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MTAC_Plumbing's avatar
MTAC_Plumbing
Contributor 2
1 year ago

Seeking Advice: Building a Pricing Strategy and Ideal Customer Avatar for MTAC Plumbing

Hi Everyone,

This is Markus from MTAC Plumbing, based in Kitchener, Ontario.

After 2.5 years in business, I’m reaching out to fellow plumbing companies for advice and insights. As a relatively new business, we’ve been saying "yes" to all types of customers and work. We’ve worked with small general contractors on home renovations, direct service calls with homeowners, small commercial fit-outs, reworks, and even a few custom new construction homes.

One challenge I’m facing is narrowing down my ideal customer avatar. Without that focus, I’ve struggled to create a solid pricing strategy and price book tailored to specific types of work.

I’ve consumed a lot of content—coaching programs, podcasts, and even paid for some trades business coaching—but I’m constantly torn between different approaches. Should I stick to flat rate/lump sum pricing, or go with time and materials transparency? Overhead recovery is another area I need to lock down, along with deciding whether to lean into truck/service charges or a higher hourly rate with minimum-hour strategies.

Currently, my price book in Jobber feels clunky and difficult to use. It’s challenging to organize by service types (e.g., Service, Renovation, Commercial), and there’s no way to create subfolders, making navigation harder.

From my experience, homeowners in my area often see flat-rate pricing as a dealbreaker. I’ve trained our admin to explain that a plumber needs to assess the job on-site because of plumbing’s many variables. For common issues, I’m considering building out flat-rate pricing for simplicity, but most clients still want an upfront range or at least a disclosed hourly rate before scheduling.

I’m looking for advice from this community:

  • How do you structure your pricing and organize your price books?
  • Do you use flat rate, lump sum, or time and materials strategies, and how do they work for you?
  • What’s the best way to build confidence and efficiency in pricing to ramp up billables while keeping processes streamlined?

I appreciate any insights or feedback!

Best regards,
Markus
MTAC Plumbing

9 Replies

  • BPS's avatar
    BPS
    Contributor 2
    4 days ago

    Hey Markus, I know this post was from a year ago. I am wondering how you have walked things out?

    I am also a newer Company going into my third year of business in the Niagara Region. I have done a little bit of everything to start out even with subcontracting myself out to other plumbing companies in my area to get things going. Things have now slowly slid more into a rhythm of renovation and service work. At some point I am hoping that I will be able to slide into straight service work. I like the challenge of dealing with the issue straight on and customer relationship aspect and the added bonus of being paid upon completion is a bonus.

    One thing that I have found is that having a Diagnostic call fee people are okay with. I have it set as $119.99+HST that covers the first 1/2hour. If we are able to do the work same day we will waive the fee. I find it weeds out the people shopping around. Like you mentioned in our trade there are too many variables when some one says I have a kitchen sink that is leaking. I have found that upfront flat rate pricing and being able to start same day is my biggest factor of securing jobs. I’m in booked, completed the job, and paid before most guys even think about calling back or answering the phone. Finding that little thing has helped me find an area that is lacking in our industry, everyone wants the clean new builds around me and most of the plumbers don’t like taking the time to deal with the home owner.

    As for building prices, what I do is build a few different options. Toilet for example I will have Customer supplied new install, Beacon Plumbing Services supplied WC new install, Customer supplied WC swap, Beacon Plumbing Services supplied WC swap, and then have your extra items that you may come across as add ons. Ie repair flange, new shutoff. Then being up front with the customer about during the swap the flange may need to be repaired that would be an extra and if the shut off needs to be replaced/repaired that is another additional cost. Once those problems arise going back to the customer and letting them know right away and having them sign off on the additional work. I was told to start with you 10 most common calls and build a price around those items, and as other ones come up then to build options off of those for future ease. Makes the task less daunting, at least to me. 

    Hopefully there is something in here that helps you out. I would love to hear if you have figured out how to walk things out in your area?

    Regards,

    Joshua

    Beacon Plumbing Services 

    Niagara on the lake, ON

  • bedellmgmt's avatar
    bedellmgmt
    Jobber Ambassador
    1 year ago

    I've had a lot of success with time and materials and when asked for a lump sum price, it frequently ends up being inflated in my favor, compared to how time and materials pricing would have played out.  The key is to always be profitable - way too many contractors in all trades have too slim of margins, especially after years of inflation compounded.

    Narrowing down your client base is a luxury that comes with time and figuring out where the most profit can be made. Keep your "stick on the ice" and keep saying yes to the work that makes you money!!

  • Jessica-2025's avatar
    Jessica-2025
    Contributor 3
    1 year ago

    We need a price book or a catalog to assist with estimating too.

    I hope 🙏 one day this happens.  

    • BHS's avatar
      BHS
      Contributor 3
      1 year ago

      We have been experimenting with ChatGPT referencing the 2025 National Repair & Remodeling Estimator ebook. It’s not perfect, and we don’t singularly use it to price jobs. However, it has proven to give a good frame of reference for where are prices should be. 

      Here are the ChatGPT Project Instructions we use:

      Always use (your city, state or zipcode) for pricing references with the project files.

      Utilize a labor rate of $88 per hour, per crew member.  Unless otherwise directed, only use a single crew member for your calculations.  You may utilize other internet sites to help cross-reference pricing to give more accurate responses.

      Hope that helps! 

       

       

  • HydronicJohn's avatar
    HydronicJohn
    Contributor 2
    30 days ago

    It really depends on your customer base.

    For strict residential service work often we find flat rate to be best, as it makes it easier for our office and techs in the field to quote work on the spot themselves and makes invoicing much easier. 

    For our contract work with larger customers it is usually T&M. They know our hourly rate and understand that jobs in larger buildings require more than a simple quick fix.

     

    • MTAC_Plumbing's avatar
      MTAC_Plumbing
      Contributor 2
      24 days ago

      How do you deal with variables while still keeping things simple for both plumbers and customers?

      For example, a kitchen sink leak could be the ABS drain, the strainers, the water lines, or a mix of all three. Do you usually build a few standard options for each fixture or situation?

      I get stuck when people want a ballpark price over the phone before we even look at it. Then once we arrive, I want the plumber to feel confident diagnosing it and selecting the right price in Jobber.

      Do we do free estimates in town, and or service call to diagnose and we delete the diagnosed if scheduled approach.  

      I keep going back and forth between flat rate and hourly pricing, and it is honestly driving me a bit crazy trying to figure out the best system.

      • Dundas_H_Air's avatar
        Dundas_H_Air
        Contributor 2
        19 days ago

        Hvac Contractor here, Cant speak to your specific trade. However when I have customers Looking for pricing over the phone I let them know what our hourly rate is and an estimated time to diagnose the issue (typically 1 hour or less) we then Quote the job onsite and Include the 1 hour call out in the pricing structure. I Find it gives the customers a Framework to work with without "Going in blind" As well as increasing conversion rates because We're already onsite. We've had a lot of success with this model as it "gets your foot in the door " I have also found that with an hourly pricing structure Fuel/Truck charges aren't out of the ordinary and allows you to tailor them to your Companies specific needs. Hope this helps. Best of Luck.

        Jacob

        Dundas Heating & Air 

  • HydronicJohn's avatar
    HydronicJohn
    Contributor 2
    24 days ago

    Create flat rate pricing for that work like "repipe drainage for kitchen sink" in abs and system 15 and/or XFR options. Copper pipe repairs 1/2" or 3/4" up to 2', 5', etc... you can do the same with wirsbo/pex as well. Make it so that your tech can quote in the field for residential work. Commercial/industrial is almost always T&M for us.l, with the exception of drain cleaning. 

    Feel free to reach out to me. We're in the same area.