Shaking off not getting a job

I was cleaning the windows of a country club last week and had a husband and wife approach me about cleaning their windows. They wanted an estimate on their house. They had 68 windows, all casements. Almost no ladder work. They insides had a french/cut up insert that would need to be removed.

My quote was $250 for the ins/outs cleaned along with the screens scrubbed and the sills wiped down.

Then he wanted a price for just the outsides. My quote was $130.

He said thanks, and could not get off the phone with me fast enough. It is obvious he will not be calling me back. He did tell me when he first asked me for the estimate that he had a squeegee and he used to do the house himself. Maybe he was thinking that was too much.

I guess I just have to shake it off. This was the first estimate I gave where I did not get the house.

Get used to it. You won’t get every job and if you do, your doing something wrong!

There are so many factors in biding. They may have just been curious. Heck it might have not been high enough, some believe in the get what you pay for idea. You might still get it. No worries though. There isn’t a company in excistance that has a 100% close rate for the entire time they were in business.

Ever go fishing and not catch a fish? sure your a little bummed but you accept it as a possibility and you know there are more fish to be cought.

With everyone out of work, and bums working for cheap I hardly land a fraction of the estimates I give anymore. You can usually sight a price shopper right away. Oh well…

My advice is to raise your prices if this is the first time you have not booked a job after providing an estimate.

There’s alot of glass out there…

+1…

68 casements for your price is quite low in my opinion

I have ID’ed my perfect customers and I am completely fine when the shoppers and homeowners that follow me around every room turn down my quote.

I land around 60% of my jobs.

Umm I just bid a house with 128 casements today at $10 a pop with the screens included and the people didn’t blink, booked on the spot.
Your prices need to go up even if you aren’t going to get the job, $4/window is WAY too cheap. On jobs that small if they want an outside only price I tell them 70% of the total in/out price.
If you are in business for yourself earn a rate to increase your business otherwise you might as well go work for someone else at $15-$20/hr.
But hey, what do I know.

I am constantly amazed at who will and won’t book you. The elderly couple who you expect to be crushed and heartbroken because you can’t do their 20- 6 over 6 double-hungs with storms for $100 might just say “go ahead, we have to get them done” for your price of $560. Or the person with a 6000 ft. contemporary who has to think about whether it’s worth shelling out $125 minimum to do the outsides of a few high windows and a handful of casements and doors.
You never know.
Like Larry y say - there is a lot of glass out there.

That is waaaaay low.
I think you underpriced yourself out of a job.

Instead of feeling bummed out about not getting this job you need to raise prices until you’re landing no more than 50-60% of them.

I got one for ya…
Had a customer call me for a quote on their new home. Their old home was 4000/sqft with true-divided lights and plate glass casements and doors. I charged $550.00 for in/out on that home. Their new home is a $2.8 million, 10000/sqft monster with all true-divided lights on every window and door. My bid was $1050.00 for in/out. The wife told me her husband wanted a second quote. I was a little surprised but what could I say? I just got an email from her saying she got a quote of $425.00 for in/out. That’s less then my in/out on their old house. Those guys are going to work for their money…

First of all, +2

Secondly, this is an impressive number, Seth. It shows self-discipline, and a substantial amount of guts. I love it.

It’s also an amazing way to build a solid, profitable base of clients from day one.

I also think that some people want to know what they have saved by doing it themselves. It just makes them feel good to save the money and actually motivate them to get off the couch and clean the windows themselves.

Steve

I had 2 of those cases in the last couple of days, they wanted to know why it was so much more money. So I explained to them, of course you will get different prices for what seems to be the same end result. McDonalds sells coffee, and its quite good too, but most of us prefer to go to the Coffee Bean or Starbucks to get our coffee don’t we? I do. The reason why I do, is because the staff love their job and are friendly, the place has a great atmosphere and its clean. The people that go there are different as well, a higher class really. I will gladly pay 6 dollars for the same cup of coffee I could have gotton at Mickey Dees.

I landed both of those jobs.

That happened to me just last week. He wanted to know how much to pay his son to do the job.

haha, kinda funny.

I actually call other local WC companies and try to figure out how they handle their sales calls.

I never have them come to any locations, but see if they will provide an over the phone estimate.

Never hurts to understand your competition.

I try not to ‘mystery shop’ often, but I can’t say I’ve never done it.

I definitely check out websites, though. (not the google ad, I don’t want to cost them $.)

I click on my local Fish sponsored ad at least 30 times a day to cost them money :slight_smile:

Hey Bud,
Now thats some funny sh!t

Yup I had one of those too…brand new home lots of glass, gave them a quote of around 700 and she called back and said her husbands workers can do it for half…i said let them.

Don’t worry about it. I agree your price is low. 68 casements with screens my price $526 site unseen. A house that has 68 windows is not a small house and them being at a country clubs tells me they have some $$. People like this are just cheap. You dont want them as a client. Let them get their house cleaning service to do it. Many times people like this pay for service work, not cause they don’t have the time, it’s because they either feel the work is below them or just too lazy to take care of their own home. They have money and figure they will pay someone, but they dont like to pay much because in their minds you are not doing something labor intensive, it’s just repetitive monkey work.