You can hold your price and keep the customer. What you cannot do is discount quietly and hope it never happens again — because it will.
10 September 2026 · 5 min read
It comes in a few standard forms: “is that your best price?”, “my mate reckons he could do it for less”, or the classic pause followed by a sharp intake of breath. None of them are an attack. All of them are a question, and questions can be answered.
A price cut with no change to the work tells the customer your first number was made up. If they need the figure lower, take something out: fewer fittings, a longer timescale that suits your diary, materials they supply, a phased job. The price moves because the work moved, and your rate stays intact.
Most haggling is not greed, it is a customer with no idea what is in the figure. “That’s three days on site, the consumer unit, the certificate and the making good” turns an abstract number into a list of things. People argue with numbers and accept lists.
“I know it’s a lot, but…” hands them the argument. “That’s the price for the work, and it includes everything we discussed” is not rude — it is just finished. Then stop talking. The silence after a price is the customer thinking, not an invitation to negotiate against yourself.
If someone tells you a rival is cheaper, the useful question is what the other quote includes. Frequently it is a different job — fewer materials, no making good, no certification. If it genuinely is the same job for less and they want that, let them have it. Winning a job by matching a price you cannot work at is the most expensive way to lose.
Cash is a payment method, not a discount, and there is nothing wrong with being paid in cash provided it goes through your books like everything else. What you should not do is quietly leave income off your records — that is a different conversation entirely and not one worth having for a hundred quid. If you are unsure where you stand on declaring income, gov.uk and your accountant are the right sources.
Half of price resistance is presentation. A scribbled figure on the back of a business card invites haggling; an itemised branded PDF with your details, clear lines and a validity date reads as a business that has a price rather than a person who picked one. That is most of why sending a proper quote wins work — and then following it up wins more of it.
Change the scope rather than the rate. Removing work, supplying fewer materials or fitting the job into a quieter week are all legitimate ways to reach a lower number. Cutting the price with no change to the job tells the customer the original figure was arbitrary.
Ask what the other quote includes. It is very often a different specification rather than a cheaper version of the same job. If it genuinely is identical and cheaper, letting them take it is better than working at a rate that loses you money.
Being paid in cash is perfectly normal. What matters is that the income is recorded and declared like any other, so treat cash as a payment method rather than a reason to discount, and check anything you are unsure about with your accountant or on gov.uk.
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