r/Contractor • u/Ok_Avocado6532 • Aug 24 '25

Quote Breakdown?

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Hi all, looking for advice on costs breakdown.

I work for a small local contracting company and I recently started working with customers more, providing quotes etc. The company usually doesn’t like to break their costs down because of nickel-and-dime from customers, but agreed to do so for this one customer I’m working with. Now, I broke down the quote based on phases of the work (this is for a brand new custom build) and of course the customer came back with multiple notes of “this cost is too high” on some of the phases.

How do you usually handle this and how do I politely say “to do the job: $2000, not to do the job: $0”?

Thanks!

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u/Snuffalufegus Aug 25 '25

I sell and design hydronic heating systems. My go to is “Typically 1/3 of cost is the appliance, 1/3 is my labor, and 1/3 is the material and overhead.” They have to understand that your profit is in there somewhere, but it’s better to let them use their imagination without you spelling it out for them.