Handling price objections in a trade business gets expensive when your first response is to offer a discount. A customer mentions a cheaper quote, you start defending your number, and suddenly the conversation is about how much margin you can give away rather than the job they actually want done.
Mitch Van, co-founder of UpScale Business Coaching, joins Matt Jones on The Site Shed to challenge that response. Their conversation gets practical: a bathroom renovation roleplay, the questions that belong before a site visit, and why some businesses keep attracting customers who only want the cheapest option.
They also get into recruitment and training. The connection is straightforward. Winning work, finding people and developing the team all require a clear offer and a process, not another round of reacting to whatever went wrong this week.
Price Objections In A Trade Business Are Not Always A No
Mitch welcomes a price objection because it gives you something specific to discuss. A customer who says another contractor is cheaper has told you what is stopping them. That is different from having no conversation at all.
It does not mean every hesitant customer will become a job. It means treating a question about price as a conversation, rather than automatically translating it into rejection. If you immediately reduce the quote, you may never find out what the customer was actually comparing or what mattered most to them.
Matt adds another distinction: sometimes the answer is not now, rather than never. A contact can still be worth helping even when the current opportunity does not proceed. Relevant follow-up and useful information give that relationship somewhere to go. Our earlier conversation about building trust through video marketing explores another way to help people understand your business before they are ready to buy.
Ask Why They Would Choose You
The bathroom renovation roleplay is the part to watch if you have ever been put on the spot by a cheaper quote. Matt plays a customer comparing a $35,000 proposal with a $25,000 alternative. Mitch does not begin by finding $10,000 to cut.
He acknowledges the concern, checks whether price is the only issue, then uses a hypothetical question: if the prices were the same, would the customer choose him? When the answer is yes, he asks why.
That puts the reasons for choosing the business into the customer’s words. They might value being listened to, a solution that fits their needs, or reliable communication. Mitch then connects those differences to the price, rather than pretending both offers are identical.
There is an important condition here. Mitch explicitly assumes that discovery and the earlier sales process have been done properly. This is not a line to drop into a rushed quotation and expect a result. Watch the full exchange to hear how the questions work together.
Do The Discovery Before The Driving
If your sales process starts and ends with booking a site visit, you may be doing the expensive part before the useful part. Matt describes the familiar pattern: enquiries come in, the calendar fills with quotations, and someone spends the day driving between people who were never a good fit.
His point is to qualify, and sometimes disqualify, before committing that time. Understand what the customer needs, their timing and whether the job suits the business. Mitch reinforces that proper discovery should uncover expectations early, rather than leaving them to appear as objections at the end.
A diary full of appointments is not the same as a productive sales process. Matt challenges measuring the person taking enquiries only on the site visits they book, without considering the jobs those visits produce. It is a useful companion to our episode on why AI cannot fix a broken sales process. Better tools do not replace knowing what the conversation needs to achieve.
Check What Your Marketing Is Promising
Some price objections begin well before the quote. Mitch describes businesses frustrated by customers who want everything cheaper, only to find their advertising is built around cheap prices. The message attracts a particular expectation, then the sales conversation has to fight against it.
If you want customers who value the way you work, your marketing needs to give them reasons to do so. That does not mean adding a premium label and hoping people accept it. The reasons have to show up in the experience: how you respond, what you recommend and whether you understand the problem.
Matt also describes a plumber who slowed down, spent more time talking with customers and explained the proposed work instead of racing to the next quote. The lesson is not that everyone needs a paper quote book. It is that removing the human part of the process can remove the very thing that helps someone choose you.
Give Good People A Reason To Join And Stay
The same conversation about value carries into hiring. Mitch argues that recruitment is a marketing exercise. You need an attractive offer, somewhere professional to present it, and more than one way of getting it in front of suitable people.
He and Matt discuss career progression, local networks, supplier relationships and referrals from the people already working with you. A SEEK ad can be part of the approach, but it is not the entire approach. Someone who is already employed needs a reason to consider moving.
Keeping that person is another job again. Mitch recommends planned training with clear outcomes, covering both technical work and core skills such as communication and job notes. He distinguishes development from a general toolbox conversation or a performance discussion after something goes wrong. If that is the area you need to work on, our episode on building a winning trade business culture offers related listening.
Before you change your next quote, listen to the full conversation with Mitch Van. Pay attention to what happens before the objection, not just the answer he gives when it arrives. Then choose one part of your sales, recruitment or training process to work on this week.
If your marketing keeps bringing in people who are wrong for the work you want to do, start there. The Tradie Web Guys team can help you review how you are positioning the business and attracting enquiries.
