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Pricing jobs, is there a general process to follow?
Hi everyone, sorry i havent been around the past week or so and i have a few posts to reply to also. i will get there! 🙂
I do not know if i am explaining this correctly, but i will try.
a customer comes in asking me for a van price. But without knowing how much vinyl will be on the van or the design work needed. how can i possibly give them a general price?
If i then design something to get an idea of what they want and price based on that. how can i cover my time i spent creating the general layout? because if they say “no, too expensive!” and leave” i lose the sale and the time i spent trying to work out what they want to price the job in the first place?I hope i am making sense. I am struggling to understand how to do this without losing customers but also without giving my valuable time away on the initial design concept to price on?
thanks for any advice. ❤
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7 Replies
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Hi leslie. Its simply experience! The more vans you do the better idea you have of what certain designs can costs. We all know our ballpark figures, that simple designs and info for example can be 150 to 300 quid. Larger vans with prints etc can be 500 to 1000.
Also i recommend if not to show customers but for yourself, a simple pricing structure of what you can expect for difference price ranges. As an example here is mine from my website.
Get a feeling of where they want to be, then they understand what they can afford and the designing can start.
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Hi Leslie. You are in good company. Pricing sign work is a universal problem.
If there is no design concept, it is impossible to quote a price. Established shops will insist on a separate design fee, before quoting. Your best bet is to give them a range. The design fee should be separate and include creating print ready files. Often the design time can be greater than the production time.
Martin has posted a brilliant starting point for discussion of range.
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These type of posts have a tendency to hang around at the top of the list Leslie, mainly because there is no set method of pricing our type of work. Have you done many vans?
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It is challenging, sometimes customers don’t help matters with “how much to sign my van?” enquiries. I start qualifying potential customers from the offset, not all customers are for us.
I tend to send customers some photos of previous work we’ve done, along with a price range. I don’t like “from £xxx”, because it’s too open ended, where as “£xxx – £xxx” is more accurate, although I generally try and aim for the lower half, it makes the customer feel warm and fuzzy, and that they’re getting value.
It also avoids those awkward conversations when they want to add this, or add that, you’re not having to revised cost and justify why it’s £xx.
Deposit before we commence artwork, I don’t care if it’s £25, or £150 (yes I’ve taken a deposit for artwork that was more than someone quoted to do their entire van!) if they’re happy with the price range, seen your work, read your reviews, impressed with the service, there should be no difficulty getting them to part with their money.
It’s a case of refining how you ask for payment, make it all part of a process, explain the process, when payments are due as early on as possible, so there are no surprises for the customer. It also shows you know what you’re doing – Most importantly be confident!
Everyone finds their own way of dealing with, I’m confident in the way we operate, the service and quality – If they want to go elsewhere so be it!
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Probably the most interesting question ever to be asked here lol!
Because every job is different, its not really possible to have a price list so to speak.
But to be fair to the customer, he wants to have some idea what he will be in for.
For a vehicle, I tell them its about $180 (nz) per square meter of printed wrap, or cut vinyl, applied. To this you add artwork, travel, unforseen events, really difficult jobs, time to remove door handles, etcetera.
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Hi Leslie,
This is actually an easy one to answer but it took me years of experience to get a procedure that works.
As the other guys have said, quote a general price for different types of coverage on different size vans and stick to that for ball park estimates but always mention the final price will depend on the final design.
Then take a proofing deposit, Work out what hourly rate you want and cover your proofing time with that deposit. Explain to customer that the proofing is actually half of the job so in effect, you have started the job.
One of two things will happen – customer will accept and pay the deposit promptly, because they are serious about getting the work done… or they will baulk at the mere suggestion of a deposit to get a proof drawn up, in which case you know this person has not committed themselves to having the work done and is just wanting you to draw up a design so they can see if it takes their fancy or not with no commitment to them. Let someone else waste their time with those customers.
If you stick to that you’ll find you end up dealing with customers who just want to get the work done, and you won’t have the disappointment of working on designs for free only to never see the customer again, or worse, you see your design done by another supplier on the customers van a few weeks later!
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Great advice by everyone…
Martyn, your example is very close to how I do it, mate.
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