When They Ask You to Eat the Deductible, Have Your Answer Ready

The problem in one breath

Sooner or later a homeowner at the kitchen table leans in and asks, "Can you just take care of my deductible?" — and the guy down the road is already saying yes. You want the job, so you fumble, you half-promise, and you either lose the deal or eat a number you can't afford.

Why it happens

On a storm job the deductible is the homeowner's share of the claim (Play 13) — their skin in the game, the one piece of the price the carrier expects them to pay. But to the homeowner it feels like a fee you invented, so asking you to waive it feels fair. And when a competitor says "sure, I'll cover it," you look like the expensive one for holding your ground. The trouble is that number was never yours to give away. It's baked into the price you set to keep a profit (Play 6, "Price Every Job to Keep the Profit You Meant To"). Eat it and it comes straight out of that profit — dollar for dollar, on every roof.

The play

You don't win this in the moment. You win it by deciding your answer before storm season and saying it the same way every single time.

1. Decide the company answer now — one sentence. Before the first storm, write the single line every salesman and foreman gives when the question comes: "We don't cover deductibles — that's your part of the claim, and here's why that's actually good for you." Same words, every door. A man who has his answer memorized doesn't fumble and doesn't cave.

2. Know why "no" protects the homeowner too. This isn't only your margin talking. A contractor who eats the deductible has to claw that money back somewhere — thinner crews, cheaper shingles, the flashing skipped where nobody looks. The homeowner pays for it up on the roof later, when it leaks. And in a lot of states, waiving or hiding the deductible crosses into insurance fraud — for you AND the homeowner; know your state's line before storm season.

   A phony invoice that buries the deductible doesn't just risk you — it sits on the homeowner's claim file with their name on it.

3. Deliver it calm at the table. When the question lands, you're not defensive and you're not apologizing — you already knew it was coming. Say your one line, then turn it into what they get for it. The script's below; use those words until they're automatic.

4. Beat the deductible-eater without matching him. You can't win a race to give money away, so don't run it. Sell what he can't: you go after the carrier for every dollar the policy owes, documented line by line (Play 8, "The Carrier's First Number Is a Starting Point, Not the Check"), so nothing gets skipped and quietly billed back to the homeowner later. Sell the warranty you actually honor, the crew that shows up when you said it would, the phone you answer after the check clears. Proof beats a discount.

5. Have a real path for the homeowner who truly can't pay it. Some genuinely can't cover it up front — that's real, and it's not the same as asking you to eat it. Offer a payment plan on the deductible, or financing if your company runs it. You collect every dollar; you just give them time. Clean, legal, and your margin stays whole.

Do this this week

Write the one-sentence company answer to "can you cover my deductible?" — the exact words you want said. Then text it to every salesman and foreman who sits at a kitchen table. Under thirty minutes, and nobody on your crew ever fumbles that question again.

The tool

No spreadsheet. The script is the tool — the words you say when the question comes:

THE DEDUCTIBLE ANSWER — say it the same way every time

Homeowner: "Can you take care of my deductible?"

You: "I can't, and honestly I wouldn't want to — here's why.
      That deductible is your share of the claim. Any contractor who
      eats it has to make it back somewhere you can't see — thinner
      crew, cheaper materials, corners cut on your roof.
      In a lot of states it's flat-out illegal too — for you and for me.

      What I DO instead: I go after your carrier for every dollar
      the policy owes, documented line by line, so nothing gets
      skipped and quietly billed back to you.
      And if the deductible's tight right now, we can set up a
      payment plan on it."

If they still push:  "That's my line, and it's the same for everybody.
                      What it buys you is a roof with nothing skipped."

If your crew is 1099

If your salesmen are 1099, you still need that one-sentence answer in their written agreement — but put it in as the company's fixed policy on quoting and billing, not as you dictating how they sell. "This company never waives, covers, or hides a deductible on any quote or invoice" is a rule about the work product, and it protects both of you from a fraud problem. Keep it a standard everyone signs to, not a script you drill into an independent contractor.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.