Right or wrong?

[nick channer]

One thing this situation does make me think, is that its may be a good idea to follow up quotes with a call to see what the customer has decided.

 

You never know they may have lost your details and your call may be just what they needed, so they could ask you to do the job.

i give the customer about a week then if its not too far i'll drive past to see if jobs been done.. if not i'll call them to ask if they've had any more thoughts on havin the tree work done.. or if they've had any more quotes.. you wouldnt believe the amount of people who say "glad u called i been meanin to call u"or "yeah we've had another quote and its bit less than yours can you match, or beat it".. got job to do friday that i called back few weeks ago... it was for £1400 and they'd been quoted 1250.. could i do it for 1200 which i said yes to and turns out neighbour wants small job done which i looked at and won for £280.. so back up and above the 1400 and all will be done on friday so yes def worth callin back...

[Mark Bolam]

They said they'd been quoted £1250 Nick.

Might be genuine, or it could be a bullshitting tactic that has succeeded in you dropping your price £200 (which comes straight out of your PROFIT.

 

I stopped playing that game when my local BP garage refused to drop the price of their DERV by 20p/litre because I said I'd seen it cheaper elsewhere....

 

Result on the £280, mind.

[Mesterh]

I suppose it makes good business sense to follow up calls but there are 2 problems with that.

 

1. To me it is just hassling people, if the shoe was on the other foot I would be saying "If I wanted you to do the job I would have called you"

 

2. Its more work and Im just too lazy for that.

 

 

 

Although I think I will try it on the next decent sized job I price just to see what happens.

[nick channer]

They said they'd been quoted £1250 Nick.

Might be genuine, or it could be a bullshitting tactic that has succeeded in you dropping your price £200 (which comes straight out of your PROFIT.

 

I stopped playing that game when my local BP garage refused to drop the price of their DERV by 20p/litre because I said I'd seen it cheaper elsewhere....

 

Result on the £280, mind.

 

i woulda done the job for a 1000.. i dont care if they had my trousers down.. £330 in wages and £40's worth of red diesel.. and i wont touch a twig...

[Mark Bolam]

Ha ha.

 

Can't argue with that mate!

[nick channer]

but i no what your sayin.. often i hear i've had cheaper quote and you can have job if you match it... why are they offerin me the job if someones come in cheaper.. just tryin it on i guess...

[Dean Lofthouse]

I dont understand how you can drop your price, I never have..

 

I price the job at what it costs for my particular overheads, unless I dont particularly want the job

[Peter]

Same here, no price drop without a concession on the amount of work, ie they keep the chip or I just stack the brash, or my favourite kind of work, drop it and leave.

[Mesterh]

i woulda done the job for a 1000.. i dont care if they had my trousers down.. £330 in wages and £40's worth of red diesel.. and i wont touch a twig...

 

Wow! To run a tree business with such small overheads is impressive!

 

I am definitely going wrong somewhere.

[nick channer]

i want to win every job i price. i like to work on min of £600 in my pocket after wages every day.. some jobs i look at i think theres fair bit work there and if i have to be on site for any length of time i want a certain amount and wont budge... if i can send my 2 lads there and perhaps a climber and i dont see them till they come back in yard at 5 with cash or cheque then i'm willin to improve my quote... at the end of the day a job for a £1000 could still be done for say £500 or less and still earn a reasonable amount, think its more about knowing how your competitors price work, around here we prob have the most population of travellin community doing tree work and believe it or not they price there work very high.. so do other "proper" tree firms.. i've recently gained lot work from guy i no who's been doing tree's for 25 yrs but cant climb anymore cos his elbows had it.. lot of work he's already priced and won but he hasnt put his own wage into the equation.. where as i pay my climber from £150 to £180 a day plus 2 other workers he pays 2 workers and if he comes out with £300 after hes happy. some jobs dont need a climber which is lucky and ones that do we can normally do in a morning and fit summin else in that afternoon otherwise they wouldnt be worth doing.. job we did yesterday for him for instance for £540 took us 2 hours [3 men] he'd put full day on it.. 5 out of 10 jobs i price i get at full money then couple more i reckon come in bit cheaper... there arent many jobs i price that i dont win one way or the other.. and i'll try every trick in the book to get em and if that means droppin my quote a bit then so be it..