Are you confused on how to charge the customers of your plumbing business? You’re a professional plumber. Skip the excuses, get clear on your honest hourly rate, and learn why flat rate pricing is the best method.
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3 Golden Nuggets
- Skip the pricing excuses. You can make money or make excuses, but you can’t make both. If you want a successful plumbing business, you have to let go of the excuses.
- Know your honest hourly Rate. You need to charge what your business needs you to charge. Not what’s lower than your previous job, or based on your competitors, or just pulling a number out of your arse.
- Flat rate pricing is where it’s at. It’s easier for the customer to understand. Don’t make pricing about time and materials. Make it about the experience and the value. Breaking down the price is a game you will lose every time.
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Show Notes
If you’re doing it for free, it’s a hobby. An expensive hobby.
Skip The Excuses; You’re a Professional Plumber
(15:08) There’s a saying: You can make money or make excuses, but you can’t make both. If you want a successful plumbing business, you have to let go of the excuses.
Here are some common excuses we hear:
I can only charge what the market will bear
This really means you don’t think you’re worth that. Have some courage and stand up for yourself – for what you deserve.
But my uncle’s cousin’s nephew’s monkey can do it for less!
Listen, they called you so that means that they need you. If they had someone else that can do it for less the way they want it, then they would’ve called them.
Well this customer can’t pay that.
Don’t make assumptions about your customer. They need a plumber, and they’ll pay to get it fixed. If you’re doing it for free, it’s a hobby. An expensive hobby.
Because it just didn’t feel right.
Not charging because of a bad feeling or the surrounding environment doesn’t mean you shouldn’t charge.
You have to get the head trash cleaned up. It’s something we all have to get over. I had to get over it. We’ve all been conditioned on this. They called you because they need you. And you are a professional plumber.
Know Your True Hourly Rate
(20:29) Know your true hourly rate. I call it your honest hourly rate. Be honest with yourself and with your customer. If you don’t know why or what you are charging, then you are basically lying.
Here are three common pricing method mistakes:
- (21:12) The Swiper Method: Swiping the price book from the last company where you worked and taking a little bit off.
- (23:45) Asking Your Competitor Method: Like he’s going to tell you the truth. He’s your competitor – the guy who wants your customers or whose customer you want to take. Or you ask the guy who is getting nowhere fast. And then take 10% off.
- (27:10) Pull It Out Of Your Arse Method: You tell yourself, “I just know I’ve been able to charge this before. I got it before, and I’ll get it again.” Or it just feels right. It sounds right. Just because you are charging what you feel is a high hourly rate does not mean that is your honest hourly rate.
It’s so important that you yourself know why you’re charging what you’re charging. You have to take into account insurance, and truck repairs, and gas, and phones.
You’ve got to know what you’re selling, your honest hourly rate, and that you’re worth it. You can’t go into Target, Kohls, Nordstroms, and tell them their prices aren’t worth it.
(29:09) If you feel like you’re one step forward, two steps back constantly, it’s because you aren’t charging what your business needs you to charge. If it feels the harder you work, the less you make, if you can’t seem to get good equipment, you can’t attract or keep the best guys, it’s because you’re not charging your honest hourly rate.
Flat Rate Plumbing Pricing Is Where It’s At
(30:49) We live in a flat rate world.
Think about it. When we go to Walmart do they break it down into time and material? No. When I go to Taco Bell and get my bean burrito (minus onions with extra cheese) do they break down the cost? No.
Nowhere do they do that.
Flat rate equals an easier system. We complicate it by getting all wrapped up in time and materials.
Customers don’t want to think about the hourly rate. Whether it’s $300 an hour or $85 an hour, they automatically think, “What? I don’t make that much money.” That’s what they equate it to.
And then you start laying out the time and materials breakdown that feels so different than what they are used to. They are already uptight and nervous due to their plumbing issue. So keep it easy for them. Flat rate is easier for them.
Don’t make it about price. Make it about the experience and about the value. As soon as you break it down on time, material, it becomes about price. You start playing that game, you are going to lose every single time. Flat rate pricing is where it’s at!
Richard’s Call to Action.
If you want to learn more about numbers that matter and how to best run your plumbing business, why not schedule a free 30-min strategy call with us? Let’s talk about your goals and where you want to be this time next year, and we’ll help you create a path to make that happen. Schedule your free strategy call here today!
