I didn’t feel a lick of inflation the whole time I was in Mexico. Then I got to the airport to fly home.
I was down there last week, parked at an all-inclusive resort, living the dream. And I’ll tell you something about an all-inclusive. It’s a beautiful little lie. Everything’s already paid for, so nothing has a price on it, so your brain just quietly forgets that money is a thing that exists. Want another drink? It’s free. Want lunch? Free. Want lunch again an hour later? Free. You start feeling like the whole world runs on good vibes and wristbands.
Then the trip ended and I hit the airport for the flight home. Sat down at a little spot to grab a bite before boarding, ordered like a normal human being. Two beers, one burger, a side of fries, and a packet of ranch dressing.
Sixty bucks.
Now hang on, because the ranch is the part I can’t let go of. That ranch dressing was three dollars. Three. And it showed up in one of those little plastic packets about the size of the free ketchup they hand you at McDonald’s and don’t even think twice about. Three dollars for a thimble of ranch. I sat there staring at it like it owed me money.
And right about then, the fella to my right lets out a “damn!” So I look over. He’s got a beer and a dozen wings in front of him, and he catches my eye and says, “Sixty bucks. For a dozen wings and a beer. What a rip off.”
I just nodded at him. Because what else is there to say? Yeah, buddy. That’s what we’re all feeling right now.
And that’s the thing I want you to really sit with. That wasn’t the States. That was Mexico. This isn’t a one-country problem you can blame on one president or one policy. It’s everywhere. The whole world got more expensive, everybody feels it, and everybody, from that guy with the wings to your next customer, is walking around a little more nervous about every dollar than they were two years ago.
I flew home with that ranch packet still rattling around in my head. And wouldn’t you know it, two days later I’m on my weekly call with one of my franchisees, and the same thing comes bubbling up.
He’s frustrated. Good operator, works hard, cares about the customer. But he keeps losing jobs to lowball bids, and it’s eating at him. He tells me, “Gabe, everybody’s broke right now. Everybody’s shopping price. I think I gotta come down on my numbers just to keep the phone ringing.” Inflation this, cheap guy that. It came up three or four times before we were ten minutes into the call.
And I stopped him right there, because I’ve watched more good people talk themselves off that same cliff than I can count. I told him what I’m about to tell you, and it’s the most important sentence in this whole article.
Price is what you pay. It’s not what you receive.
Those are two completely different things, and the gap between them has a name. That gap is trust.
Think about it. The price is just the number on the invoice. But what the customer actually receives, whether the job gets done right, whether you show up, whether they can stop worrying about it the second you pull out of the driveway, that’s a totally separate deal. The cheap guy only ever sells one of those things. He sells the number. He’s got nothing to say about the other side, the receive side, because he can’t promise it and everybody can feel that he can’t. So all he’s got left to compete on is being a nickel cheaper. And there’s always somebody willing to be a nickel cheaper than that.
I know it because I was that guy once. I confessed it to my franchisee right there on the call. Told him how, when I was young and losing jobs to a lowballer, I got so fed up I slashed my own price to the bone just to win. And I did win. I won a business full of people who didn’t care about me, haggled every bill, and vanished the second somebody cheaper came along. I spent a couple of years selling nothing but the pay side, and it nearly sank me. I wasn’t in business. I was in a race to the bottom, and let me tell you, everybody who finishes that race is broke.
Here’s The Part That Flips It, And It’s The Part Almost Nobody Sees.
In an economy like this one, the receive side matters more, not less. When people had money to throw around, sure, they’d gamble on the cheap guy. Why not, it’s only money. But when every dollar’s already got a job? Now they can’t afford to guess wrong. Hiring the wrong guy doesn’t just cost them the money, it costs them the money AND the redo AND the aggravation. So the tighter things get, the more terrified people are of wasting a dollar, and the more they’ll pay to be sure they won’t.
That’s the whole game. When money’s tight, people don’t buy cheap. They buy sure. And the only way you get to be the sure thing is trust.
Now let me show you the two guys who pull up to that quote, because the customer’s about to meet both of them, and one of them is lying about being the cheaper choice.
The first guy sells on price. That’s all he’s got. He throws out a low number, and he’s already itching to get to the next one. No scope, no explanation, no real questions about what you actually need. Just a number and a shrug. He’s cheap up front, and here’s what nobody tells you. He’s the most expensive man you’ll ever hire, because when the work comes out wrong or the job’s left half done, you’re paying somebody else to come do the whole thing over again.
The second guy costs more on paper. And he’s actually the cheaper option. Read that again, because it’s the thing a customer only figures out too late when they get it wrong.
Watch what that second guy does. He shows up to quote the job, in person, because he wants to earn it and prove himself to you before he’s made a dime. He walks the property. He asks what you’re really dealing with. He explains the full scope of the work, what’s getting done and why, and he tells you straight how the quality is going to turn out. He points out that he carries the right kind of insurance, so if something goes sideways, you’re covered and it’s not your headache. He lets you know he’s got an office staff that’s a phone call away whenever you need them, so you’re never stuck talking to a voicemail and a prayer. And he walks you through the real difference between his work and the cheap guy’s, not to run the other man down, but so you can see with your own eyes what your money is actually buying.
That guy wins more jobs on quality and trust than he ever will on price. Why? Because his number comes with something the cheap guy can’t attach to his. Security. Confidence. The plain good feeling of knowing your money is going somewhere that’ll take care of you.
Because that’s what a customer actually wants when they spend in a scary economy. They don’t want cheap. They want to feel secure about the dollars leaving their hand. They want to know they’re getting real value for the spend. And the customer who wins, the one who comes out ahead, is the one who picks the right contractor, because their money goes further and the quality is actually there. The one who chases the lowest number is the one who ends up paying twice.
The cheap guy? The one who only ever talks price? He’s the one racing to the bottom. And he’s the one you can’t trust, because a man who leads with nothing but a low number is telling you flat out that a low number is all he’s got.
So I told my franchisee to quit trying to win on the number, because he’ll never win it, and even if he wins it he loses. I told him to go win on the receive side instead. Answer the phone like you’re glad they called, before you’ve said one word about price. Show up when you said you would, on the minute, because a guy who respects a customer’s time is telling them something about how he’ll treat their money. Look the part and act the part, because when those two line up, the customer’s gut relaxes, and when they don’t, it doesn’t matter what you charge. And keep the little promise, every single time, the before and after pics, the follow-up call, the thing you said you’d do when skipping it would’ve been easier and nobody was watching.
Do all that, and the price conversation doesn’t vanish, but it stops being the whole conversation. Because now the customer isn’t comparing your number to the cheap guy’s number. They’re comparing the sure thing to the gamble. And a careful, tightened-up, been-burned-before customer will pay more for the sure thing every day of the week. Not because they’re rich. Because they finally found somebody they believe won’t waste their money, and in this economy that’s worth more than a discount ever could be.
That’s why trust is critical to the sale. Not just important. Critical. It’s the whole difference between what they pay and what they think they’re going to receive. Close that gap and you win the job at your price. Leave it open and you’re just another number on a list, sweating it out at the bottom with the wings-and-a-beer crowd, hollering about the rip off.
So here’s what I told my franchisee to do, and it’s what I’m telling you.
Stop apologizing for your price. Go make yourself worth it instead. Pick the receive side and get ruthless about it. Be the guy people trust so completely they stop looking at the number, because they already know what they’re going to get. That’s not something you discount your way into. That’s something you build, one kept promise at a time.
Or don’t. Go on and drop your prices. Join the race to the bottom with every other average Joe, cutting your number, blaming the economy, blaming the customers, blaming inflation and the cheap guy and the price of ranch dressing in Mexico. That road’s wide open. It always is. And everybody on it is broke and blaming, right down to the last man.
You Get To Pick Which One You Are. You Always Did.
Prices went up on all of us. The ranch packet, the wings, the whole world. You can’t control that. But you can decide to be the one person in your customer’s day who’s worth every dollar they hand you. Build that, guard it, and you’ll never lose another job to a cheaper man again.
Because in the end it all comes down to one thing, and every customer in this economy is standing there right now with their money in their hand, quietly working it out. Price is what you pay. Value is what you receive. So who are you going to choose?
Make sure that when they ask themselves that question, the easy answer, the safe answer, the obvious answer, is you.
Worth before net worth.
