I will gladly pound my chest and say my prices are my prices. I’ve been in business long enough to know that every time I have come off my price it bit me in the butt. Also knowing that I’m looking for clients who are willing to pay my price for my service not the coupon clipping customer who will shop around every time and will have no loyalty. Our entire business has been built by word of mouth. We don’t advertise so if a person that I’ve never done business with calls me it is because they were given my name from a previous client. You drop the price for one then they tell all their friends and you always have to bid expected to negotiate. It’s to aggravating. I use it to my advantage because they know they are getting my best price upfront. It works well for me so I’ll keep on doing it.
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Theres a lot of people that want something extra off from whatever price you give them.
Or they say, too much… I’ll pay this much.
I dont get them that often, but when I do I look them in the eye, confidently, and say
This is my price, the price is…
I appreciate you may have a limited budget to stick too, so I’d be happy to reduce the scale of work, to fit your budget if you like. So you only want to pay $300, sure no problem I wont do $50 worth of work, so which windows would you like me to leave out?
If they say, no they want it all done for $300.
I normally say, I can see this is not getting anywhere… if you want the full job the price is this, if you want to stick to a budget id be happy to reduce the amount of works to fit.
Please excuse me I have work to be doing, or other clients to get too, have a nice day, if I can be of assistance at a later date here is my card/your quote. (hand over the quote, your biz card or whatever)
I dont have time or the inclination to haggle… and not interested in accepting lower than quoted for the price of a job, for someone that is always going to want something extra for less.
Supply and demand if you are slamming then don’t do it. If it’s slow season an the person wants a discount to feel good here ya go buddy all pal of mine . It Is a first time customer discount. I give it to who I want when I want , and if it lands me a job then fuck it it’s all good [MENTION=6741]wcs[/MENTION] Thanks Steve
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[MENTION=7269]Majestic66[/MENTION], it sounds like he wasn’t talking so much the amount, but dealing with the customer.
This conversation could really go back and forth all day, lol. I think something to consider is work load and employees vs. no employees. Those that have employees to keep busy or are just hungrier for work will need to do more to close more sales. For those of us that don’t have employees, or have a really full schedule even with them, we have the luxury of being a little pickier with who we deal with, and what we’ll put up with.
I guess it’s a customer thing. I have multiple crews so I know a bottom line of what we need to make. My experience in my area is those customers who start with the attitude of haggling will be the ones who once you give in, they will try to get you to throw in a bunch of free crap like screens or sealer for the windows. I’ve had to be very specific on work orders or my guys call me when customers starts adding stuff saying its included. That’s how it bites me in the butt. $20-$30 adds up when you do over 50 jobs
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I hear ya. , but you used an operative word. “Try”. Many of people have tried with me they don’t succeed all the time. “Your going to charge me for that”. " Ya unfortunately I have to"
My point is I know when to give it an when to say beat it. Well I don’t really say it. You know what I mean.
The fact is were dealing with all different kinds of people. Everyone is different. Most of the time you give a price an it’s when can you do it.
I don’t mind the hagglers. I have fun with them sometimes. I know tons of hagglers. I’m good at the game
Comes from my past. An ill just leave it at that lol
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The funny part about this whole haggling thing is … We all haggle or have haggled in our lives. If ya havnt your lying. If you bought a car , an you didint haggle the price then you paid to much
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I’m pretty lax if someone nicely tries to negotiate. A repeat customer is good business.
But for the pushy ones or just the people who are being cheap, I have always tried saying
‘that at the end of the job if it took me longer then I thought would you be willing to negotiate the price up? The number that I give you doesn’t change. So I know exactly what I’m getting into and you know exactly how much it is going to cost. No surprises either side.’
It is part of my sales pitch that they get a firm quote rather then an estimate and it really seems to work well.
Yeah, I’m usually pretty quick witted, but that would probably make me “uh. uuhh…” studder a bit, too.
Oddly enough, I had a similar instance yesterday. I totally forgot until now.
One of the guys was talking about a movie he watch with Sam Jackson.
Couldn’t remember his name, and says “great actor- talks real loud- tall- black male…”
Innocent enough… the actor was basically, not white, not Asian, not Latino, etc…
I felt really weird, like 'what if the cust heard, and got the wrong impression?!?
Not 2 minutes later, the customer is watching some boxing, and says
“this colored guy is gonna get pounded.”
Seriously? “Colored?”
My face looked just like this guy-> :eek:
Yeah, my sales person Nebuchadnezzar will be happy to talk with him. The last person that tried to jew him down, he sent into exile for 70 years. He works part time for me now.
LOL, that sort of stuff kind of cracks me up. Was the “colored” guy boxing a “wetback”? I’ve had some older customers who used “wetback” which is funny to me cuz I’m sort of, you know, mexican.
But I grew up with people using those types of slurs all the time. My grandpa would frequently refer to the illegals that way and african americans were n-word. But unless God just up and created our family out of the dust of northern New Mexico, I’m pretty sure we’re mexican + indian + whatever else might have been wandering around in the hills. He called his sister “apache” cuz he said she looked like one. And you know what, when grandpa got older, HE looked a lot like an apache. I cleaned a house out on one of the pueblos and the old man there looked EXACTLY like a younger version of my grandpa. I was totally trippin.
However grandpa would refer to a specific group in general, he would treat them generously in specific. He might use the n word, but if he heard an african american needed help with their house, he’d round us up and we’d go to work. If someone was having a hard time, we’d butcher a sheep and take the meat over to them. He was always generous.
The phrases don’t bother me but what cracks me up is when you see people trying to backpedal. Use the phrase, I don’t care, but own it like a boss if you’re going to go there and don’t punk out and start stuttering. I think the PC junk annoys me more.
But the “jew down” phrase does bug me more than anything else. I guess it’s because I’ve only recently heard it and makes me want to smack somebody. I’m really tempted to pull them out on it.
“What does ‘jew me down’ mean sir? I don’t understand what it means. Can you explain it? Cuz the main Jew that I know, died for my sins so that I might have eternal life. Gee, are you willing to die for my sins too? I’m just here to clean windows sir…”
Yes this is where I’m a total hypocrite,lol. Especially if it’s for a vehicle. I don’t argue back and forth though and I don’t start off with" I want a better price." I go into it knowing what I want to pay and won’t exceed that number. I learned a long time ago how to negotiate. When the price is given, the first person to speak after that point loses. Try it sometime, give the price and sit quietly and wait, when they speak up, you got them. Smile and then you can up sell them on why it’s that price. I learned that trick from an old salesman who was really good at that.
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No, actually the opponent was named “Silva.”
It’s strange to me that people would use wetback, in an area that would, for lack of better word “have them.”
Meaning, that is not a word that I EVER, and I mean EVER hear. But you do/have.
I would think the proximity and sheer number or relationships would increase sensitivity.
Does this make sense?!?
I was in Arazona a long time ago, and we were smoking a joint with some dudes.
And a guy with me said ‘oh man, I think there is a bean in there.’
[it was like a typical movie, where the record needle scratches into immediate/awkward silence]
One of the locals said “seed, dude… ‘seeds’.”
We had NO IDEA, we always heard the term beans, because they looked like beanstalk beans, whatever.
Truth be told, once it was explained to me, it was the ONLY reason I know that term exists.
it’s honestly never said around me.
Incidentally, I never knew, thought or cared that you were Mexican.
Just ‘my boy Jared.’
2 weeks in a row I got:
"I’ve had my windows done in the past for $200"
“oh really… Who cleaned them?”
“There was 2 Mexicans. I can’t find their number”
… I definitely don’t budge a price with that. The customer has sticker shock but why should I lose money because of some no tax paying, no insurance workers who do $200 jobs that should be $400. The latest of those 2 convos I got the job but they were the ones that compromised…
“We’ll just do the upstairs windows then” (which was a $200 value)
