. Start much small­er! Think about how you do this on a dai­ly basis now when you go to a prospec­t’s home or busi­ness. They explain what they want com­plet­ed and you typ­i­cal­ly begin edu­cat­ing on a price range of what it will cost. Am I right? Edu­cate the prospect before you get called to do an esti­mate. It will save you both time, and you will close more jobs. 

Your Turn

Am I just blow­ing smoke, or do you agree that post­ing more about the cost of your ser­vices is a good idea and will work? Think about how easy it is to shop prices online for prod­ucts. We then buy from the sources we feel are most trust­ed or con­ve­nient, like Ama­zon, Apple, Home Depot, etc.

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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