Craig Knight
New Member
All this talk about standards and pricing and such lately made me do some heavy digging into Quickbooks this weekend. With our season already fired up and running, i decided to make a few changes.
Ran complete printouts for the last three years, and compared pricing in each area, and was amazed at how much my prices fluctuated. Seems early in the season i was charging much less than in prime time, and the same went for the end of the season. So off to Best Buy i went, to get 2001 pro.
After all weekend of putting our heads together, the boss and i decided to take the average of the top 20% in each category (deck clean, deck seal, driveway, ect) and make that the base price. In 2001 pro, you can make up to 20 different price levels for each service. We used 3 (+15%,-10%, and -20%) this is to allow for each situation where base price won't do. Made a vow that base price will be used when in doubt. (fleet washing/commercial prices are set in stone, just talking about residential)
This will make my rates, on average, considerably higher than last 3 years. I have always been a lot better at doing the work than giving the estimates. Always priced according to how i felt the customers were responding to sales pitch. This is what i want to get away from, because at times i felt the customer was going to bail, and dropped the rates, they would jump right on it, and other times just the opposite. My ratio proposal to invoice was 6 to 4 so i know my sales knowledge and presentation are fine, it's the prices/rates area i am lacking in.
So, i put the new rates to work today with 3 proposal (two decks, one house wash). One deck i was very reluctant shooting the new price increases out, it was a full clean and seal. Finally drug myself to the door, handed the customer new packet with all company info, before after pics, ect in it and explained the proposal and techniques we use. As always i tell them that all they have to do is call to schedule and leave the rest to us, and he said go ahead and do it at our convenience, signed the proposal and we said our goodbyes. 2nd deck proposal went the same, except i felt i would get the job from the beginning, and had no reluctancy proposing the new price increases. Got it too.
Now the house was a different story. It is a large home, painted white brick, and very clean. Very, very little mold and mildew and eaves were just painted and had no mold, cobwebs, ect. So there was my delima back, i felt charging the new rates was not morally correct, reduced the rates, issued the proposal, got the job, scheduled the job and left.
Now, my question, on the house, should i have stuck to the price strategy, charged full price, (which i feel strongly i would get the job no matter what the price) or should i have broke the pricing down like i did.
Residential customers around here will call and ask, what do you charge to do a 1 or 2 story home. We all know the variables we have to look at before answering such a question, but i base my charges by the home, not by the hour. That is what they expect. They do not want to hear how long it will take, or we charge by the hour, they want to hear how much it will cost to clean their home. Thats how i price it. Also for yall "lowballer" fanatics, i am told many, many times throughout the year, i am conciderably higher than my competition, that is why i am reluctant to go with a set pricing strategy, that is even higher.
------------------
Craig Knight
www.powerwashunlimited.com
Ran complete printouts for the last three years, and compared pricing in each area, and was amazed at how much my prices fluctuated. Seems early in the season i was charging much less than in prime time, and the same went for the end of the season. So off to Best Buy i went, to get 2001 pro.
After all weekend of putting our heads together, the boss and i decided to take the average of the top 20% in each category (deck clean, deck seal, driveway, ect) and make that the base price. In 2001 pro, you can make up to 20 different price levels for each service. We used 3 (+15%,-10%, and -20%) this is to allow for each situation where base price won't do. Made a vow that base price will be used when in doubt. (fleet washing/commercial prices are set in stone, just talking about residential)
This will make my rates, on average, considerably higher than last 3 years. I have always been a lot better at doing the work than giving the estimates. Always priced according to how i felt the customers were responding to sales pitch. This is what i want to get away from, because at times i felt the customer was going to bail, and dropped the rates, they would jump right on it, and other times just the opposite. My ratio proposal to invoice was 6 to 4 so i know my sales knowledge and presentation are fine, it's the prices/rates area i am lacking in.
So, i put the new rates to work today with 3 proposal (two decks, one house wash). One deck i was very reluctant shooting the new price increases out, it was a full clean and seal. Finally drug myself to the door, handed the customer new packet with all company info, before after pics, ect in it and explained the proposal and techniques we use. As always i tell them that all they have to do is call to schedule and leave the rest to us, and he said go ahead and do it at our convenience, signed the proposal and we said our goodbyes. 2nd deck proposal went the same, except i felt i would get the job from the beginning, and had no reluctancy proposing the new price increases. Got it too.
Now the house was a different story. It is a large home, painted white brick, and very clean. Very, very little mold and mildew and eaves were just painted and had no mold, cobwebs, ect. So there was my delima back, i felt charging the new rates was not morally correct, reduced the rates, issued the proposal, got the job, scheduled the job and left.
Now, my question, on the house, should i have stuck to the price strategy, charged full price, (which i feel strongly i would get the job no matter what the price) or should i have broke the pricing down like i did.
Residential customers around here will call and ask, what do you charge to do a 1 or 2 story home. We all know the variables we have to look at before answering such a question, but i base my charges by the home, not by the hour. That is what they expect. They do not want to hear how long it will take, or we charge by the hour, they want to hear how much it will cost to clean their home. Thats how i price it. Also for yall "lowballer" fanatics, i am told many, many times throughout the year, i am conciderably higher than my competition, that is why i am reluctant to go with a set pricing strategy, that is even higher.
------------------
Craig Knight
www.powerwashunlimited.com
