The underpricing thread.

[oldwoodcutter]

There’s an old saying on tree pricing, the bigger the tree the bigger the likelihood of making a loss.

I often price the little jobs there n then, but for all the rest I get back to my desk and work it out in the cold light of day nowadays.

It’s so easy to get carried along with enthusiasm on site and give a client a price and live to rue the day you did.

 

[Stubby]

4 hours ago, oldwoodcutter said:

There’s an old saying on tree pricing, the bigger the tree the bigger the likelihood of making a loss.

I often price the little jobs there n then, but for all the rest I get back to my desk and work it out in the cold light of day nowadays.

It’s so easy to get carried along with enthusiasm on site and give a client a price and live to rue the day you did.

 

I always found that you could make more dosh on 3-5 little jobs than one bigggun that took the same amount of time .

[Mark Bolam]

4 hours ago, oldwoodcutter said:

There’s an old saying on tree pricing, the bigger the tree the bigger the likelihood of making a loss.

I often price the little jobs there n then, but for all the rest I get back to my desk and work it out in the cold light of day nowadays.

It’s so easy to get carried along with enthusiasm on site and give a client a price and live to rue the day you did.

 

Absolutely.

 

If you’re going in cold on a £4K one-off removal the customer would be mad to not get a few prices.

 

They could be from £2.5K to £6K.

 

Everyone gets excited about big takedowns.

 

Don’t be the £2.5K guy, it’s shit.

 

Still got some good photos, mind!

[spudulike]

5 hours ago, oldwoodcutter said:

There’s an old saying on tree pricing, the bigger the tree the bigger the likelihood of making a loss.

I often price the little jobs there n then, but for all the rest I get back to my desk and work it out in the cold light of day nowadays.

It’s so easy to get carried along with enthusiasm on site and give a client a price and live to rue the day you did.

 

Funny that, my best days in servicing are the hour long jobs you hit one after the other rather than a whole day replacing a crank, bearings etc on a full rebuild and port! 

[Macpherson]

2 hours ago, Stubby said:

I always found that you could make more dosh on 3-5 little jobs than one bigggun that took the same amount of time .

Yep, in any trade 👍

[Gardenscape]

I often wonder that pricing the job for what it realistically should of been, would we still of got the job?

[devon TWiG]

1 hour ago, Gardenscape said:

I often wonder that pricing the job for what it realistically should of been, would we still of got the job?

The reality is that who under-prices it gets the job !!  

[Clutchy]

1 hour ago, Gardenscape said:

I often wonder that pricing the job for what it realistically should of been, would we still of got the job?

Sometimes no, sometimes yes. 

 

There is definitely some customers who try and get 5-9 quotes. Getting that many quotes drastically increases your chance of someone making a mistake when quoting haha 

 

I quoted a large conny felling job at around 20k as there was zero access for big machines because the farmer next door wouldn't allow anyone on his land as he didn't want them to go. Found that out when asking on the quote 

 

This made the job easy 4 x longer and a horrible drag through brambles. Customer comes back saying he got 4 other quotes, 15k,22k,18.5k and 6k... 

 

Clearly the 5th company didnt ask about access and assumed it would be ok 😂

[Mark Bolam]

Or they bunged the farmer £500 and pissed the job 4x faster….

[Mick Dempsey]

If you don’t think you’ll get the big job at a good price then you won’t, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

 

Last few years I’ve secured some nice big TDs with really good money on them.

You have to have the gear to do it quickly and convince the client they’re in good hands.

 

I don’t want to come across as a BS merchant, but don’t be defeatist about bigger work, do your sums and stick to your guns.

 

Clients don’t tend to go for the lowball offer on really big/dangerous/logistical nightmare work, they go for the guy they think will do it right.

 

My 2 cents.