As a sales professional, I had a painful conversation with a roofing contractor a few days ago. He came out, measured, actually nailed down a loose shingle or two, and gave very helpful advice on how I should proceed.

He knew that I already had an estimate in hand from a competitor, and gave me what appeared to be a fair, but not overly aggressive price. His price is 15% higher than the other guy.

No problem.

I sell a premium product and don’t mind paying more if I’m going to receive a benefit from the additional up-front cost.

When presented with the other quote, I expected some effort to either justify his price, or match the other price. Neither happened.

He seemed rattled when I started verifying exactly what he was proposing to do, so I showed him the description of work from the competing contractor and asked him to tell me what was different about his offering compared to the other guy.

His answer: “Nothing really. I do really good work though.”

Such a nice guy, and I appreciate his honest answer… but obviously, more of a roofer than a sales professional. When I present the pricing for my premium service, I do so with evidence to support the more costly tools and methods that we employ, and the superior results that we achieve. Without that evidence, I would not expect any intelligent prospect to pay our premium rates.

Back to the wayward roofer… Since he couldn’t differentiate his product and support his premium price, I’ll be hiring the other guy.

How do you support your price in the face of cheaper competition?