Single-Price Quotes Are Killing Your Close Rate

Your Estimate Just Became a Yes/No Question

You send a $8,400 AC replacement quote. Customer says "let me think about it." You never hear back.

The problem is not your price. The problem is you gave them a binary choice. Accept or reject.

Industry baseline for single-price HVAC quotes: 20-25% close rate. That means 75-80% of your estimates die in customer inboxes.

Why Customers Ghost Single Prices

One price creates a trap. Customer has no context. No comparison. Just a number floating in space.

"Is $8,400 a good deal?" They can't tell. So they get three more quotes and pick the cheapest.

You just competed on price alone. That's not a sales strategy.

The Psychology Problem

Behavioral economists Tversky and Kahneman proved this: decisions depend on reference points. Without comparison, customers default to "too expensive" because loss aversion kicks in.

Spending $8,400 feels like a loss. What's the gain? They can't measure it without options.

Single price = adversarial. You're asking them to trust your number. They feel pressured.

Multi-Option Pricing

Three options transform the conversation. Good at $6,200. Better at $8,400. Best at $12,100.

Now the question is not "should I?" but "which one fits?"

Psychology shifts from rejection to choice. You're no longer pushing. They're deciding.

The Middle Option Bias

Research shows 57% of customers choose the middle option when presented three choices.

Not because middle is objectively best. Because humans avoid extremes when uncertain.

Rodway's 2011 study proved this. Subjects shown identical socks in a row. 57% picked the middle one.

Your Better tier becomes the safe choice. Not cheap. Not extravagant. Balanced.

Anchoring Does the Heavy Lifting

Showing $12,100 first makes $8,400 look reasonable. Remove that anchor and $8,400 stands alone, feeling expensive.

This is not manipulation. This is how human brains process value.

The Economist famously added a Print-only option at the same price as Print+Digital. Suddenly Print+Digital looked like a steal. Subscriptions to premium tier doubled.

You're doing the same. Best tier makes Better tier attractive.

What Good Actually Does

Good tier is not meant to sell. It's a decoy.

Strip it down. Minimum efficiency equipment. Basic warranty. No upgrades.

Price it 25-30% below Better. Make it unappealing but legitimate.

Good exists to make Better look smart. 70% of customers will pick Better or Best.

Why Contractors Avoid This

"Creating three versions is tedious." That's tool failure, not strategy failure.

Most HVAC software treats estimates like PDFs. Building three tiers manually is painful.

Software should generate tiers automatically from your pricebook. Good strips upgrades. Best adds everything. Better sits in the middle.

If your tools don't support this, your tools are the problem. Modern estimate software handles this automatically.

The Math Without HVAC Data

No published data exists on HVAC-specific close rate improvements from multi-option pricing. That's the honest truth.

But general service industry data shows 25-40% revenue increase with tiered pricing. Field service shops report proposals "skyrocketed in speed" and "increased upsells."

Behavioral science is universal. Anchoring, decoy effect, and middle-option bias work across industries.

The Contrarian Take

More options is not always better. Four or five tiers create decision paralysis.

The paradox of choice is real. When Procter & Gamble reduced Head & Shoulders varieties, revenue jumped 10%.

Three options is the sweet spot. 41.4% of successful startups use exactly three pricing tiers.

Not two. Not four. Three.

Implementation in 48 Hours

Pick your highest-volume job type. AC replacement, furnace install, whatever sells most.

Build Good tier: strip down your standard offering. Minimum equipment, basic warranty.

Build Better tier: your current standard quote. This becomes "Most Popular."

Build Best tier: load it up. Premium equipment, extended warranty, maintenance included, air quality upgrades.

Price spread: Good 25-30% below Better. Best 40-50% above Better.

Train techs to present all three. Walk through value differences, not just price.

Track results for 30 days. Measure close rate, average ticket, time to decision.

What This Looks Like

Customer sees three options on one screen. Highlighted "Most Popular" on Better tier.

They compare within your quote instead of shopping competitors.

Decision becomes internal: "Do I want basic or premium?" Not external: "Is this contractor expensive?"

You close more deals at higher prices. Not through pressure. Through choice architecture.

The Cost of Waiting

At $250 cost per lead, 20% close rate means you need 5 leads per sale. That's $1,250 in lead cost per job.

If multi-option bumps you to 40% close rate, same 5 leads = 2 sales. Lead cost drops to $625 per job.

Same marketing spend. Double the conversions. Half the cost per acquisition.

That compounds. Every month you delay is margin left on the table.

Questions You'll Have

"Do customers feel tricked?" No. They feel in control. Choice creates confidence.

"What if they only pick Good?" Then Good wasn't differentiated enough. Make it less appealing or remove it.

"Do I always need three?" Yes for estimates over $2,000. Below that, one price is fine.

Where to Start

Most estimate software won't support this well. You'll need multi-option estimate builders with templated tiers.

Or you'll build it manually in spreadsheets, which kills adoption because it's tedious.

Plenum generates Good/Better/Best automatically from your pricebook. Define items once. Software builds tiers. Customer picks. You close more.

That's the difference between strategy and execution. Strategy is proven. Execution requires tools that don't fight you.

Track Your Own Numbers

HVAC industry data gap exists here. No published benchmarks.

That's your opportunity. Measure your baseline close rate for 30 days with single-price quotes.

Implement multi-option. Measure another 30 days.

You'll have real data. Not industry averages. Your actual improvement.

Then you'll know what this is worth to your business.

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Related Resources

• Multi-Option Estimates Feature - How Plenum automates Good/Better/Best
• Good Better Best HVAC Pricing Templates - Ready-to-use templates
• HVAC Software Comparison - Compare estimate features across platforms
• Pricing Calculator - Calculate your optimal pricing