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What to Say When They Ask What It'll Cost
On the list of fires: “the ballpark question”
Module 9 · Sales & Leads · Play 5 of 14
The problem in one breath
"Just give me a ballpark." Say a number and you have quoted a roof you have never seen. Refuse to say anything and you sound like every outfit that will not talk price until a man is sitting in their living room — so they hang up and call the shop that answered.
Why it happens
The question is fair. They are trying to find out if they are in the right store at all, the same way anybody would before taking a morning off work. But a roofer hears it as a trap, because it usually has been one: a number said fast on the phone comes back three weeks later as the price they were promised. So the trade split into shops that blurt one and shops that stonewall, and both of them lose people who were ready to buy.
The play
- Answer it. Just answer a different question than the one they asked. They asked what their roof costs. You are going to tell them what roofs like theirs run, which is honest, useful, and not a quote.
- Get their square footage first, and then correct it. Ask how big the house is. Then explain that the number they just gave you is heated space — the roof over it is bigger, because of the pitch, the overhangs, the garage, and everything that is not being heated. Most homeowners have never heard this, and it is the moment the call turns: you stopped selling and started teaching.
- Give a range wide enough to be true, tied to their number. Roofs that size, in your market, run from here to here. If your own range is not something you can say out loud from memory, you do not have one yet — go pull last year's jobs by size and build it (Play 1, "Count Where Last Year's Jobs Actually Came From").
- Say what moves it inside that range, in their words. How many layers come off. Whether the decking is any good. Pitch, stories, how much of it your men can walk. Now the range is not a dodge, it is the reason a man has to get up there.
- If it is not the kind of roof you price every week, say that instead. Flat work, tile, a shape you have no template for, something you have never bid — "I would be making that number up" is a better sentence than a guess you have to walk back. Nobody has ever been offended by a roofer who would not invent a price.
- Then let the range do its job. If it ends the call, it just saved you a morning and them an appointment they did not want. If they book anyway, they booked knowing roughly where this lands, and the estimate that shows up later is a confirmation instead of a shock (Play 4, "One Price, Sent Today").
Do this this week
Write your own range down — dollars against house size, off your own closed jobs — and make sure whoever answers your phone can say it without looking. That sentence is the difference between an appointment and a hang-up.
The tool
The ballpark answer — one card, by the phone and in the truck.
THE BALLPARK ANSWER
"Just give me a ballpark."
DON'T say a price for THEIR roof. DO say what roofs like it run.
1. ASK
"How big is the house, square footage?"
2. TEACH
"That's your heated space. The roof over it is bigger —
pitch, overhangs, the garage. So a [____] sq ft house
is usually about [____] squares of roof."
3. RANGE (fill these in from YOUR closed jobs)
Under ___ sq ft ......... $______ to $______
___ to ___ sq ft ........ $______ to $______
Over ___ sq ft .......... $______ to $______
4. WHAT MOVES IT
"Layers coming off. Whether the decking's good.
Pitch and how much of it we can walk."
5. CLOSE
"That's a range, not your price. The only real number
comes after somebody's been on it. Want me to get
you on the schedule?"
IF IT'S NOT WHAT WE PRICE EVERY WEEK
"I'd be making that number up. Let me look at it first."
If your crew is 1099
Your range is built out of what jobs cost you, and a sub crew's price per square is one of the biggest pieces of that (Module 12, Play 1, "Your Crew Or His, Priced On One Real Job"). When their rate moves, the range you say on the phone is stale until you rebuild it. Check it against your own closed jobs each season, not once.
M9-05 · What to Say When They Ask What It'll Cost — Roofer MBA, https://roofermba.com/plays/sales-leads/the-ballpark-question
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Same fire
They ask what it'll cost before you're off the ladder
- M9-05the ballpark question — you’re here
Fixed this?
The ballpark answer only buys you the inspection. What you do on that visit is what decides the job.
The fire right behind it is usually The phone rings but the jobs don't close.