-
Advertising Trailer Price
We have a customer who wants one of those tow along trailers lettered with a Full Colour Print to the sides and back.
The panels are wooden painted
Sizes are 140" x 80" 2off
and a small triangular one on the back.
I am having difficulty pricing this as it is a throw away week only thing.Help Me
SC
-
17 Replies
-
I am having difficulty pricing this as it is a throw away week only thing.
Yes but your time & your business isn’t you have to treat it like any other job and just reduce the cost by using cheaper short life materials.
Kev
-
Let us just say my customer who we get a lot of work has just had a quote for absolute peanuts for this job.
Don’t want to lose all his work but this is an absolute p*** take of a price.
Just wondering what the rest of you guys would quote such a job including setting artwork which may take a couple of hours.
Something stinks big time.
I don’t mind a bit of competition but when price wars start, people go under and in this economic climate we should be charging to make a profit not to buy work.SC
-
that’s what sounds like is happening, he can probably see the potential for more work so has gone in dirt cheap to get a foot in the door.
It happens all the time mate and I’m not sure you can do anything about it. You might have to make the customer aware of what they might be doing and you could do the same with the promise of more work, it’s all risk taking at the end of the day and you win some and lose some.
it happens and it sucks but what can you do 😕
-
Yeah it sucks.
Wonder if they realise how much it sucks when there new supplier cannot meet their deadlines and I am not willing either. LOL (:)
SC
-
quote HEYSKULL:Yeah it sucks.Wonder if they realise how much it sucks when there new supplier cannot meet their deadlines and I am not willing either. LOL (:)
SC
That’s when you charge them more 😉 I’ve done it in the past…. I’ve even done the work in advance knowing they will be round with limited time to spare begging for the work to be done
-
What was most annoying about this job is I discounted it big time it was charged in reality about 2/3 of what it was worth. Then they get a price which is 2/3 the cost of mine!!!
And they got it done for wait for it…………..£130!!!!!SC 🙄
-
Really annoying when this happens, and it happens a lot lately.
Depending how much this client gives you in a year, if it is a good earner, and steady reliable work, I’d look at matching the other guys price.
Sure you are going to make no money on this job, but it will stop them giving this other guy a foot in the door.
Then, make up the loss over the next few jobs you do elsewhere. I’d print it in promo grade material, unlaminated.
I had a very large contract that other sign shops were always trying to undercut me on, but I have a policy that I don’t charge for personal work that the clients may want done (graphics for the car or a for sale signs etc…) amazing how loyal some of my customers are in that situation 😛
Seriously though. If it were a one off, I’d do it for nothing, as long as they are a good regular customer. It makes you look a hero, and the other guy hasn’t got a chance. Tell them your doing it as a favour for giving you so much work.
Just a thought. 😉
-
I discount a lot for this customer and they get there fair share of freebies and FOC jobs.
This is no one of job either and by the time you design it, print it and apply it there is a complete day gone.
Today I worked 30 minutes and 1 Metre of material and made the equivalent of what they want to pay on this whole day job.Here in the UK there is very little customer loyalty (this is my view over 23 years in the trade), customers no longer realise how much work can be involved in creating them an image. And it is so easy to take it to someone else and get it cheaper without remembering all the other bits we do for them.
Sorry for going on about this but it really gets me going when they come crawling back 2 months later.
SC
(hot)
-
quote HEYSKULL:customers no longer realise how much work can be involved in creating them an image. And it is so easy to take it to someone else and get it cheaper without remembering all the other bits we do for them. (hot)
amen to that! I find the same here.
I agree 100% as to what you say.
Is the customer worth keeping then? You may be better letting him go and concentrating on getting someone else that appreciates your effort.
The problem I see after 15 or so years in the trade, is that people have a computer, they probably own Corel, they think they have pretty good design skills, so they think…. how hard can it be!
I did a quote for a franchise recently, and was told I was 15% dearer than my other competitor. I had already discounted it enough , to my way of thinking, for the continual work.
They finished up going with a window tinter who had purchased his own cutter. This bloke broke all the ‘design rules’ plus he used standard PC fonts that were stretch badly, to fit the spaces.
My artwork was laid up on a proper vehicle outline, to scale. Took me a few hours. The other guys layup was on a box drawing… looked awful.
I got the job to actually do one of the vehicles the other day, as the franchise owner has been a client of mine in another business for years. I had to copy the final design off a photo.
I would have done it way differently, but I charged my original quote, and the client was happy to pay, because he wanted a professional to do the job, and not a window tinter.
End of the day, if your client is only interested in price, and doesn’t value your input or professionalism, he doesn’t deserve anything but a basic service.
If you can’t provide the job in his price range, dump him and move on. Its hard to do, I have been faced with the dilemma a few times. The peeps on here have given me good advice like this in the past, and although I was hesitant at first, I must confess that the advice was good.
Keep up the good work mate. Hang in there. As the economic crunch gets worse, and it will get worse, we’ll be faced with these issues more and more I’m afraid
Shane
-
Fire the client. We’ve done this lately with clients wanting cheaper prices. We had one customer the other day haggle us over two vinyl cut jobs. She said she could get them from other people for half the cost. So I told her why she was wasting my time. Anyways she replies shes happy to get them from us she wants a proof. This was just simple Arial text. Anyways back and fourth 3-4 times with changes she wants to the text.
Two days pass and I hear nothing. I’m not worried I hate cut vinyl jobs. We get an email from another company requiring a price for a cut vinyl job. You wouldn’t believe what file was attached. The file I had layed out.
We ring our original client and ask what was going on. They apparently wanted to onsell these things. My brother informed her we don’t do spec work. She replied with the usual don’t you want my business etc etc. She then asked my brother if he knew anyone he could recommend before he informed her that she already had people that would do it for half the price.
The problem they now have is that they also get there printing from us and we were the cheapest they found for certain items. If they ever came back to us for printing stuff there prices just went up.
Some people don’t appreciate the time it takes to do any job.
-
quote HEYSKULL:And they got it done for wait for it…………..£130!!!!!i wouldn’t do one side never mind the whole trailer for that.
tell him to go and get it done by this company, then give you their number so you can sub all your work to them too because they are so cheap. 🙄
if he was genuinely happy with this company and their prices they wouldn’t have come back to you. ide say he is calling your bluff, call his now and walk away. if he doesnt come back you werent going to make much, if anything from him anyway.
-
quote :Fire the clienti do like that phrase but don’t we have to give them 3 written warnings first 😀
if the print area was 10 x 4 could just understand it cheep vinyl very fast and poor print quality but that was a odd size.
move on
enjoy
-
I was in the exact same situation, done loads of work for the local newspaper for years. They bought an A trailor and we were doing the job but buying in the prints from another local company. To cut a long story short I was put in a position that I had to tell my customer where I was getting the prints from. Bad move that, I should have stuck to my guns whatever, but that’s water under the bridge now. As you could guess my customer started going direct to my supplier.
When I eventually bought my own printer, I approached my customer again with a new price to do the job only to be told I was to expensive. WTF? So I went away and sharpened my pencil, came back with a lower price, and was again told they were getting it "MUCH CHEAPER". So I put in another price that just covered the cost of the vinyl print, I was willing to fit it for nothing (half a days work). Needles to say I was still too expensive.
I was pulling my hair out trying to get my customer back so I put my customer in the same corner she put me in and asked her what she was paying. Well I was gobsmacked, I know what machine my competitor was using and knew how much per sq meter it costs to produce a print and the bu££ers were charging not only below cost but obviously fitted it for free as well. How on earth does this company make money. (hot) (:) (chat.)
I have now given up with this customer and use my time getting profitable work rather worrying about work that I can’t get and if I did I wouldn’t make any money. I know it hurts but just move on. -
Exactly what Mike says. Bend over backwards for clients that help you make money not the ones that want it for free.
There is always a difference between donating and working for free. One of them usually gets you a benefit in return and one doesn’t.
-
quote Jason Xuereb:Fire the client.I’ve got to agree.
I know that it can be difficult to turn down a job, especially when you are just starting out, or an established business going through a quiet patch but, honestly, rather than work for nothing, your time would be better spent chasing higher quality clients. Let’s face it, if there’s no profit, then your time would be just as productive if you stayed in bed!
The ones I hate are those who come in wanting a cheap job saying that they haven’t got much to spend on a sign. Why they think that should be my problem I’ll never know. I just don’t understand why they think I would reduce my own income just to increase theirs.
-
My Personal Mantra is "don’t work harder work Smarter"
Your better off concentrating on the profitable customers and firing the non profitable ones.
If it was me I would go through my list of the crappiest, most pain in the ass customers I have and have wanted to get rid of. Then recommended they go to the competitor who is shoving out stuff below cost. It would be a win win situation you will get rid of the crap customers and your competitor would go out of business quicker. Win win.
Word it something like. I have noticed your more interested in Cost than quality, our Customer service goes over and beyond what other shops offer, in and doing that would would like to recommend you try XYZ for a quote, we hear that are producing stuff at a cheap price.
Hell why not call them and sub out to them. If they genuinely can produce it cheaper than your cost. why not try it.
Then you can concentrate more time on the good customers.
-
Just did a sign and fitted today. Customer changed his mind a couple of times on the fitting as I was going to ‘supply only’ as i was charging too much for the fitting. Got a call yesterday to supply and fit, no problem job done at 7am this morning. Went round at 10 with the invoice and as I walked in he presentd me with a cheque………….He was gobsmacked when I told him to rip it up as I fitted quicker than the estimate and only charged what I worked…………..Got more work there and then on the back of that!!!
I will never under cut on price or compromise quality. I will match like for like as long as it is not a bad choice of materials e.g. using coloured foamex in a high sun aspect that has to last for 7 years!!!! Daft, but Ive had those quotes to beat too…….All I can do is explain and its either can you do the job, or I see them a few months later holding back the "told you so" smug comment!!!!
Its like the conversation:
1. This year Ill double my prices….
2. But you’ll loose half your customers…….
1. yeh, but Ill get the same money for doing half the work!!!!
Log in to reply.