[davep]

Here's an example 1st job today

I was doing 2 bedrooms small hall £75

She showed me a flyer in the communal area, usual half price rubbish.

What reason did she give as not to go with them at £25 the lot?

Looks too cheap 

[wayne zabel]

Works both ways though,on Saturday I went to a house to remove a number of oil stains that my sons mate had made on a carpet whilst doing some electrical work.My sons mate was paying the bill.

The woman in the house told me that she had only had the carpets cleaned that week.I asked who she had to do the job and how much she had paid.I told her I would have charged £40 for the job.

Oh Im not paying that she said I get it done for £20.

I tried to educate her that in my opinion know one could sustain a business long term charging that price for what must be an hour and a half to two hours work including travel times ect.

Oh im not bothered about that,I just want a cheap job,she said.

Id like to increase my rates but this is what we are up against.

[davep]

Yes. And there the customers you don't want 

[Carpet Dawg]

Yeah I hate people with that attitude! They are the type of people that probably file for fake or exatraged insurance claims, dont pay debts, pawn thier grannies jewellery etc 

[Phil @ Extreme Clean]

Dave i'm not that cheap then 2 x rooms at £29 = £58 then say £10 for hallway = £68 maybe knock the £8 to seal the deal £60 thats good to me.

[wayne zabel]

At the start of january i didn't have any work booked in.I took a call for a price for a bedroom and a stairs and quoted £40.Job was booked after being told I was the best quote so far.

Day before doing the job i got a text saying i was no longer required as they had got a better price,but thanked me for my attitude and professionalism on the phone.

Unbelievable that some will book a job and still carry on shopping to save £5.

[Simon Gerrard]

The way I see it the main purpose of a website is to create interest and how you go about creating that interest that determines the type of people who will eventually call you. You'll always get price shoppers, but rather than viewing them as time wasters, they are very often just looking for someone to trust and are therefore are open to persuasion.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

some 'price shoppers' are really 'price matchers' if your price matches what they have to spend you get the job.

Most people are lazy, they are wanting an easy life, if they call you and your price is what they want to spend they will stop looking.... Especially if you have done your job right and used a bit of salesmanship and kept them on the phone for a while

If you quote £80 and the lady only has £35 spare from the housekeeping then you can be as persuasive as you want she......cannot afford your services.

We need to remember its not the priceshoppers fault they don't have £80 spare, they only have £35 so will keep searching until they  find a carpet cleaner who will do the job for that amount.

[Simon Gerrard]

One of the first things we notced when we got our first website was how well informed people were, almost as if they had looked, not just at your website, but at others and by the time they rang you had all but chosen you, subject to the price being acceptable.
Putting prices on websites or leaflets is in my view a big mistake as it removes the need for people to call you AND focuses on the issue of price, something you did by publishing your prices. Why not create an interesting informative website / leaflet and have it get people sufficiently interested to call you for a price. It is their level of interest and them having chosen you before they even ring that will in a lot of cases overcome 'price resistance.'

Simon

[JandS]

And of course none of us on here ever price
shops........

[james roffey]

On commodities i price shop i am into Hi Fi if i can get it cheaper off the internet i will, if i want a tradseman then price is not the same issue it is less important the expertise and quality are more important. Who in their right mind would go for the cheapest builder, plasterer,electrician, or plumber.
Although the consequences of employing a carpet cleaner who may not know what he is doing are less, they are letting this tradesman into their home to work on their expensive  carpets or upholstery, i would want to increase my odds of getting someone who is a professional, and although it's no guarantee generally speaking the guy charging the higher price will be better.

Some customers have the extra money but need educating in why you are charging more, some want cheap and don't care, never worry about these people, and all want what they see as value for money, never had a single customer complain about my price after i have done the job, but plenty over the phone.

[wynne jones]

I'm all in favour of 'trying' something rather than guessing whether it will or won't work.

Two comments though. Personally I wouldn't of waited 6 months (unless I was changing other things to see how it affected things).

The other thing is, as soon as someone has a price they stop reading/listening. People who are 'successful' getting the phone to ring with prices are cheap and that's all they are selling. 101 sales, don't give 'em a price till they know why it's the best value.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

James, interesting you should mention hi fi.

To take one example I see lots and lots of advertising for Bose products in magazines and the like. (There are plenty of other products I'm sure that also do this.)

These adverts NEVER mention the price even though they are in effect selling a commodity. The "blurb" is about selling the idea and it's only when you start digging, either on the net or discussing it in a shop that you find out the costs of their products. Of course, by this stage you as a potential buyer have expressed an interest and to some extent are now committing yourself to buying.

So personally if I was running a business I wouldn't put prices on a web page but instread wait for the potential client to contact me.

Rog

[garry22]

One of the first things we notced when we got our first website was how well informed people were, almost as if they had looked, not just at your website, but at others and by the time they rang you had all but chosen you, subject to the price being acceptable.
Putting prices on websites or leaflets is in my view a big mistake as it removes the need for people to call you AND focuses on the issue of price, something you did by publishing your prices. Why not create an interesting informative website / leaflet and have it get people sufficiently interested to call you for a price. It is their level of interest and them having chosen you before they even ring that will in a lot of cases overcome 'price resistance.'

Simon has just about nailed it here.

I first got into online stuff about seven years ago by writing online copy. As far as I could see, my job as a copywriter was to get the customer to a stage where they were as near as possible to buying from my client before they picked the phone up.

By "copy" I do not just mean long salesletters. Copy can mean video scripts, autoresponders sequences, whatever.

To use a cliche, a website is a brilliant tool for doing your selling on autopilot, twenty four hours a day. The same goes for leaflets and adverts.

Whilst a lot of people do have less money to spend, it's more of a case of they want to spend it more WISELY (as opposed to buying the cheapest).

[Mike Halliday]

Volkswagen can't sell many Golfs, big billboard end of my road saying 'new Golf £16285' who's going to ring them or go into the showroom when they already know the prices

inside the front cover of this months Radio Times.....Furniture Village are selling leather settees for £1199

to say publishing price stops people calling is too simplistic, I thinks its more tha case that we don't have the  marketing knowledge needed to use the technique of publishing our prices.  just like £4.95p is better than £5 prices need to be used correctly in marketing.

i made a mistake not because I published my prices but I did it the wrong way

[james roffey]

Rog on the rare occasion that i buy something new i look at reviews, many of them to find the very best best thing for the job, then i look for who does the cheapest offer for it, much easier than finding a tradesman thats why customers return to us if we do a good job, less risk

Top end Hi fi sells itself for doing things very well.


Mike interesting you say that i have price on my site i still think it works for me, but can never be certain thought i might try removing it for a while and see what happens

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

There's a big difference between buying a product and buying a service.

Knowing the price of a product can spark an interest in a customer, even if they weren't in the market for that product.

I can't think of many trades / services who list prices on adverts - I wouldn't have a clue what a plumber, electrician, decorator or builder charges until they come round and give me a quote.

Your website is your shop window, don't give away all your secrets at once - if you list your prices then they have no reason to phone you if they don't like the price.

Sell the benefits, not the features

[wynne jones]

VW is a good example of a brand associated with quality and prices to match. So when they put a price up people think its bargain, but how much is the equivalent Skoda.

Thier brand has already told you why they are expensive. So do Apple, but people don't care how much an ipad is. Unfortunately even you Mike probably have to tell them why before they buy, because you're not on tv, billboards and magazines every day throwing millions at branding.

[andy east sussex]

i know how we can beat these customers who dont want to paymuch buy a bissel carpet cleaner and show them your proffessional system say it will be £15 for bissel of £40 for proffessional clean solved lol

[Simon Gerrard]

The issue here is one of developing interest, rather than using a website to try and sell, two completely different things, and if you have done that right the prospective customer is suffciently interested in your service to call you for the one thing you didn't tell them on your website, the price.
Even price shoppers, or those who have had their fingers burnt in the past by cc'ers can be won over during a phone call as long as they are convinced that what you are offering represents value for money. Price is only an issue at the beginning of the process because all people are actually buying is the 'promise' of a clean carpet, unlike a shiny new car that they can test drive first and know exactly what they are getting for their money, so it is quality of the end of the day that they are interested in and you have to make them believe that is what they are going to get and if so, you'll get the sale.

Simon