Overcoming Price Objections in Home Improvement Sales

You've done the survey. You've sat at the kitchen table for an hour. You turn the costing round so they can see it, and he sort of breathes in through his teeth.

"Ooh. That's a lot more than we were expecting."

What you say next matters more than anything you said in the previous hour. And I'll tell you what most salespeople do, because I've listened back to a lot of recorded appointments. They get defensive. They start justifying. "Well, it's the A-rated glass, and the frames are…" Or they go straight for the calculator.

Both are wrong.

Own your price or it will own you

If you don't believe in your price, they won't either. You can hear it in people's voices. The little apology before the number. Rushing past it. Reaching for a discount before anyone's asked.

That confidence doesn't come from a script. It comes from knowing, really knowing, what the customer gets and why it's right for them. And you can only know that if you spent the first part of the appointment finding out what their problem is costing them.

"It's too expensive" means four different things

Too expensive compared with another quote? That's a comparison problem.

Compared with their budget? That's an affordability problem, and finance or doing it in stages might help.

Compared with what they expected? That's an expectation problem. Someone told them a conservatory roof costs three grand, and it doesn't.

Or too expensive for what they think they're getting. That's a value problem, and it's the most common one by a mile.

So before you answer, ask. "When you say it's more than you expected, what were you comparing it with?" You'll get a completely different answer from different people, and each one needs a different conversation.

"We're getting other quotes"

Don't argue with it. Getting a few prices is sensible, and telling people otherwise makes you look worried.

What I do is find out where they are with it. "Sounds like you've done your homework. Have you had other prices already, or are you still getting them?" Then you know where you stand.

And never, ever slate the other company. The moment you do, your own credibility goes down the pan. Try something like this instead: "We come up against them all the time. I'll be honest, they're usually cheaper than us. But we generally win the business, and it's not because of price." Then ask, "Why do you think our customers keep coming back to us for the next job?"

Then stop talking. Let them think about it. You've moved their brain off the price and onto value, and you didn't have to defend a thing.

"We need to think about it"

Usually a price objection in disguise. Or a trust worry, or a timing worry, or someone who isn't in the room.

The trick is taking that card off them before the price ever comes up. Early on I'll ask a couple of questions they'll naturally say no to. "If you didn't trust me, would you go ahead with us?" No. "If you read our reviews and we were terrible, would you go with us?" No. "That makes total sense. I'd feel exactly the same." Now we both know what they're judging on: the company, the solution and the price. Get those three right and there's not much left to think about.

The real answer comes before the price

Most price objections are value problems that started at the beginning of the appointment.

If you've properly found out why they want the work done, what living with the problem is like, what happens if they leave it another winter, then the price lands against something they want. If you haven't, the price lands against nothing. Of course it looks expensive.

That's why my 7 Steps to Sales Mastery puts Frame, WHY and Offer before Objections. Get the order right and price stops being a wall. It becomes a conversation.

If your team's reaching for discounts to get deals over the line, take the free 2-minute Sales Leak Assessment and book a free 30-minute discovery call with me. Let's find out what it's really costing you.