Banner Price

[Chris Hooper]

As a base price £200 sounds OK – possibly more if it is a tad more vinyl 2nd colors etc etc.

[Aaron & Chris]

Cheers

We keep getting a bit nervous lately with our prices, for some reason recently we keep getting refused for jobs because our prices are too high but when we work them out they seem fine.

Its getting annoying (hot)

Cheers

Chris

[Chris Hooper]

ITs a difficult one!

When they say you are too expensive ask “compared to what”? If they have a genuine quote and its like for like in materials and specification then you can make an informed choice to beat that price or not. Alternatively if not the same spec or materials or you know that you will do a better job, then sell them on these differences, better quality, quicker etc. At the least you will find out what the local market rates are.

Remember its profit that pays the bill not turnover. I am sure if you ask on the boards you will find that most will tell you that you don’t win them all. I know a print guy who works on the fact that he converts 50% of his estimates he is doing OK – the 50% he wins are really profitable.
Best of luck

CHris

[Aaron & Chris]

Cheers Chris some sound advice.

Gets frustrating when you start losing more than you win. 🙁

Makes us think we are doing something wrong.

Cheers

Chris 😀

[f1graphics]

Chris

The problem you have is that people will price based on producing the Banner digitally.

Price would be around £150

Darren

[Paul Rollason]

Like Chris says

Sell the fact that you use high quality materials 7 year vinyls, banner vinyl on banneres etc.

We lost a job the other day and the client said they could get the job done for half of what we quoted. I now turns out that the price they were quoted did not include fitting.

The job was for an 800mm high logo to be fitted to a curved yacht hull in the water.

I hope they have fun fitting it

paul r

[Chris Wool]

quote :

to be fitted to a curved yacht hull in the water.

fitting straight is a optional extra sir

chris

[Chris Hooper]

Keep it going lads – and stay confident with your pricing – you are in early days yet.

Have three or more good reasons prepared to justify your price.

I bet the banner you were selling is of the best quality – its not going to rip into shreds with the slightest breeze?
I bet it was hemmed – glued and stitched all round – its not going to pull away from the ties or fray in under a week?
I bet you were going to use banner vinyl and not 3 year stuff that will shrink and leave horrible black marks?

The cheapest is not always the best!

[David McPhillips]

Chris you have made my day… sorry mate but i thought i was the only one with this problem and was really having doubts on my pricing, but as stated above i was pricing for good high quality materials as i was wanting to build up a good reputation for high quality signage.

Having lost more jobs than i was winning i started going and looking at these customers finished signs and couldn’t believe what some people can get away with the workmanship and materials are of the lowest quality.

Just keep your heads up and don’t be afraid to price for the quality of work you know you can produce, you will have the last laugh at the end of the day when you see their banner ripping to pieces in the 1st gust of wind.

keep at it and good luck

cheers

Dave

[Robert Lambie]

this really bugs me…

we have all been making banners for years. allot of work goes into the design the materials etc if we are honest everything is cheapish for what we pay, but what we give at the end is more than justified.
the customer asks for one colour we give them price, they ask for multiple colours and the prices goes up and rightly so.

the introduction of digital printers comes along, it i s now possible to offer photographic images on things like these banners. wow! the customer is impressed… “oh i like that, must have that” “how much?” we reply… £100!!!!!

are we stupid or what???
we just splash out on expensive kit, train ourselves how to use it etc etc then first job comes along, so what do we do… charge half the price because its easier & cheaper for us to do it with our new fancy bit of kit!
WAKE up…. we should be charging more! but we don’t coz we are trying to follow the budget box trend of folk struggling to compete.

arrgghh i give up, I’m off to drown my sorrows with a pint of milk…

chris, your not too dear mate, its our trade its too bloody cheap!

[Aaron & Chris]

Cheers lads

Its hard convincing customers when some one up the road will do it for half the price.

Struggling at the moment getting work we cant seem to attract new customers. We are thinking of doing some kind of special offer but how can you put a price tag on a van or a sign when the possibilities are endless.

Yellow pages ad comes out in October I hope that the yellow pages man was’nt lying when he reckons we should be averaging 13 hits a month.
Just hope it works!! (?)

Chris 😀

[Carrie Brown]

When we first started up, within our first year we were often doubting our pricing structure ….. we too lost a fair few jobs to the cheaper signmaker and kept thinking that perhaps we were too expensive and on a few occassions dropped the price. 😕 But over time we realised why others were cheaper than us …… cr@p materials and cr@p workmanship. We then decided to quote our price and stick with it, thats that, if they walked they walked, its their descision.

We do on occassions give discounts to some regular clients obviously … its nice to keep them a bit sweet and look after them and in return they keep using you and recommending you.

😀

[Keith Nilsen]

Easy on the milk Rob!

[Jayne Marsh]

I would charge around £160 ish, but I have a major problem where I live in that businesses just wont pay big prices. If I get a job in say Chester then I can charge a little more. Its all down to how affluent the area is where you do most of your work. Around here we also have alot of start up cow boy businesses who will produce the same thing for about £80, those sort of singmakers last about 12 – 18 months before they throw in the towel, but there are always new businesses ready to start up and charge cheap prices. Its a no win situation sometimes, you just have to try and educate the customer as to what they are getting. Promote your quality and reliability and make sure that when the customer compares quotes that they are comparing like for like.
Im finding work very hard to come by at the moment as everyone seems to have gone on holiday or something 😮
Either that or all the cowboys are doing it for nothing 😀

[Rachel]

Tell me about it! A guy around here has really pleased every other sign maker in the area by advertising any van any size £99! The only thing I can think of to cut our prices is to get him to do the van for us. At least that way we can book more in.

What can you say to your customer to justify our price compared to his.?To the customer £99 is £99 if it falls off after 12 months then they go back to the guy – granted if he’s not out of business by then but he’s committed himself to the same offer in his yellow pages add too!

Rachel

[Iain Gordon]

Prices are nothing but numbers. People dont always buy on price. Explain the process of getting vinyl on the van and the different qualities of materials. Customers are’nt thick and will appreciate the effort you are making to help them make an informed decision. By spending an extra 10 mins with a customer could be the difference between getting a sale or not

Competion is good for any business and helps keep our feet on the ground. By treating the customer right the first time, you are almost certain to see him a second time.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”

Iain

[Robert Lambie]

quote Rachel:

Tell me about it! A guy around here has really pleased every other sign maker in the area by advertising any van any size £99! The only thing I can think of to cut our prices is to get him to do the van for us. At least that way we can book more in.

It’s always the same rachel, there is always one that opens up & thinks they know it all. i remember a guy that would come on here, only to gripe about what we all would say is a good price for a sign, van whatever.
his argument was “he wasnt to cheap, we ALL were to expensive” yeh right, if only! anyway, i heard recently he is thinking of chucking the towel in, as he can’t justify the time spent on making signs for the money he makes. :lol1: :lol1: welcome to the real world mate, is all i thought 😉

stick to your prices, or you will be short lived.

[autosign]

We charge reasonable prices and are always busy but I often wonder why I’m still doing it when I look at the money I earn. There certainly don’t seem to be many wealthy sign company directors.

[Lee Harris]

Hi Rachel

At that price, I’ll send him my vans……….would he do a coach for that price?? :lol1:

Regards
Lee

[Aaron & Chris]

I think the money is quite good in this profession if you can get away from the lower end of the market.

But as we have only been running full time now for 3 months im thinking that we might have to set our sights on the smaller jobs to get our selves started. The work, in our case, does not fall in your lap!! 🙁

But these 3 months have been the best in my working career and I enjoy every minute of the stress and money worries. 😕

It beats being a graphic designer sat at computer all day everyday!! 😀

Cheers

Chris 😀

[David McDonald]

Chris

At the moment I’ve not yet taken the plunge to go full time, I’m still working a 9-5:30 M-F for someone else, although I signed up yesterday for a 3-year lease on a small industrial unit as I’m getting so busy even working part time as my enquiry to conversion rate is about 80%. I could switch full time today but want my regular salary just a little while longer whilst I fit out the place.

I’m definitely not the cheapest sign maker in my area but I attribute this to my sales background, albeit I’ve always been into graphic design and porfessional DIY in a big way.

The point is you can be the best graphic designer and sign fabricator around but as a small service business you need to be very skilled in selling aswell – the ability to close a deal & get the deposit whilst sat with the customer (before anyone else even gets a chance), those subtle persuasive techniques, the art of negotiation to retain margins etc. etc.

Of course I don’t know your background and this may be a case of teaching someone to suck eggs. There are loads of good books on teh subject and around here there are even short College courses on sales & marketing. Might be worth taking a look.

Cheers
Macky D

[Chris Hooper]

Hi Rachel

That’s a silly price – I remember someone in the same situation – with a local compete tor undercutting at these kind of daft prices. The story I heard was that he and the other sign makers in the area had a chat about it and made a decision between them to send every single new inquiry on van graphics to this guy. Inside a week he was pulling his hair out and was cocking up jobs left right and cent re. Following week he put his prices to local market levels.

[Aaron & Chris]

Cheers for your advice Macky D 😀

Your right when it comes down to our dealing with customers we can chat all day, but unfortunatley like you have just said we are not too good at going in for the kill and lack confidence when selling ourselves.

I will look into the books and courses you metioned.

Cheers

Chris 😀