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The Three Things They Push Back On
Module 9 · Sales & Leads · Play 6 of 14
The problem in one breath
You get told no in three ways — you're too expensive, you can't start soon enough, and you want too much money up front — and most shops answer all three the same way: they knock money off.
Why it happens
Nobody separated the objections, so nobody built an answer to any of them. Under pressure the only lever a man is sure of is price, so price is what moves, on a job where price was never the real problem. Then the discount teaches the next customer something too: that your first number is a starting position and everybody who pushes gets the second one.
The play
Hear which of the three it actually is. Too expensive, too far out, or too much up front. They land differently and they get different answers, and the fastest way to lose a job is to answer the schedule objection with money.
On price, stop defending your number and get them comparing scopes. Ask them straight whether the other outfits are licensed and insured, because carrying both is not free and it is a large part of the gap they are looking at — the rules and the words for it are set where you work, so point them at your own state's contractor board rather than a claim you cannot back.
Then hand them one thing to look for. In your market there is a detail the cheap bids leave off — in one shop's market it is a word that either appears in the other estimate or does not. Tell them the word. A homeowner who finds it missing has just priced the difference themselves, and they believe it, because they found it.
Never discount and never price match. Not a hundred dollars to close it tonight. If the number truly has to come down, the scope comes down with it — a slope instead of the whole roof, a repair instead of a replacement — and they are told exactly what they are no longer getting. A job that is not going to make money is not a job you want to win, and there is no version of this where you take one on to keep somebody from walking.
On schedule, let your backlog speak. The man who can start tomorrow is available tomorrow, and it is worth asking out loud why he is. If they have water coming in today, tell them to get an emergency repair from whoever can be there, from you if you can — and then get in line for the real job. Never promise a start date to save a sale (Module 14, Play 5, "Sell a Start Date You Can Actually Hit").
On the deposit, do not renegotiate how your shop runs. Explain what it does — material ordered, a slot held, a crew committed — and why nothing moves before it clears (Module 6, Play 7, "Set When You Get Paid So You Never Fund the Job Yourself"). One customer's terms are not your terms. If you cannot agree on how you operate, you walk away, and you say that kindly.
Expect to lose some of all three, and let those go. You will lose jobs on price, on schedule and on deposit, and the shop is fine. The ones worth chasing get the follow-up you already run (Play 7, "Six Touches, Then Stop"), not a new price.
Do this this week
Take the last five jobs you lost and write which of the three it was next to each. If four of them say price, your problem is not your price — it is that nothing in your process ever showed them what the money buys.
The tool
The three objections — one card, by the phone.
WHICH ONE IS IT?
"YOU'RE TOO EXPENSIVE"
"Are the other guys licensed and insured? Ask them for
both. That's real money and it's in our price."
"Do me a favor — look through their estimate for [____].
If it's not on there, they're not doing it."
NO discount. NO price match.
Scope can come down. The price for THIS scope doesn't.
"YOU CAN'T START SOON ENOUGH"
"The man who can start tomorrow is open tomorrow.
Worth asking why."
Water coming in today? Emergency repair first — ours
or anyone's — then you're in line for the real job.
Never promise a date to save a sale.
"THAT'S TOO MUCH UP FRONT"
"The deposit buys your material and holds your slot.
Nothing gets ordered without it."
We don't change how we operate for one job.
If we can't agree, we part friendly.
LOSING SOME OF EACH IS NORMAL. Chasing them with a
lower price is how the next five get cheaper too.
If your crew is 1099
A deposit you softened is money you no longer have when the sub crew's draw comes due, and the crew gets paid on your schedule whether or not the homeowner kept theirs (Module 12, Play 5, "Pay the Day You Said and You Get First Call After the Storm"). The shop that runs on subs has the least room of anybody to negotiate its own terms, which is worth remembering while somebody is asking you to.
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.
M9-06 · The Three Things They Push Back On — Roofer MBA, https://roofermba.com/plays/sales-leads/the-three-objections
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Same fire
The phone rings but the jobs don't close
- M9-02the same visit every time
- M9-03show them the roof
- M9-04one price, sent today
- M9-06the three things they push back on — you’re here
Fixed this?
A visit that goes well and then goes quiet is not a closing problem — it is a follow-up problem, and it has its own play.
The fire right behind it is usually You sent the price and never heard back.