Why 'Ballpark Prices' are a bad idea

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Story Daniel Bezden

I was on a Zoom sales call with an HVAC contractor who told me she had been looking at various vendors to help with online HVAC pricing for their company. One vendor, she mentioned, "Helps contractors provide a ballpark price" – at a very low rate for their services.

"You get what you pay for" is a concept HVAC professionals preach to customers daily. Yet somehow, it seemed she was willing to ignore this when shopping for her own business tools.

"Well, if I give people a ballpark price, and then they find out on the appointment that I can do it for the lower end, I think customers will be really happy with that," she explained.

So, the question becomes: will she have a button on her website that says "Click here for a Ballpark Price" or will it say "Click here for an Instant Online Price"?

If it says the latter but delivers the former – she's just demonstrated to potential customers that she's not being honest and straightforward.

And in today's market, nothing kills a sale faster than a customer feeling misled.

If the button says "Click here for a Ballpark Price" and she delivers that – well, okay. But I bet not many consumers will be clicking. When was the last time you got excited about receiving a vague estimate instead of a real price?

Imagine calling a few Toyota dealerships asking for a price on a 2025 model Toyota Camry. If they're willing to provide anything at all, and they give you "a ballpark ranging from $25,000 to $35,000 depending on options" – and tell you that you should come in to discuss it further... 

That's a $10,000 range! Would you drive across town based on that non-answer?

Consumers are not stupid. You can post a question to your friends on Facebook if you're looking for a ballpark estimate. "Have any of you recently bought an HVAC replacement system and how much did you spend?" will give you plenty of answers.

What consumers want is a specific, actionable price they can make decisions with - not vague ranges, runarounds, or bait-and-switch tactics designed to get you through their door.

If you're going to say "Click here for a fully installed HVAC system price" – then deliver exactly that! That's how you build trust – by delivering what you promise, by giving consumers what they really want. A price!

I worked in the field, implementing and testing my system. One customer told me, "Your final price was exactly the same as the price you quoted online!" He explained that he was concerned there might be some bait-and-switch attempt – and his reaction speaks volumes: he was so happy to find an HVAC company that actually kept its word about pricing.

In fact, if you look at the demo I provide on this video you will see how I threw in a question along these lines to my Ai phone caller. This was based on real life experience - and I’m very pleased with how it got handled. I would not have known how to train the Ai on this, had it not been for the real life experience behind all of this.

Let's be brutally honest: "ballpark pricing" is often just a cheap workaround that creates more problems than it solves:

• It erodes trust before you even meet the customer
• It sets expectations you'll likely fail to meet
• It positions your business as indecisive and unprofessional
• It trains customers to expect that your "real price" will be different
• It wastes everyone's time by delaying the real conversation about actual costs

So, if you're going to provide prices online – then do that properly.

Half-measures don't work in HVAC installations, and they don't work in pricing transparency either.

What we provide at Just Give Me The Price is truly "best-in-class."

Our pricing page is designed to deliver the price – clearly and honestly.

But then, we work to move the sale forward. This includes offering incentives for customers to book appointments without delay, providing valuable information, and clearly presenting why your company is the right choice.

Cheap "ballpark" pricing solutions create cheap results. 

They damage trust, confuse customers, and ultimately cost you sales.

If you are going to implement online pricing – do it right.

Don't disappoint customers with a half-baked promise. Delight them with more than they expected.

That's how you build value and win customers.