What to say to a customer who says another electrician is cheaper

You have spent an hour at the house, priced the job properly, sent a number you are happy with, and the reply comes back in six words. “Another electrician is cheaper than you.” Now you are stood in the van deciding whether to defend the price, knock something off, or let the job go.

When a customer says another electrician is cheaper, most sparks hear a complaint about money. Usually it is a customer holding two prices they do not understand, asking you to help them choose. What you say next decides whether you win the job at your price, win it at a price you resent, or lose it to somebody who has not read the job properly.

Why the customer says it at all

Nobody rings three electricians because they enjoy it. They do it because they have no way of telling one from another. Same qualifications on the van, same wording on the quote, same promise of a tidy job. When everything looks the same, price is all that is left to compare.

Two diving instructors on the same beach in Crete, Costas and Yani, same price, same kit. Yani had the queue every morning while Costas, the better and safer instructor by a mile, sat and watched. Yani looked like the expert. Costas expected people to work it out for themselves. So when you get the cheaper line, the first question is not how to beat their price, it is what you failed to show this person before they asked.

What to say, word for word

Do not argue, do not sulk, do not fire back a lower number. Get curious instead. Something like this, in your own words:

“That is fair enough, and I would want to compare too. Can I ask what they have quoted for? I would rather you knew exactly what you are getting from both of us before you decide, because from what you have described there are a couple of things that catch people out on this job.”

Then go quiet and let them talk. Usually one of three things comes out. Their quote is for a smaller job than the one you priced, they have not got it in writing, or they tell you what they are really worried about, which is rarely the money.

If it is a genuine like-for-like price from a decent electrician, say so plainly. “They sound like they know what they are doing. What I do differently is this.” Then give them two or three things that are actually true about you and let them pick. Customers trust an electrician who does not slag off the competition.

The four differences that win domestic work

When a homeowner is choosing between two prices, they are not weighing up your 18th edition. They are weighing up how much of this is going to land on them. So talk about that.

• The job, spelled out. What is included, what is not, how long you are in the house, whether the certificate and the notification are in the price. Vague quotes get compared on number alone.
• Mess and disruption. Dust sheets, boots off, everything back where it was, the kettle still reachable. Say it out loud. Half the trade does it and almost nobody mentions it.
• Turning up. A date, a time window, a text the day before, and a person who answers the phone afterwards. Ask them how the last trade they used did on that.
• Afterwards. Who they ring if something trips in three months, and what happens then. The cheap quote almost never says.

Two electricians, same job. One has told the customer all of that, the other sent a figure in a text. The second one has to be cheaper, because he has given them nothing else to weigh up.

Should you match the cheaper price?

No, and here is the reasoning rather than just the rule. If you knock a chunk off because somebody pushed, you have taught that customer your first price was made up. They will push again next time, they will tell the neighbour what they got you down to, and you will be doing that neighbour’s job at the same number.

The money you drop does not come off your costs either. Van, insurance, test kit, calibration, certs, fuel, phone, the hours you spend quoting at night. All of it carries on regardless, so knocking £80 off usually gives away most of that job’s profit.

If you want to move, move the package and not the price. Do the job in a way that is worth more: bundle in the extra socket they mentioned, take the old fitting away, come back and do the annual check, break the payment into two stages on a bigger job. That is adding value, and it protects the number.

Know the floor before the phone rings

You can only hold a price calmly if you know what the job has to bring in: your minimum charge for putting a van and a qualified person outside somebody’s house, then the job priced from there.

Rough example, purely to show how the sum works rather than a figure to copy: if your overheads and the wage you want add up to around £5,600 a month, and you honestly bill 70 hours in that month once quoting, certs, driving and paperwork are taken out, the back office figure you are working from is £80 an hour before a penny of profit or a van replacement fund. What the customer hears is never that hour figure. They hear a minimum charge for coming out and a price for the job.

Do not take my example numbers, work out yours. The free Minimum Charge Calculator does it in about ten minutes with your own figures. Most electricians who run it find their real minimum charge is well above the £65 to £75 sort of level they have been sitting on for years, and that number is being pushed up by costs every quarter. That is the point where the cheaper line stops rattling you, because you can see exactly what a job needs to earn.

When to walk away

Some of them are never going to buy from you and that is fine. If the whole conversation is the number, or they will not tell you what the other quote covers, let them go politely. “I will not be the cheapest on this one, so I would not want to hold you up. If it goes sideways, keep my number.”

That is a better outcome than a resented job. Price-only customers take the most hours, argue over extras and never come back for the good work. The ones who chose you because you explained the job are the ones who ring again in two years and send you next door.

Fix it before the objection happens

The real answer to “another electrician is cheaper” is given weeks earlier. Reviews that mention tidiness and turning up. Photos of your own work, not stock pictures. A written quote that reads like a plan. Being the name people on your streets already recognise, so you are not one of three strangers with three numbers.

That is what we work on inside My Electricians ToolBox with around 300 other electricians, using the same S.P.A.R.K.S. Blueprint I ran in my own business after I lost the first one. Positioning first, so you are compared on more than price. Membership is £127, and it is currently £97 a month if you want to have a look.

So next time it lands, what would you rather be doing: arguing about their price, or explaining yours?