When someone tells us they found a cheaper option, the first thing we say is, “Awesome. Tell me about it.”
Not a pitch. Not a rebuttal. Just — tell me about it.
A collision center owner told us he was looking at one of those cheap DIY plans where he’d do everything himself. So we asked him something. If we got in a wreck and went down to Harbor Freight and grabbed a buffing tool and some bondo — how does he think it would look when we’re done?
He smiled. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to flip the script on me.”
We said, “Is there a difference between you doing the website and me doing the collision work?”
That generally lands. It landed with him. He knew the answer before he said it.
He Went With the Cheaper Option Anyway
He did. And we said, “Go for it. That’s not a problem, just make sure they’re fully transparent.”
We never heard from him again. We certainly didn’t call him again — we’re not in the business of bothering people. He never came back to us and we haven’t checked on his website.
We hope he’s doing well. And that’s all there is to it.
There’s no moral to that story. No “and then he came crawling back.” Some people go with the cheaper option and it works out fine. Some don’t. We’re not going to pretend every cheap decision ends badly just because it makes for a better sales pitch. What we will say is this: the analogy landed. He knew it landed. And he went anyway. That’s not a math decision. That’s a gut decision — and sometimes people override their gut because the number is easier to look at than the feeling.
What Your Gut Is Reading That the Quote Isn’t Showing
We never buy the cheapest one. We never buy the most expensive one. That’s just how we operate — at Harbor Freight, at the grocery store, wherever. The only exception is when we’re the expert. We love to cook. We’ve got a $400 Damascus steel knife that we use all the time. But we use it all the time, and we know the difference between that knife and a $30 one. When you’re an expert in a field, you know when to spend.
Most business owners aren’t web design experts. They’re experts in collision repair, or plumbing, or law. So when they’re staring at two web design quotes, they’re doing what we’d do at Harbor Freight — reading the feel of the thing because they don’t have the technical knowledge to evaluate the specs.
That’s not a weakness. That’s a skill.
Here’s the gut test we’d give anyone with two quotes open on their desk: look at the reviews. Not the star count — read them. How do the reviews make you feel? Does the person who wrote that review seem kind of like you? Does it give you the warm fuzzies — or does it seem like some bot wrote it and it’s BS? That read you just did? That’s your gut working. Trust it.
Cheaper doesn’t always mean better. Obviously — that’s a saying for a reason. But sometimes cheaper IS better. It depends. What doesn’t depend is this: if something about the cheaper quote doesn’t feel right and you can’t explain why because maybe they’re saying different things but under the surface you feel something — that feeling is information. It’s not anxiety. It’s not overthinking. It’s your experience telling you something the numbers can’t.
Yeetish Questions
What if the cheaper web designer has good reviews too?
Read the reviews, don’t count them. A company with twelve real reviews from people who sound like you is a better signal than a company with two hundred reviews that read like they were written by the same person. Your gut knows the difference between a real review and a script. Trust that read.
Should I always avoid the cheapest option?
No. Sometimes cheaper is better — it depends on what you need and what you’re getting. The red flag isn’t a low price. The red flag is a low price that you can’t explain. If the quote makes sense and the feeling is clean, go for it. If the quote is low and something feels off, that feeling is worth more than the savings.