From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
Smart Pricing in Home Services: Profits without fear
Ever wonder why some shops can charge premium prices without flinching while others apologize their way through every estimate? We unpack the playbook for home service pros who want to price with confidence, execute with precision, and market with integrity so customers feel great about saying yes.
We start by reframing growth through three levers—smart pricing, operational excellence, and marketing that actually matches delivery. You’ll learn why customers happily pay more when the 3 C’s are present: clarity about what they’re buying, confident communication from your team, and consistent options that respect budgets and priorities. From speed to lead and tidy installs to how you answer the phone, we map the touchpoints that quietly pre-sell your price long before a tech opens the price book.
Then we get tactical. We walk through building prices from real numbers—labor, materials, overhead, and target margins—plus how to review and update as costs change. We share a clean, tiered options strategy (good, better, best), why you should always present a repair pathway when appropriate, and how a quick third-party verification call protects elderly homeowners and your reputation. You’ll also get language shifts that move teams from apologizing to advocating for value, outcome-based selling that beats model-number jargon, and ethical incentives that nudge buyers toward higher-tier solutions without cheapening your brand.
If your quotes are triggering sticker shock, the fix isn’t to slash price—it’s to elevate the experience. Align brand visuals, uniforms, vehicles, and communication with the level you want to command, and let marketing tell the story of comfort, safety, efficiency, and peace of mind. Stop selling parts. Start selling outcomes. Subscribe, share this with a fellow owner who needs a pricing backbone, and leave a quick review to help more pros price for profit and close with confidence.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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What's up one and welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Share. I know first of all, I am the strategy to post over here at Monster Marketing, or we also start something to work on all of their vendors in a secure and true marketing strategy of place, and we're supposed to work in all the programs. So today now I'm gonna talk about pricing. And now what we are at pricing, we're gonna start ourselves. All right, listen, most home services businesses step pricing emotionally, not intentionally. And I see clients all the time, they'll be concerned about taking price increases on different products and different services. Oh, I just can't, I can't, I can't, and you can, you can, you can't. And you should, you should, you should. Okay, so at the end of the day here, what I want you to know is pricing is a part of growing our business. There are three things that you're gonna grow your business with every single year. One of them is pricing. Um, many of you would hit revenue goals if you would increase your pricing by a very small percentage. You would just add a price increase in there, you naturally would grow your revenue. Number two is operational excellence. The weight of performance is actually on whoever is in charge of operation. And odds are that is you. And so when operations are under your control, you have to be managing average tickets on all types of jobs and conversion rates and booking rates and call rates. And I I call that alphabet soup of your life. But listen, those KPIs are so crucial to really, really moving the business forward. It will not be marketing that that just skyrockets your business. It's going to be all of a sudden operationally, things just started clicking. Marketing exponentially makes that easier and better. But at the end of the day, if you can't execute on two leads, you for sure can't execute on 200. And so operational excellence is number two. And then number three is marketing. So those three things are how you are going to get new revenue, how you're going to grow your business. It's those three things, odds are, that is really going to be what really help helps you there. So we're going to break that cycle. We're going to give you confidence to price for profit without fear. And we're going to talk about how you can use the marketing tactics to really get that done. So, you know, the number one thing I think is we have the big fear factor. I don't know about you guys, but when I was growing up, Fear Factor was the most, you know, craziest show on TV, right? People were eating like cockroaches and termites and molded food and gross stuff. It was terrible. Um, but the fear factor lies with us thinking that we are high. Listen, I'm an emotional person. I'm a high eye on the disprofile side. I really just want to like be happy for you and have a party and like give you a birthday cake and have all kinds of fun. Um, and so the idea of like having to tell you I'm taking a price increase and things like that gives me major anxiety. But or I think we worry that we're going to scare customers off that we're going to um encourage them to go a different way. But the truth is people will always pay more when there are three C's clarity, confidence, and consistency. When there is clarity on what they are buying, when your technicians have confidence in what they're saying, and when you're consistently providing options for both repair and replacement and one, two, and three level, when you are consistently giving your homeowner options, you consistently will understand why people will pay more. They will invest more with your company because the overall customer experience with you has been high-end. It's the same reason that when you go in to buy a Bugatti or they don't come out with flip-flops. Hell, you barely can even buy it. Um, like it's it's so secretive, right? Because, but they understand that to sell this high-end car, there has to be a high-end customer experience. If you're trying to be the most expensive shop around, um, and when I say expensive is a crazy term, but when you're trying to be a very high-value shop, the customer experience has to match. You got to do a vibe check, right? So if your technician is pulling up in a peeling van that has three companies' logos of go, it's peeling. They pull up, they put their cigarette out, their shirt's untucked, they walk up there, there's paper everywhere, their hat's cockeyed, and they're like, Yeah, I'm here to do service. And then they try to sell me a$20,000 system, odds are not today. Not today, sir, right? So everything has to match. So I need you to take a step back in your business and say, does every touch point of my business reflect high-end equipment, high-end service, a true investment in my own work? And if it doesn't, if it doesn't, if there are holes, if you've got a a pissy little dispatcher, if you've got a little sarcastic CSR, um, and if you've got a technician that is slow and sloppy, and then an install crew that leaves trash everywhere, and they're cussing in the attic and smoking cigarettes, and there's 17 monster energy cans. Hopefully, it's monster energy for some of y'all, it could be other stuff, you know, and then they leave, they don't say hi, they don't shake hands. That is chunking a truck style. So if you're wondering, like, I wonder why I can't get this up, this could be your problem, right? So you're not competing on price with people, really. You're competing on the experience. You need the experience to be top-notch from day one. And that really means speed to lead. Like, how fast are you getting them taken care of? How communicative are you? And then what is literally the visual connection to your company? And I just want you to think about it. I just want you to think about what look at every one of your technicians in your mind and tell me, do they look good on this of walking up to my door? Do their is their van look good? Um, I'm not saying you can't have moments, but like if the whole right side has crashed in because Johnny like took out a mailbox, that's probably not what I'm sending to the home. Um, you might leave that on your own truck, but at the end of the day, is that the picture that you want drawn? No. So again, people will always pay more for clarity, confidence, and consistency. So you must prioritize that. You need to prioritize though those concepts, those three C's in everything that you do. Um, and so that means that pricing is really not the problem, it's probably perception. Um, cheap doesn't equal value. Premium pricing works when your experience matches that vibe check. Um, another example that I use of this, and again, so if you like get your feelings heard real easy, just pause for a minute and don't listen to this part, fast forward a little bit. But some of your brands are just like so blah, blah, boring and dry, and there's no personality to it. You're like, okay, well, here's crystals heating and air, and we're blue and red, and look, here's my snowflake, and here's my sunshine. But you know what? Oh my god, but everybody knows me. They do know you as boring on crystals heating and air conditioning, right? They don't know you, right? Like, oh, I know them, I love them, I engage with them. And some of y'all are rolling your eyes at me, but I'm telling you right now that at the end of the day, that's my favorite saying right now, the end of the day, but at the end of the day, you have a company, you don't have a brand. You have a company, so you have to have a brand. And when your brand speaks volume, so I was talking to Richard Florinoy, who launched Deep Dive Plumbing, and he said, you know, I invested, Crystal, in really nice high-end quality trucks and the wraps we did as re-brand for him. He's like, I invested in that because I wanted people to know that I was serious out of the gate. Like I was investing in my own business, and I'm like, you know, it really resonated with me. Now people think he's probably a$10 million plumbing company. And homeboy's just getting started. He's not even like, but he wanted to put his very best foot forward. So many of you have just been hanging out. Well, people know me and they love this logo. No, they don't. Y'all, they don't. They, yes, if you're a 95-year-old company and the name of your company's been crystal seeding in air for 90 years, maybe we don't change your name. That's naming also is not a huge thing to me, but it's the overall experience with your brand. Maybe it's colors or a mascot or an icon or a cool font or a cool placement, but we have got to work on giving you something that's sticky and juicy and stands out because what it does, and it looks so nice and clean. So listen, again, I know not everybody can afford this, but please be working towards this. You got a magnet on the side of your truck, terrible. I look like anybody that hired some contract labor to come and mow my yard. I went down to the 7-Eleven, hired four people, stuck my magnet on the side of their truck, and they went and mowed some yards. That's what it reminds me of. Not a high-end equipment place, not a high-end heating and air conditioning or plumbing company. Heck, even those of you that are doing um pest control and roofing, y'all be you can still be high-end, but you've got to look the part, right? I don't show up to be the CEO dressed in what I just mowed the yard in. Right. So if I want to have high expectations and high value customers that value the true customer experience, very good communicating, efficient equipment and good services, and are willing to pay for that. I have to show up like that. And that includes what includes what your brand looks like, the communication, the professionalism, you have they all justify your price before you've ever been given an opportunity to quote it. That banner at the Little League field justifies your price before you quote it. Your social media post quote is justifying your price before you quote it. Your uniforms, your vehicle wraps, your billboards, your jingle, how you answer the phone, all of that has built value. So if you go back and look and none of that has happened, you have a very hard hill to climb when you try to build value there. And you're stuck being the middleman or low man on the total pole when it comes to pricing. And if your price shocks them, then your marketing failed them before the estimate did. Right? Your market, so your pricing surprised them. That means we they've not had a high-end experience. Let me tell you this story. Um, I went to a casino that shower made unnamed in Vegas, right? And I had had a really stressful week at work. I was super tense. And all because of the overall vibe of this particular hotel, kind of like clubbing in the 2000s, right? It was there was a little bit of drunk people, there was a lot of alcohol spilled, there was trash. It was just, it was mid. Okay, it was mid-level quality. So I automatically expected my experience at their quote unquote, I'm using air quotes for those of you that are listening and not watching, but I had very low expectations, friends, because I number one, the rooms were cheap. Number two, everything was not very concierge. Now, listen, I had stayed for two weeks almost over the past couple of months at Red Rock Casino in Vegas. That is the epitome of high-end, like super high-end. Now, maybe not like high-end, like some of y'all that are super bougie, but high end to crystal, right? It smelled good, it was luxurious, it was beautiful. So I fully expected the spa experience there to be expensive. So when I went to um Shower Main Unnamed Um Casino and Help, um, I was like, yeah, that I'm looking for a$60 massage, right? Because honestly, everything that had happened before I ever even walked into their spa led me to believe that this should be budget, low rate, budget quality. Um, and surprisingly, um, I'm just gonna tell you, the it pretty much met my expectations. The massage was fine, but the overall, the ambiance, the experience, and so when I got in there, and they're like, oh, it'd be$120. I'm like, well, that's about right for this level of massage. But if they would have said that's gonna be$250, I'd be like, you've lost your mind. Like homegirl was playing music on her phone, not even piped in, like it was dark, weird dark, not like spa dark, like you know, so like, don't get me started on this, right? Like, I kind of beat it up, you know, over there. But really, what I'm trying to show here is like the price did not shock me because of my overall experience, the whole thing, the entire experience. Let me know that this should be a budget-level thing. And so you guys don't, you have to make sure that you have set up the entire customer journey to reflect the price that your team is about to go quote. And that's on us. We need to protect that brand, we need to build that brand, and we need to curate it. The other thing that you have to do is know your numbers, right? So price with a purpose. Don't just be like, you know, I don't want to take a 6% price increase. What the heck? Like, do things logically and consistently and with education behind it, right? Do these things like build your pricing around your actual cost, your actual profit goals, not what like, oh homeboy now the street's charging$6,000, so should I? Absolutely not. We've got to know why we are priced the way that we are, and then you never know how that's gonna work out. You need to be tracking your labor cost, your overhead materials, and the desired margin that you're looking for. Those of you that aren't large enough yet to confirm a solid price book with a distributor or manufacturer, I'd be watching that stuff like a hawk. Because you need to be watching everything that's coming in to make sure that you're priced appropriately. But when you price smart, uh smartly, you're um you and your funds will grow. Marketing, better technicians, better service, just because you just have better pricing, right? Um, and on that same level, I think there's a couple of things that you need. I think you need to uh have a tiered pricing approach. It just gives customers options. The old adage of good, better, best, right? Um, I like that idea. Good, better, best. So what if I'm having a year where I have good money? Some years I might have the best money, right? But you are not in charge of your client's price book. I'm sorry, their pocketbook of their price book. You can tell I talk to contractors every day. You're not in charge of their bank account. So your job is to coach your team to provide options, right? But when you create transparency, you create control. And they feel like the homeowner feels like they are getting to choose what's best for them. You're not being overly pushy. You're not giving them one solution, you're giving them three solutions. Another thing is I would never leave a house without at least some sort of repair recommendation if I recommend that they replace. I just think it's good work. Now, there are times that that just won't work, but at the end of the day, hey, I can charge you$3,000 to fix that, or we can get you a new system that's more efficient, right? Or whatever's going on with a refrigerant, who knows from day to day. But honestly, at the end of the day, your team needs to be talking through why they can't repair, documenting why they can't repair, and then making a replacement opportunity. And listen, it is all about transparency and trust at that point. Because if, you know, if grandma makes a bad decision, where can you show that your team protected that customer's journey? Did grandma really was she sure what she was buying? I visited a shop in Vegas and they did the coolest thing. They did a third-party verification. So if a homeowner was making a plumbing repair over, I think it was$1,500. It could have been over$25, but they actually had to call the consumer, the homeowner called into the office. The office girl just said, Okay, let's pretend like it's me, Miss Williams. I see that you're making a purchase of$27.50. We're gonna do this. Did anyone pressure you into this? Did we provide other options? Is there any other decision makers that need to be in on this? Nope, you're good. This is how you're gonna pay. Perfect, let's move forward. And they it's a recorded call and it's logged on there. So when someone's son, wife, dad, whoever comes in and says, Y'all manipulated my wife, my grandma, my aunt, my cousin, my neighbor, whatever, you have it on recording where you took extra precautions to make sure. So I thought that was a really cool call out and part of the customer journey there, especially on your elderly clients, especially on your elderly clients. But you know, giving the options, giving the customer good options. Transparency creates control for the homeowner. It puts them in the driver's seat, and then it also increases your average ticket and the customer satisfaction. So again, this is why Linux seed will sometimes say, hey, give a gift of purchase. So, hey, if you actually choose our best option today, it's coming with X, uh, a Yeti cooler, a gas grill, a vacation, I don't care, something, something that's just that little, that little gidea, that little extra kiss on top to get them to pull the trigger to go with the best option. Again, it's not designed for people to call and be like, I'm calling here to get a cruise. I'm willing to buy a new HVAC system because I want a cruise. That's never going to work. You have to utilize these gift with purchase opportunities to actually help your people in the home upsell to those better and best options on the tiered price sheet. That is the goal. That is how you increase average ticket. That's how marketing is built to incentivize your team and the homeowner to make a higher-end investment with your company. Right. So that's where I need your heads to be, right? And then train your team to sell on value, right? So confidence starts inside. If your techs or your CSRs are nervous, so is the customer. If they're unsure, and I'm saying if they start off with it's kind of expensive, I will kick a wall down, okay? I'll kick it, I'll be the one that didn't need your truck. If you go in and say, Oh, it's kind of expensive. If your CSR says, uh, do you really want to join out this code? It's kind of high overnight. Y'all kick a door down. Kick a door down, right? I mean, don't literally kick a door down, but um, you know, kind of like in your brain, like kick something over. Because you gotta rattle the cages when that is the mentality. It's time for a mind shift with your team. Get them confident about why you charge what you charge, why the products that you have are the products that you have, why you're doing what you need to do. But role-playing price conversations, equip them with stories, not scripts. Hey, this is why you know one of our customers was doing this, then this is how it worked. Um, if you lead with payment factor when you're selling equipment, hey, for only$199 a month, for$209 a month. Um, you actually can roll in other things, add an IEQ bundle to it, and it only goes to$249 a month. Guys, this is not rocket science. This is literally intentionality behind pricing and upselling. All right, so focus on the outcomes, not the line item, right? So, hey, comfort, uh, safety, peace of mind, low electric bills, quieter air systems, better smelling air, better visible air, better water, better, faster hot water, right? All of these things are what you want to focus on. We're gonna come out here and install this RG7276 and a and a thermostat. They're like, huh? You got to come in and say, Miss Williams, you have made the best decision. This system, this system is actually very efficient. It's gonna help keep your energy costs low. It's very quiet, has variable speeds, meaning at different times it can do different levels of speeds. Talk to the consumer as if they're not a technician and sell them the equipment based off the services that it serves, and then utilize marketing to tell those stories. Like that is storytelling. That's how we show people a true outcome that can impact them. So, and listen, inflation and labor and materials change so much to your pricing. So much your pricing. So I need you to put that on your calendar that every so often you're reviewing and updating, reviewing and updating. Because remember, you're not, most of you do not have a recurring service model where you're charging customers the same thing every day. These are new people that now they need an air conditioner. They didn't need one three months ago. They have really no idea what your price was three months ago, all right, or no idea what a capacitor was. At the end of the day, you're not selling the part in the equipment, you're selling the experience. Flip your head around to that. You're selling the experience with your customer and don't apologize for profit. I none of us run a nonprofit business. We're not here, we're here to make money. We're here to not, and not for just for ourselves, for our team. Um, we want to be able to give back to our community. We want to be able to do these things. Um, I'm not apologizing for profit. It's what lets me serve our customers and our team and our team, right? And stay in business, guys. It's always stay in business, so don't be scared to make profit. Build a habit of reviewing those rates and quarterly, biannually, frequently, right? So smart pricing isn't just about charging more, it's about charging the right thing and creating this full customer experience that when you price with confidence, your customers feel it too. You can do it, guys. It's 2026. Now's the perfect time to redo that. Listen, if you need help with your marketing, your strategy, your brand, limit seed, we're your girls, and there's just you guys, uh, we can totally help you out. Also, I'd love for you to leave us a review on this podcast. If you leave me a review, let me know. I'd love to send you some swag. But thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Keep it up, guys. You made it to the end of 2025. 2026 is going to kill it. Um, let's keep making lemonade and closing with confidence. Talk soon.