Bill BrownFounder of ServiceTitan Hacks community (9k+ pros) | INC 5000 Contractor | Helping contractors win with AI & Automation

Why Contractors Fear Online Pricing #shorts

6 Aug 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:06

In this YouTube short, Bill Brown reflects on how his generation expects to see pricing information online before contacting a service provider. He notes that while some contractors embrace publishing prices, many react negatively and view it as controversial. Brown draws a parallel to the auto industry’s experience in 2012 when manufacturers began showing online prices, which was initially feared as a "race to the bottom" but ultimately did not lead to the expected price wars. The discussion highlights generational shifts in buyer behavior, contractor resistance to price transparency, and the broader industry implications of publishing prices online.

Chapters

I feel that my generation will be the new type of buyer. And I, you know, thought about that many years ago. Why do they not have prices online for this? And whenever I shop for anything, I always wanted pricing, maybe not exact pricing, but something that would give me an idea. So I felt educated before I, you know, called somebody. So when I made that post, and I do a post like this every couple years because it gets crazy engagement. Yeah, I get some contractors that love it. Oh, we've done it forever. We do great. And then some that just hate it and freak out and go and get really like upset about it. Right. It's so controversial to put pricing online. I wonder if all industries have gone through this, like if the auto industry did that too, right? The auto industry did. 2012. They probably freaked out, right? Yeah. When it came to that.
They thought it was a race to the bottom. They thought that as soon as, you know, Matt Krestroushi, Ford, would show that it's $5,000, someone else would show $4,999 and they would never see that customer again. And that's the opposite of what happened. But yeah, it's such a controversial subject.