“How much do you charge?” It’s the first thing most callers ask, and it’s the worst possible question to answer on the spot. Quote high and they hang up and call the next name on their list. Quote low and you eat the difference once you’re standing in front of the actual panel. Either way, you’ve lost before the truck leaves the lot.

The instinct is to either dodge the question or throw out a number and hope. Both are wrong. There’s a third option, and it’s the one that actually books the job.

Why they ask it first

Callers don’t lead with price because they’re cheap. They lead with price because it’s the only question they know how to ask. They don’t know what a service call minimum is, they don’t know the difference between a breaker swap and a panel job, and they have no way to describe what’s wrong in terms an electrician would use. Price is the one thing on their mind they can put into words, so that’s what comes out first.

That means “how much do you charge” isn’t really a pricing question. It’s a caller telling you they need help figuring out what they’re even asking for. Answer it like a pricing question and you’ll either scare them off or lock yourself into a number you can’t keep. Answer it like an intake question and you’re halfway to booked.

The pivot that actually works

The move is simple: be honest that you can’t quote blind, then immediately ask something that moves the call forward. You’re not stalling. You’re doing the same triage a good dispatcher does on every call, just starting from a different opening line.

A few ways that sounds in practice:

“Honestly, it depends what we find. Can I ask you two quick things so I can give you a real number instead of a guess?”

“Our service call starts at a flat rate, and most of the price depends on what’s actually going on. Is this a repair, or are we talking new work?”

“I don’t want to quote you something and then surprise you on site. Tell me what’s happening and I can give you a much closer range.”

Every version does the same thing. It admits the truth (you can’t price something you haven’t seen), and it turns the caller’s next sentence into the information you need to book the job right. That’s the same discipline behind the intake questions every call deserves: what’s wrong, how urgent, what kind of property. A price call that gets those answers stops being a price call.

When a range actually is the right answer

Not every question deserves the pivot. Some jobs really do have a number you can say out loud. Service call minimums, a straightforward fixture or outlet swap, a GFCI reset visit: those have a real range, and hiding behind “we don’t quote over the phone” on a simple job just sounds evasive. Give the range, then still ask the follow-up questions so you know what you’re walking into.

Where you can’t give a range, and shouldn’t try, is anything with a panel, anything described as “the whole house,” or anything you haven’t laid eyes on. A rewire quoted blind isn’t a quote, it’s a guess with a dollar sign on it, and callers remember when the number changes once you’re on site. Better to say plainly that it needs a look, and set the estimate visit instead of a phantom price.

What happens to the caller either way

A caller who gets engaged, asked a couple of questions, and walked toward a booked estimate feels like someone is actually paying attention to their problem. A caller who gets “we don’t quote over the phone” and nothing else feels dismissed, and dismissed callers dial the next number on the search results page. The difference isn’t the price you gave. It’s whether the call moved forward or stalled out.

The shops that win price-shopper calls aren’t the ones with the lowest number. They’re the ones who turn “how much” into a real conversation before the caller has a chance to hang up.

Wirewoman handles the price question the way you tell her to: your minimums, your ranges, your rules for when to quote and when to book an estimate instead. She asks the two questions that turn a cold price call into a scheduled job, every time, not just when someone’s having a good day. See how it works, or set yours up on the demo line.