Greed

do you think if she hired a carpet cleaner to clean the front room and her rich friend came over and saw the other carpets weren’t clean that she would think the carpet cleaner wasn’t any good?

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I’d personally forget about them. People like this drive me crazy. I qoute your resturant and you ask me to do it for half come on I don’t come into your resturant and ask to eat for half of your menu price so why should you ask me to work for half price. You don’t make good money by letting people nickle and dime you.

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Sometimes they want an explanation why it cost so much. Ask The Seal: Why do Contractors Charge so Much?

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@aaronrudy

That was a magnificent article. Thanks for sharing that!

Mid-way through bidding a $1.2 million house–In Iowa. Let that sink in: one of the lowest cost of living areas in the country–I casually asked the HO is she’s had the windows professionally cleaned before. When she said, “Yes,” I followed up with my standard, “Were you satisfied with the service?”

Her reply: “Yes, but they were too pricey.”

–GULP–

When I gave her the price, it was, of course, too high. I replied, “Well, it’s a lot of glass, and that’s reflected in the price.”

She was a referral from a great customer, so I was definitely more patient with her than I normally would have been.

My favorite part:

“What if I have a party before you can get here and clean those (pointing to the a wall of deck windows which had numerous transomes above them) picture windows myself? Will you take some money off?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Well when you come to do the higher windows above them, are you going to drip on those lower ones?”

“That is certainly a possibility.”

“Well,” she exhaled, exasperated. “What can be done about that?”

I smiled. “Well, I always remind
my guys that the best option is to always clean upper windows first.”

And so on…my favorite part was telling her at the end that if she decided to go ahead, let me know, because we’re scheduled out about 5 weeks.

I definitely don’t miss the early years.
Keep plugging away guys, and don’t sell yourself short.

Guess what? A million dollar house is expensive to maintain. But it’s not my fault you built one. There are many great customers that appreciate this, and they are people that I love working for.

To the rest that want you to work for cheap, keep in mind that they are trying to literally steal your time. The most precious resource any of us have is time. If they don’t think my life is important, that I should give them my time for a discount, then they don’t respect me and I don’t mind not working for them.

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Awesome way of putting it. I’ve often wanted to say exactly that to certain customers.

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If your growing and have slow times of the year where there’s no work these are great customers to have. I would offer them a lower price to schedule for your slow season. Then offer to put them on your list to notify when you are running great deals. Use Disco nt customers to your advantage. They can be helpful when you need to fills gaps and keep yourself or your guys busy.

Think about when a customer cancel last minute and you need to fill the spot. If you can’t fill it. If you have a list of these type of customers that you can call and offer a great deal to fill the gap it can help out. Discounted work is better than no work at all or better than employees quiting because you have no work.

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I agree … everything is about supply , An demand. If your demand is so high where your calendar is filled with high $ jobs An someone is asking you to do a low $ job why would you do it that’s just plain crazy.

If it’s slow season, an you say to them we can do it for this price , doesn’t have to be the number there trying to get you down to. It’s called negotiations some people look to negotiate, an im cool with that, but it’s going to be to my liking not yours.

Gave a guy a price last week for 425 for a house wash. He says ya wasn’t looking to spend that. Ok what were you thinking. I don’t know around 300 Wow ya that’s a little steep I’m willing to work with you , an the price I gave you is fair already , but being that your a first time customer I can Do it for 375 that’s the best I can do. Let me know if that works for you
He took the offfer , An to me who cares I’m slow it’s a job he’s happy I’m happy. Everyone is happy

Happy times. If it was spring the answer would if been …at this time I just can’t do that , maybe later in the year during slower times we could work something out. Are you willing to wait. If so I jace a job lined up for the slow period.

I get it though some people just don’t value our services , An those people can find a person that doesn’t value his services either.

If your booked year round , then good for you , of course there is no reason to deal with a negotiator … Why would you ! It’s simply I’m not the guy for you good luck :+1:

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Abso-damn-lutley.

I did a quote for gutters this morning, $452, the guy was like “can you do it now?” No, I had a job in a couple of hours and wouldn’t have been able to finish in time. I do it next week. Love it when they don’t flinch and just say “Do it”.

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I would say make it to your liking and to the customers liking. In other words create a deal that satisfies your needs but allows the customer to feel they are getting a great deal. They don’t have to know that your still getting a great deal as well. Better they don’t.

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