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What's your approach to pricing complex or uncertain jobs?

Keiko Tanaka

We're seeing an increase in jobs where the full scope isn't clear until we're on-site—older systems, hidden damage, customer uncertainty about what they actually need. This creates tension between wanting to win the work and protecting margin.

I'm interested in how your teams structure pricing for this scenario. Specifically:

  • Do you lead with time-and-materials, or do you find ways to cap exposure while still quoting?
  • How do you communicate uncertainty to customers without undermining confidence?
  • What percentage of your revenue now sits in this "discovery" category?

Our current approach is creating friction between sales and operations. Sales wants to commit; operations wants contingency. I'd like to understand how others have resolved this tension.

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  • We struggled with this until we reframed it for the team: quoting with confidence doesn't mean quoting with certainty.

    Our approach now:

    1. Maximum exposure pricing — "Worst case, this costs X. If we find it's simpler, you'll pay less."

    2. Go/no-go checkpoints — Customer approves each phase before we proceed

    3. Discovery credit — If they proceed with the full project, we credit the diagnostic fee

    The team was skeptical but our close rate actually improved. Customers appreciate having guardrails.

    Keiko — the sales-operations tension you mentioned is real. We resolved it by giving sales a "complex job playbook" with pre-approved language and escalation triggers. They're not guessing anymore.

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  • We struggled with this until we reframed it for the team: quoting with confidence doesn't mean quoting with certainty.

    Our approach now:

    1. Maximum exposure pricing — "Worst case, this costs X. If we find it's simpler, you'll pay less."

    2. Go/no-go checkpoints — Customer approves each phase before we proceed

    3. Discovery credit — If they proceed with the full project, we credit the diagnostic fee

    The team was skeptical but our close rate actually improved. Customers appreciate having guardrails.

    Keiko — the sales-operations tension you mentioned is real. We resolved it by giving sales a "complex job playbook" with pre-approved language and escalation triggers. They're not guessing anymore.

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