Good-better-best is the most widely used selling structure in residential trades, and the most often done badly. Done well, it respects the customer: every option fixes the problem, and the customer picks how far to go. Done badly, it's a cheap option nobody wants next to an expensive one the tech is pushing.
Good-better-best in plain English
An HVAC tech finds a swollen run capacitor on a 9-year-old condenser (example prices). Instead of quoting one repair, the tablet shows three:
| Option (example) | What's included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Replace run capacitor | $280 |
| Better (recommended) | Capacitor, contactor, surge protector | $520 |
| Best | Better, plus hard-start kit and one year of maintenance membership | $780 |
All three get the house cool today. The customer now decides which level of protection they want, instead of whether to let the tech do anything at all.
Why does good-better-best work?
Two well-known findings from consumer research explain much of it:
- The compromise effect. When people choose under uncertainty, an option becomes more attractive when it sits in the middle of a set, partly because it's easy to justify.1
- The decoy (attraction) effect. Adding an option that's clearly worse than one of the others can increase the share choosing the option it's compared against.2
These studies were not done on contractors, and they don't promise a specific lift. They are a reason to design your middle tier carefully and make the differences between tiers easy to see. The bigger practical effect is simpler: a tech who presents options gets a decision on every call, and a tech who presents one price gets a lot of "we'll think about it."
How do you build good, better and best options?
- 1
Start from the problem
Good is the honest fix for what the customer called about, priced from the price book.
- 2
Add protection for better
Parts likely to fail next, surge protection, a longer warranty. Each addition should be something the tech can explain in one sentence.
- 3
Make best the complete answer
The most thorough fix, often with a membership or extended warranty. For aging equipment, best may be replacement.
- 4
Space the prices sensibly
Each step should feel worth its price. Big jumps with small differences make the upper tiers look like padding.
- 5
Save as templates
Build the common sets once in the office so every tech presents the same options at the same prices.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A good option that doesn't fully fix the problem | Feels like bait; damages trust | Good must solve the complaint |
| Tiers that differ only in price | Customers see padding | Each step adds something visible |
| Jargon in descriptions | Customers can't compare | Plain words, one line per benefit |
| Techs pre-deciding for the customer | Lower tickets, fewer memberships | Present options every time work is needed |
| Monthly payments without terms | Disclosure problems | Show the estimate and its terms, honestly |
If you show a monthly figure beside each option, read presenting monthly payments honestly first; there are disclosure rules that apply.
How good-better-best affects your numbers
Options move two numbers at once, and you should watch both.
| Single price | Good-better-best | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer decision | Yes or no | Which one |
| Close rate | Depends on one price landing | Usually steadier: there's an option for most budgets |
| Average ticket | Fixed by the one option | Rises when customers choose better or best |
| Customer feeling | Can feel like take it or leave it | Feels like a choice |
| Risk | Lost sales on price | Overselling if tiers are padded |
Read close rate and average ticket together. Revenue per proposal (close rate × average sold ticket) is the cleanest way to see whether options are working for a given tech or job type. Our deeper write-up on the psychology and math of option pricing includes a worked example of what options do to the ticket.
Free calculatorMarkup vs margin calculatorConvert markup to margin (and back) so your prices actually hit your margin target.Good-better-best vs related terms
- Upselling adds an item to a single quote. Good-better-best presents the levels up front and lets the customer choose.
- Menu pricing is a broader term for a printed or on-screen list of set prices; good-better-best is menu pricing organized around one problem.
- Comfort advisor is the role that presents replacement options, often in good-better-best form, on install sales calls.
How good-better-best works in TradesWork
In TradesWork, a technician builds one to four priced options per proposal from the price book or a proposal template, flags one as recommended, attaches proof photos and rebates, and shows member prices beside regular prices for members. The customer signs on the phone, even with no signal, or approves later from the job's link by typing their name. Unsold proposals land on a follow-up board with automatic texts at 2, 7 and 21 days. Monthly payment figures are estimates and only show if the office turns financing on; no lender is connected yet. See the good-better-best feature for details and limits.
Footnotes
-
Choice Based on Reasons: The Case of Attraction and Compromise Effects, Itamar Simonson, Journal of Consumer Research 16(2), September 1989, pp. 158–174. ↩
-
Adding Asymmetrically Dominated Alternatives: Violations of Regularity and the Similarity Hypothesis, Joel Huber, John W. Payne and Christopher Puto, Journal of Consumer Research 9(1), June 1982. ↩
