I quote eleven jobs a week and win three. Trying to work out which eight are wasting my time

Jamal Carter· Plumbing company owner, three techs, two years in· Open, Trades & Contractors·2w

Two years in, three techs, and my week is quietly organised around free estimates. Eleven-ish quotes, three jobs, and a great deal of driving.

The ones I lose fall into shapes I'm starting to recognise. The person who says 'I just want a ballpark' on the phone and then wants me to pull the vanity. The one who already has a number from somebody else and wants me to beat it by a hundred dollars. The landlord who calls three companies for every water heater and has been doing it for years.

The ones I win are almost always the people who describe the problem in detail before I ask, and the ones who want to know when I can start rather than what it costs.

I'm thinking about a diagnostic fee, maybe seventy-five dollars, waived if they go ahead. My worry is that the three I win include one referral source I don't want to annoy, and I can't tell which of my eight losses are price shoppers and which are people I'm losing for a reason I'd actually want to know.

For those of you charging to show up: did your call volume drop, and did your revenue?

3 replies

Luis Mendoza· Registered·2w

I'm too new to answer the revenue half honestly, but here's the view from the truck, since I'm the one doing free estimates right now.

Half my estimate drives are for people who have already decided and want a number so they feel responsible. The other half are collecting numbers as a hobby. I can nearly tell on the phone now: the hobbyists ask what my hourly rate is in the first thirty seconds, the real ones tell me what's wrong.

I've started asking one question before I agree to come out, which is whether anyone else has looked at it. The answer, and how fast it comes, tells me most of what I need.

Jamal Carter· Open·2w

The 'has anyone else looked at it' question is free and I have never once asked it. Going on the phone script this week.

I think my real problem is that I built the week around being available and now I can't tell the difference between being busy and being used. Three of my eleven last week were the same landlord on three different units, and I've quoted him nine times this year and worked for him once.

Miguel Alvarez· Registered·2w

Shop side, so I've been charging a diagnostic fee since the day I opened, because that's how every shop I ever worked in does it. Mine is waived if the work goes ahead, same as you're describing.

Call volume dropped, maybe a fifth. Revenue went up, because the fifth that disappeared was the people who were never buying anything and the cars that sat in my bay while I explained things for free.

The referral source you're worried about: tell that one person you're doing it and that it doesn't apply to them. One phone call, and you stop designing your entire pricing around a single relationship.

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