Good-better-best pricing: build options from your price book

Key points

• Each option is a different scope of work, not the same work at three prices.
• The first option must fully solve the stated problem.
• Higher options add real, priced tasks, so the price difference is real work.
• Recommend the option you would choose yourself, and accept the homeowner's choice.

What the options are for

A single price leaves the homeowner two choices: yes or no, and maybe a call to another contractor to compare. A few clear options turn the conversation into which scope of work they want. The homeowner decides how far to go; you make sure every choice on the page is one you would stand behind.

Options are not a pricing trick. Their value comes from showing, side by side, what each level of work includes and what it costs, so the homeowner can weigh it. Options that differ only in price, or that exist to make one choice look cheap, undermine the trust that makes the approach work.

Because each option is built from tasks in your price book, good-better-best pricing is really a way of presenting prices you have already set. That keeps every option consistent with the rest of your pricing and with what other technicians in your shop would quote.

Start with the required work

The first option is the work that solves the problem the homeowner called about, done properly. It is priced from your book like any other job. It should never be a stripped-down version designed to look unattractive next to the others.

A useful test: if the homeowner chooses the first option, would you be comfortable with the result? If not, it doesn't belong on the proposal. Either fix what it includes or leave it out and offer fewer options.

Write it in the customer's words, describing the outcome rather than internal task codes, and list what it includes. The higher options will be described as this one plus more, so it needs to be clear on its own.

Build the higher options from tasks that change the result

Each higher option adds tasks that change the result for the homeowner: more protection against the next breakdown, better comfort or efficiency, more convenience, or a longer life for the equipment. Every addition is a real task with its own price in your book, not a label such as premium service with nothing behind it.

Building options cumulatively keeps them easy to compare: the second option is everything in the first, plus named additions; the third is everything in the second, plus more. The homeowner reads one list of differences instead of three separate quotes.

Choose additions you would actually recommend for this home and this equipment. If nothing worth adding applies, the honest proposal may have one or two options instead of three.

Pricing the steps

Each option's price is the sum of the tasks in it, every task priced from the same billable rate and markup rules as the rest of your book. The gap between two options is then exactly the work that was added, which is easy to explain when a homeowner asks why one costs more.

Avoid options that are nearly identical, or a top option whose price comes from a bigger markup rather than more work. Both are noticed, and both make the whole proposal harder to trust. If your rate needs work first, see how to calculate a billable labor rate.

If you offer a maintenance plan, members can get your member price on each task, so the same options show a lower price for them. The example below is a fictional proposal, priced by TierMenu's pricing engine from example numbers.

Names and descriptions homeowners understand

Give each option a short name and a one-line description of the result, such as what it repairs or protects, rather than a list of part numbers. Under it, list the tasks included and anything specifically excluded.

Use the same format on every proposal, so homeowners who compare two of your proposals, or talk to a neighbor, see the same structure. A consistent format also makes it easier for every technician to present options the same way.

Add-ons, single options and agreements

Some extras apply whichever option the homeowner chooses, such as a maintenance plan or an accessory. Offer those as optional add-ons next to the options instead of building them into one tier; that keeps the options focused on the scope of the repair.

Not every job needs three options. When there is only one sensible fix, one option is the honest proposal. When there are two real paths, offer two. TierMenu's good-better-best proposals support one to four options, with add-ons kept separate.

If you sell maintenance agreements, the proposal is a natural place to offer one, and members see their member price on each option.

Presenting the choice

Mark the option you recommend and say why in one or two sentences, then let the homeowner choose. Pushing the most expensive option when it isn't needed costs more trust than it earns, and a homeowner who picks the first option is still a customer.

Get the choice on record: a signature on screen at the home, or approval through a secure link when the homeowner wants time to decide. The signed option then becomes the scope of work and the basis for the invoice. You can try a sample proposal to see how a set of options reads from the homeowner's side.

If you're still deciding whether to quote fixed prices at all, flat rate vs time and materials covers when each method fits. For how proposals fit a multi-trade shop, see contractor proposal software.

Questions