Solvari alternative
When comparing is the product, you always sell on price.
Solvari and other quote comparison sites promise the consumer exactly one thing: several quotes side by side. That is not a side effect of the model, it is the model. Fine for the customer. For you it means walking into a conversation that is already about price before you have said a word. This page covers what that costs, and the only way to structurally get out of it.
Where comparison pins you down
01
The customer was promised a comparison
They expect several quotes, so they wait for them. Even if you are the best, your price spends a week on the kitchen table next to two others.
02
Your difference does not fit the format
What sets you apart, twenty years of experience, your finish, how you solve a problem, does not fit on a quote line. The amount does.
03
The effect outlasts the job
Months of comparison enquiries teach you to quote sharper than you want. You carry that level into your own customers, and lose margin you could have kept.
Side by side
What the customer expects
Through a comparison site
Several quotes, they were promised
Owned system
A conversation with you, they picked you
When you appear
Through a comparison site
As one option, alongside the rest
Owned system
First, with the conversation in your hands
What you compete on
Through a comparison site
The number at the bottom
Owned system
Your work, reviews and response time
Cost per won job
Through a comparison site
Every enquiry you lost, plus quoting time
Owned system
A fixed fee across more won jobs
What you own after a year
Through a comparison site
Revenue
Owned system
Revenue, plus visibility and a customer list
Who gets the next job
Through a comparison site
Whoever responds at that moment
Owned system
You, because they have your details
The margin you do not see leaving
The cost of comparison is not on your invoice, it is in your rate. Say competitive pressure makes you quote five percent lower than you would like. On two hundred thousand in revenue that is ten thousand a year, before you have spent a cent on enquiries. That figure is almost always larger than the enquiry fees themselves. Run it against your own revenue and the percentage you drop when you know two others are bidding.
Run it with your own numbersWhen a comparison site is the right place
- On large one-off projects where the customer will compare anyway. Better to be in the running.
- When you have capacity that would otherwise sit idle and the margin on an extra job is still positive.
- When you are testing a new region or service and do not want to invest in visibility there yet.
- What you should not do in any of those cases: build your baseline workload on it. Then the comparison rate sets your entire price level.
Questions
Questions about switching
Start by seeing what you pay per won job.
In a twenty minute demo we run the numbers on your current pipeline and show what an owned system changes. No pitch, just your figures.
Book a free demo