Latest brief
From Brief 04 · August 11, 2026 · 2 min read
They already have an answer. Yours is a second opinion.
The lead comes in Tuesday afternoon. You open it expecting two lines about the furnace and a request to send somebody out.
It's three paragraphs. What the noise sounds like, when it started, what they think it is, what they've read the part goes for. Near the bottom they've worked out that on a unit that age it might not be worth doing at all — which is what you'd have told them, standing in the basement.
They didn't pay anybody to do that. They sat down one evening, described what’s happening to an AI, exchanged a few follow-ups, and this came back.
They want to know what you think.
· · ·
The Verdict
Two changes to the first conversation. Neither costs a dollar.
Find out what they already think the job is and what it should cost — and where that came from. Before anyone in your business says a word about the work.
Then don't leave it at needing to look. Tell them their read is reasonable. Name the two or three things that decide this job, that nobody can call without eyes on it, and what each one changes if it goes the other way.
Everyone they contact is getting the same rundown. Some will argue with it, and they'll all say they’ll have to come out and look. The one who tells them, before anyone's been out, what the customer's answer couldn't account for is the one who's obviously done this before.