So I have a house & garage that is a total of 3600sqft 1 story street side 3 stories all other sides due to walkout. Backside has deck across the back. Typical dirt. It turned out beautiful! He thought it turned out fantastic but thought we were a bit expensive…which I kinda take things personally…so now Im second guessing my price. There was 120LF gutters, and deck washing totaling 775sqft (general). Im at $.20 per sqft for softwashing and $.54 on the deck. I offered gutter brightening for free if purchased with the other services. What would you price it at? I was $1150. I did find an issue with the house while I was there. I notified the customer as a courtsey and he asked me to go back and fix. It took 2 of us 1 hr to fix and I charged $70So am I too high, …be honest!
ack!!! wrong part of the forum…sorry
I am higher than other window cleaners in my state. I have not had a problem dealing with it either. If you offer a service and deliver outstanding results, don’t question yourself. There are so many more clients out there for the taking.
I cleaned a home for a client last year (large home with all true divided glass) that had yet to have a ccu(after a few years of being lived in). He had been dissatisfied with the results of his last two window cleaners and rightfully so. The windows looked like they had never been cleaned. He hired me, the windows looked perfect when I was finished, and the client(and wife) were blown away seeing the full potential of their clean glass(total cost of cleaning was over $1500.00 for 2 days).
I called him this spring to let him know I was scheduling this years calendar and he asked what the price would be this year. I let him know that now that the windows are ready to be maintained I would discount future cleanings by $250.00. He politely let me know that he and his wife could not swallow paying a window cleaner that kind of money an hour. For me that was a compliment and not taken personally.
You are gonna do just fine. Just stay focused on the quality of your work and the money your clients pay you will be well worth it to them.
I am amazed how it’s such a national disease for people to say “pricey”, “seems kinda high”, “more than I was expecting”
either the general customer expects we work for wages (low wages) or that we can run a company on $13hr year round
I would like to know [B][I][U]exactly what[/U][/I][/B] our prices are being compared to?
customer’s salary and wage?
$10hr housekeepers?
the neighborhood “kid”'s price?
their lack of investigation?
current economy/looking for desperate deals/wheelin and dealin?
their total ignorance of what’s involved?
their lack of regard for the industry in general?
the last guy newbie ignorant price? or their friends?
the wrong people/market looking for a window cleaner?
why do so many expect window cleaning to be min wage rock bottom?
they don’t view a solo guy as a business and think he’s got all that moolah to himself and sits around the rest of the day?
speculations . . . anyone? anyone?
[MENTION=3314]kevin[/MENTION] [MENTION=3418]michaelmole[/MENTION]
this feature thing is cool
I’m at about $.10/SF for soft washing. $200 minimum
I am [MENTION=112]panelessperfection[/MENTION], actually 
[MENTION=6555]aberg[/MENTION]: [B]If your client has issues with a window cleaner earning more money than him, then you can’t do much about that. You can’t fix him.[/B]
Smiling and moving on is the best bet. Don’t sweat it.
[I]Don’t let clients like this hang a new (reduced) price tag around your neck.[/I]
Please also bear in mind that there is no such thing as the “correct” price for anything.
There is only relativity.
That being said, look for ways to deliver more value than your competition does, and you remove comparisons forever.
their lack of investigation?
current economy/looking for desperate deals/wheelin and dealin?
their total ignorance of what’s involved?
their lack of regard for the industry in general?
[MENTION=1377]Bruce[/MENTION]
I think it it these factors primarily the last one
thanks, yes just looking for others input from their perspective
relativity is a killer, which is kind of like saying one gets commoditized.
I am working on a specific funnel, its in development, but it is very clear to me now when someone has dropped into the process from another angle at this point, very interesting to how well a funnel can prime the pump, but yes, that funnel needs uniqueness
That’s why as a shopper I say “that sounds expensive” and “wow! I wasn’t expecting it to be that much” all the time to see if a business will come down on price. Hey it works a lot! Last week I got Lowes to drop $250 off a pressure washer by dickering with them and I just recently bought a motorcycle and go the people to knock $500 bucks off it (it was already priced below book value).
So, I guess I’m saying that some people (like me) are gonna always be looking for a freebie or lower price (notice I didn’t say lowest price). We are going to ask because we hate to give away money if someone is willing to come down. That doesn’t make us bad people or evil minded for wanting to make sure we are getting the best price possible. Often when a company won’t come down on price, I use them anyway if they are who I want, but I still ALWAYS ask for a lower price.
Me, too.
That’s just being a smart consumer.
How do you respond when that is said to you regarding your buisness?
I totally feel for you. I too instinctively take it personally if someone sees my prices as expensive (like today in an email that I received)
I think if we are getting all of our estimates we are underpriced. If we aren’t getting any jobs from estimates, we are overpriced. If we are getting some and not others…we are doing just fine.
[MENTION=167]Steve[/MENTION]
reframe it
if this is true with anyone under the sun who contacts you, then think if you were totally geared for whatever is your ideal client, wouldn’t the goal be to get 99% then?
If price is out of the conversation, why are they picking you? then work with that angle
as Kevin and others have said, price becomes the focal point in the absence of any other compelling reason why you are the one and only choice for them.
letting a mix match of responders set your price is “wagging the dog”, if you look at “what the price should be” as the end rather than the beginning of the price setting process, then you are the one in creative control of your business
otherwise the market sets the price based on a lack of differentiation, which always is a race to the bottom (20 windows $20, no me!! 20 windows $189, no me me me!! 20 windows $169 and on and on till some looney tune is doing homes for free)
My post from another thread:
make a list of what all your local competitors are saying, I bet you will be surprised how many are saying the same laundry list of repeated thoughts with different words
here’s the Seth Godin Boring List of window cleaning:
We’re #1!
insured
booties
employees background checked
best service
lowest prices
highest quality
longest rain guarantee
locally owned and operated
we’re the biggest
we’re the smallest
no hidden fees
most professional (even the youngest of upstarts can have great design printed pieces, new truck with a wrap, a mobile phone, a website - this word has no meaning anymore now that 1985 has passed, lol)
blabbity blah blah blah . . . yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn (Seth Godin article reference)
no one owns any of those words in the customer’s mind, they just list eveything under the sun,
“here mr customer here’s the same 50 reasons everyone else is saying why you should hire them, and . . . . . . . that’s exactly why you should hire us at a higher price.”
(said like Chris Farley would have on an SNL skit)
Doh!!
see the problem? See why it ends up at price?
(keep in mind any price even slightly over the lowest is now not theee lowest, you have just lost differentiation)
and who in the world wants to OWN lowest price? yech, it doesn’t get anyone any more business really, just a different market segment one can barely function operating with, if at all
“and if you can’t be the lowEST priced company, what benefit is there to be the second lowest priced?” (Dan Kennedy)
now focus on something that doesn’t exist on that list or isn’t said and build around that
One could argue that the “low price” angle is locked up, so move on, now what can you create?
eliminate everything from the list created as usable, now create.
this is strategy, this is your real job, this is how GIant Corp Inc. works everyday. Did Apple make just another personal computer or just another mobile phone?
easy? Heck no!
Possible? Without a doubt.
(how’s that for a semester final thesis? ha ha ha)
[MENTION=112]panelessperfection[/MENTION] [MENTION=3164]bc window cleaning[/MENTION] [MENTION=3418]michaelmole[/MENTION]
Yup.
You (we) are not in the window cleaning business at all, you’re (we’re) in the marketing business.
Well, where to start? I don’t have one standard answer because there are several ways to handle a price objection when selling. The first step is find out what the customer means by “too expensive.” Can they not afford it, can they get it cheaper somewhere else, do they just not like me, are they just not convinced yet, or do they not perceive the value? Any or all of these might be the actual reason for the objection.
My standard response is “Mr. Customer, would you chose my company to do your XXXXX if the price was lower?” assuming he/she says yes, double qualify him/her by asking “So, you mean other than the price, there is no reason we can’t do business?” If he/she says yes then I find out how far apart we are by asking "in your mind what would you be willing to pay highly trained professionals who "show up on time, take care of your XXXX, have insurance and (list some key benefits of doing business with you but don’t overdo it)?
Depending on what they say here I might negotiate a price reduction based on future business or offer a money back guarantee by saying something like "Mrs. Prospect, since we are only really talking $100 here and I’m so sure you’re going to love your clean shiny windows when we are done, I’ll make you a deal. We will come clean your windows and if you still think our price is too high, I’ll meet you halfway and reduce the price by 50 bucks, fair enough?
If they still say no, then there is probably another reason. But if they say OK, there is very little chance they will have the courage to ask for the $50 off after they see how hard we worked and how good everything looks.
There’s a lot more that could be said about handling price objections and everybody has a different way but that’s how I usually do it, unless they think the price is like 20 bucks too high and then I’ll probably just drop it so they can feel like they won something (some people have to feel they “won” when buying). I’ll make it up somewhere else, so I’m not too worried about it.
One more thing. The problem with most of us is that we immediately get offended and start justifying our price when instead we should be asking questions.
I wouldn’t worry about it. People are built now (with the “bad economy” mindset) to shop according to price. Lower price = better. We all know low price means there is something missing.
People have been trying to use this “bad economy” mindset to their advantage - “with the economy the way it is I’ll be able to get a lower price because people are desperate for work” and to a point theyre right. But those lowballers, bottom feeder companies don’t last long. My suggestion is charge as much as you need to to pay yourself a salary, pay your overhead and start growing your business. If you don’t you will paint yourself into a corner very quickly because you’ll be leaving the door open for someone who gets it to move right in (like me) and start charging double your price and grow my business extremely fast because I can. I know how to market it and get great results.
First things first - change your mindset. Your prices are pricey because it’s what you charge to stay in business. Someone wants to have mediocre results and pay less tell them to call someone else, we tell people that all the time. They always end up booking with us even though we’re 50% higher than most of the guys who are around us.
Well said.
Most customers don’t choose to have use my company based on price. Most of my business is referral based so we are chosen because they can trust us. As a business owner, my mindset towards what I do has changed tremendously over the past 4 years (Much credit to wcr forum members). I know a lot of you guys have the attitude that business is business (nothing personal)…but I survive in this business because of the relationships I have built. So as much as I admire the ability to not take it personally when a person questions my pricing, I don’t see a way that I won’t take it personal. It is personal. They are making a judgement about my economic worth and that doesn’t sit well with me. I’m not sure if I fully explained myself the way I wanted to…but I think you guys will get the point. However, I continue to read, and learn, and change…so who knows. Maybe in one more year I will be the emotionally detached business lady that I long to be.
rather than looking at it as a judgement about your economic worth, reframe it by looking at it as your economic worth isn’t standing out or being communicated well enough to the customer, then re-evaluate all the touch points thru the customers eyes again and see how you can improve things
of course a mismatched customer will never see worth, so better identifying the type of customer is in order too
nah, you won’t be emotionally attached, it’s who you are, nothing wrong with that, but you may learn how to manage those feelings better
