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Learning what the competition charges locally
Learning what the competition charges locally… the only methods I can think of are:
1) playing mystery caller
2) asking customers who else has quoted for the job and what they quoted
3) calling in on them and seeing if they are open to discussing their pricingbut each of these have their own pro’s and con’s and are potentially prone to being unreliable.
Obviously this is probably more important/critical when setting up, but should also be something considered by established businesses as a continual process.
So what do you do or have you done to establish your pricing levels in relation to local competition?
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4 Replies
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I have a pretty good relationship with 1 local comapny as I worked there as a teenybopper. Anyway, we have discussed pricing once or twice. Mainly because I don’t want to drive the local prices down (because I could) and also because I value his opinion on pricing things at the right level.
He dosn’t mind my questions as he is a much bigger outfit than I, with a very large customer base, so I’m never going to be a threat.I think it’s important to keep abreast of the going rate.
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"I think it’s important to keep a rate of the going breast."
I gotta agree wif ya Andy
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I always ask what people pay for signage, in conversation.
A good person to ask is your sign supplier rep. They are talking to other sign shops all the time, and have a good idea what the going rate is in the area.
But, as I say, if I’m at a prospective clients job that is looking for new signage, I’ll always ask what they paid for the old signage, or I’ll ask them if I’m in the ball park to other quotes they may have.
Have to take that with a grain of salt tho, coz some people will reduce the other quote by a % to drive your price down.
Other thing I ask them up front is what is their budget. I tell them I’m not in the business to stuff them around as their time is obviously as valueable as mine. If you say it in the right tone, most people are pretty honest, and will let you know the anount of money they want to spend. Most people hate the quote process, and take evry opportunity to shorten it if they can.
You can decide if it is in your price range.
Thats how I do it anyway, and it works for me. Hope that helps
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I think most people buy signs so infrequently they don’t know what a fair price really is, and it can very from place to place. If they are going to buy from the cheapest source than we don’t generally chase that business.
there are several factors involved in pricing one is accurately understanding the customers real requirements not necessarily their spoken or written ones. I am sure we have all driven past signs where we quoted and the sign they have in place looks nothing like the one we quoted for.
It is more important to build up a trust with them and help them buy the right sign for their specific business. Signage is such good value for money compared to other forms of advertising that they are going to get a good long-term deal anyway.
in terms of competitive pricing, I think you get a feel for this by how busy (or not) you are. It is more important to be comparative equal to direct competitors ie We know the guy working out of a garage will always beat us on price and we don’t chase his custom and he plots on a 610 plotter uses foam-ex and it shows, ditto we know we can beat the much larger companies but cannot provide the entire service such as multiple roll-outs that they can.
Accurate quoting is the black art of the business and two different people will quote the same ‘client specification’ in a totally different way and will take a different view on how long it will take to make and fit etc.
Perhaps that is where the real effort should be put in, re-examining the quotes you did succeed with and checking how accurate you were on materials and labour used versus the forecast etc. That way you can adjust accordingly so that in the long-term your profit and business forecasts will be more accurate. just a thought (-)
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