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Haggling with customers
I have Karls post about January sales in mind when posting this up.
I had a customer come in today asking for a Vivaro to be signed up, nothing flash, 2 colours using free clipart and font. I quoted £245 which is about my standard for this type of job. Its rare that ill accept an offer on my work and my prices are usually "Take it ot leave it".
The customer has contacted me saying he will give £200 cash for the job. Now I really dont give a damn if its cash or not as it all goes through the books anyway but I am torn about doing it for this price.
On one hand its deathly quiet next week and the colours are all stock stuff anyway, but on the other hand im quite a stubborn git on my prices!
What are other UKSG members opinions on hagglers in our business?
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14 Replies
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Your customer is not the only one who has the right to haggle, if you’ve nothing better to do meet him halfway at £222-50 😀
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I usually get quite offended when customers haggle as I think I always offer a fair price anyway. But some folk haggle whatever the price anyway.
When you accept a lower offer your heart is never in the job either and not enjoyable.
Its always a tough one though if you will still make money why not? It would depend with me the way it was offered if he was cocky I wouldn’t do it. But who can afford to throw business away?
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quote Nigel Hindley:I usually get quite offended when customers haggle as I think I always offer a fair price anyway. But some folk haggle whatever the price anyway.When you accept a lower offer your heart is never in the job either and not enjoyable.
Its always a tough one though if you will still make money why not? It would depend with me the way it was offered if he was cocky I wouldn’t do it. But who can afford to throw business away?
My concern is that its less than the price I charge my regular customer who puts dozens of vans my way.
I agree about being offended as I thought my price was fair, but as you say, some people see haggling as a vital part of any dealings.
The thing is, when I sell a car I put money ontop of my price to allow for haggling, you cant do that in this trade or they just go elsewhere.
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Hi Paul,
As you say if your regular customers find out too they wont be happy its a minefield.
Something we do stop haggling and it was mentioned recently here on the boards recently – is – have an advert from the local paper on your wall IE an ad that would cost £245 no doubt a quarter page max and show them that a one week advert is the same price as something that takes you time and costs you money in materials.
Another thing we say is OK £200 but you wont get the bonnet done for that or the back whichever.
Or offer a freebie a car sticker for their car with business name and number – we will rarely knock money off – offer a freebie or reduce what you give but that will effectively keep your price at £245 so your work has not been de-valued.
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I would do a new layout, which would be £200. Tell him this is what is possible for his budget.
I don’t think any of us should sell ourselves short. It WILL have a knock on effect for the rest of us, we should stick together and keep prices constant. I think the ones will that will survive the credit crunch will be those doing a proper days work for a proper days money. We will all have had competitors start up undercut, and then just disappear.
Do a good job exceed his expectations, and do the bonnet (or whatever you have taken off the original layout and tell him it’s FOC, as you had a spare half hour). Set back and wait for the reccommendations.
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I’d offer him a 10% discount for cash up front in full.
by the time you haggle, compromise, give away freebies, redesign a cheaper version you’ve lost your £50 extra profit anyway in time.
The full cash up front is not for a tax fiddle – but simply a way to putting YOU entirely in control of the situation from there on in.
There can be NO haggling once it’s completed, no bounced cheques, no extras floated into play.
On a sub £1000 job it’s a nice carrot to dangle to customers that hum and haw and whinge about the price. I’d rather be paid and ‘lose’ 10% than chase, phone, threaten for weeks on end and generate bad feelings on each side whilst i’m out of pocket.
Dave
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Great advice guys, thanks as ever. Ill offer the 10% plus ill throw a few cheap URL’s in for his car. As hard as it is at the min I dont want to set a precedent for people to expect massive discounts.
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Paul do you go to a garage forecourt and pay up the full asking price for a car no questions asked??? 😕
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We all have customers we make more profit on than we do on others. If things are quiet and you have overheads to cover then offer a discount, I wouldn’t go with the offer he made you though. Probably 10% for payment up front like has been mentioned before. If he leaves with a smile on his face it could be worth 3-4 referrals, and that is a small cost to pay.
I personally would rather lose 10% on a van than be sat idle with overheads still needing to be paid anyway.
Cheers
Gary
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quote George Elsmore:Paul do you go to a garage forecourt and pay up the full asking price for a car no questions asked??? 😕
George, I had referred to the car haggling issue above, when selling cars (which I do part time) you deliberately mark them up so the customer can feel he has gained something by haggling you down. I dont put any mark ups to allow for haggling on my quotations so any discount is direct out of my pocket.
Ive now offered the customer a discount simply because things are quiet, however it wasnt the price he wanted. Time will tell if I get the job or not.
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quote Gary Birch:We all have customers we make more profit on than we do on others. If things are quiet and you have overheads to cover then offer a discount, I wouldn’t go with the offer he made you though. Probably 10% for payment up front like has been mentioned before. If he leaves with a smile on his face it could be worth 3-4 referrals, and that is a small cost to pay.I personally would rather lose 10% on a van than be sat idle with overheads still needing to be paid anyway.
Cheers
Gary
likewise gary . Id offer a small discount if i wasnt too busy that week, as every job can possibly lead to more mork in the future.
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Take his money being in a resession we all have to make some cutbacks
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Quiet week + New Customer + Straight forward job + Profit = Opportunity
Jeremy
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quote Kevin Parr:Take his money being in a resession we all have to make some cutbacks
Why should we all take a pay cut – I bet the plumbers / joiners etc haven’t suddenly gone all charitable? I don’t really agree. If you drop prices (especially if you have other work)…you are so screwed in a few months when you TRY to start charging ‘real rates’ to these customers.
(Although I was really quiet Nov/Dec). This year – especially March & April – I’ve been run off my feet and yet I STILL get muppets phoning up with stupid requests thinking I’ve got nothing better to do than stupidly under-priced jobs.
"I want it done today / tomorrow or I’m going elsewhere"
They are obviously sitting around with nothing to do and want to play hardball…assuming everybody is desperate for a job…any job at any low price.
I’ve had FIVE people pull this on me in THREE DAYS…I was getting a little ticked off if I’m honest.
I compromised and gave some ‘next day’ service by moving other jobs to later dates (which results in booking up future dates – so perpetuating the unavailability of no next day service) – and two of them STILL had the cheek to whinge…
I’ve another (Tandoori Takeaway) that I ‘arted’ & quoted JULY 2008…and he came back a week ago wanting (apparently) to go ahead – with revisions all for the same price. "I swear, never give to other people – I only come to you – you keep prices same – I not pay VAT…you want something to take home?" Has been on the phone EVERY day since demanding new artwork. OK – you sat on it for 10 months and then want me to jump through hoops for less money…sorry – a free curry doesn’t a good incentive make.
I know that when I’ve been quiet – like dead quiet and somebody has trundled past to get a quote…there have been occasions when I’ve done the who job ‘while you wait’…sent over to Sainsbury’s for a coffee & read of the paper…back a bit later – job done – cheaper than usual…but I try to avoid if possible. There being a recession is not a reason to just blanket reduce prices – time & a place. Take full whack when you can…discount if you have to.
Even if you ARE dead – no need to tell lies, play it down – tell them you’ll ‘squeeze’ them in, do them a favour, move work around. It inspires more respect & confidence to have work done by a busy tradesman than one sitting around waiting on his next job…but you can reflect your appreciation for the work in a cheaper price and tell them it’s because you had a free slot that afternoon.
Turn nothing away if you can help it…word spreads. But stand up for your rights to earn a living like your customers are trying to do.
Dave
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