Almost nobody calls a pool builder worried about the price first. Most people are worried about being left mid-project, or about the number moving on them halfway through. The questions below are the ones that actually predict which of those you are going to get.
What actually drives this
Ask a contractor directly how they handle a surprise, a bad soil condition, a permit hiccup, before you sign anything. How a company handles the surprise tells you more than any portfolio photo does. A contractor who has a plain answer, and a track record of calling with real updates rather than staying quiet, is a different bet than one who promises nothing will go wrong.
Watch for a bid that looks unusually low next to other quotes for the same scope. Lowballing the initial bid and making it back on change orders once a client is already committed is a real practice in this industry, and it is worth asking directly whether a quoted range includes contingency for site conditions that only show up once work starts. The FTC's consumer guide to hiring a contractor covers this same pattern and is worth reading before you sign anything.
Also ask who is actually on site day to day, and whether the person who walks the property and designs the project is the same person who stays on it through the final walkthrough, or whether it gets handed off along the way. Ask, too, to see the actual license number and check it directly against the Arizona Registrar of Contractors rather than taking a business card's word for it.
A rough range or answer for this business
Ask about surprise-handling, ask why a bid looks the way it does compared to others, and ask who stays on the job start to finish. A contractor with a straight answer to all three is worth far more than one with the lowest number. For a sense of what a straight answer on price actually looks like, see how much a pool project in Scottsdale really costs.
See how Larkspur runs a project, read about Marcus's own background, or book a walk-through to ask these questions directly.