Price Quotations what would you do???

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Have you gotten a deposit for any of these jobs?
My proposals say I give two sketches to start with one revision.
Any additional revisions are $75.
This seems to help people make up their minds.
For really small jobs like a $25 correx sign they get no sketch no revisions, only get to choose color and copy.
Love….Jill

[John Harding]

some suggestions

Medical center – right price for 1 colour text otherwise any design work needs to be charged for

Development company – as medical center

Alarm company – there are different schools of thought on the boards about this scenario, for me however I wouldnt design without a deposit (as jill sais it focuses their minds) or you could do a sample design as you have and then say deposit required before further amendments, being keen to win the work might make you a busy fool (no offence meant by that) 😀

always include design pricing per hour in your quotations

John 😀

[Stuart Green]

Thanks Jill and John

That’s exactly how i feel. like a busy fool!!! Its just tooo obvious that i am going wrong somewhere. I have been thinking like what you mentioned Jill about the revisions. i think that would make perfect sense. when you say Jill " $25 correx sign they get no sketch no revisions, only get to choose color and copy" do you mean for example a set of pre-made templates instead of actual design of there branding on the boards?? I think my problem is I am tooooo keen to win the work by showing off the design but not doing myself any favours. I think what tends to happen is the customers are giving me a free ticket on there roller coaster ride!! so if i say 50% deposit up front with a signed terms and conditions with a quotation reflecting the pricing of design then i guess i shouldn’t get any tacky problems is that right?? but how would this work on a customer who lives 2-3 hours away from you?? how would he pay the deposit and sign the terms??

[Peter Normington]

quote Stuart Green:

Thanks Jill and John

That’s exactly how i feel. like a busy fool!!! Its just tooo obvious that i am going wrong somewhere. I have been thinking like what you mentioned Jill about the revisions. i think that would make perfect sense. when you say Jill ” $25 correx sign they get no sketch no revisions, only get to choose color and copy” do you mean for example a set of pre-made templates instead of actual design of there branding on the boards?? I think my problem is I am tooooo keen to win the work by showing off the design but not doing myself any favours. I think what tends to happen is the customers are giving me a free ticket on there roller coaster ride!! so if i say 50% deposit up front with a signed terms and conditions with a quotation reflecting the pricing of design then i guess i shouldn’t get any tacky problems is that right?? but how would this work on a customer who lives 2-3 hours away from you?? how would he pay the deposit and sign the terms??

distance is no object, the Internet and credit card payments make it a very small world

Peter

[John Harding]

Hi Stuart – You will need to find the formula that works for you, so im not saying dont give any illustrations but what i am saying is dont waste time on them in the early stages. KISS formula before deposit if you want to dangle a carrot.

i rarely get signed proofs these days (I used to) but nowadays get people to confirm by email because thats quick and easy all round, deposits for people further away can do so by cheque but make sure you factor the distance into your calculations.

John 😀

[Phill Fenton]

I understand your frustration Stuart – and have experienced the same myself.

I don’t really know what the answer is – but try and get a deposit before committing further. Without a deposit the customer has no vested interest in concluding with you (he can go to any one of the other sign companies he has most likely communicated with) but with a deposit (no matter how small) he stands to lose out financially if he was to walk away from you…

Get a commitment from your client before spending too much time with them

[Stuart Green]

Ideally I would love to get proofs confirmed via email but in the instance where a proof is sent via email and the customer fails to notice a mistake and tries to pour the liability on to the signmaker/printer what happens?? As far as i know the only way to protect oneself is a signed agreement. is there another way of getting the customer to formerly agree on terms without having to sign an agreement??

for example if a deposit is taken via the net, an agreement is sent via email, something goes wrong and the court comes in to the matter, would i have a leg to stand on?? Just trying to think of a fool proof way of protection here to make it impossible for the customer to have his or her own way when they are wrong or try to take the biscuit. also to accept credit cards would’nt you need a credit card machine or summat??

cheerio!! 🙄

[Martin Pearson]

If you send a customer a proof via email asking for the details to be checked and then returned to you with any mistakes highlighted then that I would have thought would be enough to cover you. How you handle something like that is really down to you, I have made mistakes in the past which went un noticed until after the work was completed but have put them right for nothing because I should really have noticed even if the customer didn’t and it is good for business sometimes.

It might also be that you are not communicating very well with your customers to start with, get as much info from them as you can before you start to design anything, the more they feel a part of the process the less likely they are to keep asking for changes, well that’s what seems to work best for me anyway.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

About the correx signs-
I do not design from a template per se, I just prioritize the copy they give me and let them choose the background and text colors (within reason)
After almost 25 years I can do a simple layout in minutes.
If they are only spending $25 I am not going to give them a lot of choices like I would on a bigger job.
They have to trust me that I will get their message across.
And I am no expert but I do think emails would stand up in court.

[Gwaredd Steele]

You have to take the rough with the smooth IMO. For jobs like these, I fit them in-between ‘proper’ jobs when I have time.