Today's price objection....

PrimaDonna

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Just sent out an estimate to a client that saw our van in their community. They are putting their house on the market and want us to clean. I sent out the estimate and almost immediately got this response:

thank you, Meg. question - since we're selling the home and the buyers will probably put in new carpet, do you have a less aggressive cleaning service cost versus a 'restoration' cleaning cost?
Heather


Here is how I replied:

Heather,

I appreciate your concern over the cost, especially when you aren’t going to stay in the house.

Our process is a combination of premium cleaning solutions and state of the art equipment combined with our expertise and training and certifications. There is nothing about those things that we can modify to lower the cost. We also have the integrity to do the best job we can and won’t cut corners to lower the cost. Sometimes that means we aren’t the right fit for every situation.

What we can do is just focus on the open areas. It means that we would not have to move furniture, clean under anything and the lay down a protective barrier between the furniture and carpet during the drying process. We are cleaning less area and it’s less labor intensive since we aren’t moving and tabbing the furniture. If you would like us to do just the open areas of each room we can extend $10 off per room. You have a total of 10 rooms (with the double sized ones), so that would be $100 less than the estimate I sent you (equivalent to 10% off).

Keep in mind, if you plan to change the layout of rooms or stage in anyway (the furniture does not remain where it is when we are there to clean) and we only clean the open areas, you may have uneven appearance. Especially if the carpets are light in color.

Let me know if you have any additional questions. We would love to be able to work something out that meets your needs and budget.

Meg

What do you do when this happens? Do you stick to your guns/price? Just cave and give a discount because they asked? Find a solution that can be a win/win (less work/les money)?

Thoughts on how I handled it? I'll let you know how she responds....
 

Paul Demers

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Experts say first impressions are worth between 5-7% of a home's sale price. That's $11,250 to $15,750 on a $225,000 house.

New owners may well end up installing new carpeting, but that has nothing to do with their first impression of the home. So no, I would not lower my price. If fact, I would upsell my Traffic Lane Reconditioning Service.
 

Bryan S. Bennett

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I personally like your response and feel it is professional.

More than likely they are price shopping at this point so all you can do is wait and see. You will never get every job you estimate and quite honestly if you want to protect your net margin you have to stick to your guns and your cost structure. You will not go out of business if you don't get it but if you do, you win again according to plan.

If you seem to be losing out on a lot of jobs recently (with competition giving it away at lower prices) you could also consider a "special situation" where they get "2 rooms at regular price and 1 free" perhaps.
 
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Jim Pemberton

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When you get jobs like this that aren't from you usual marketing efforts or referrals, its not unusual to get a price objection. This is a time when you might consider whether or not they might become a long term customer.

One point is that they are selling the house; they might be leaving your market area, so this might just be a one time cleaning for them. The other issue is that they seem to be a price buyer; we all are to some extent, but since once again she isn't your target market, not getting the job might not be the biggest loss for you.

I agree that you shouldn't do a "lesser cleaning" like she is implying that she wants from you. Its been my experience that someone who asks for something like that will nit pick the job later and ultimately expect "the best result" anyway.

Your "let's change the service level" rather than drop the cleaning level approach is better than just saying "Oh, since you asked nicely, I'll just knock it down to a lower price to get the job".
 
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Ron K

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Meg stick to your guns. I agree with Jim usually nit picky and your company wanting to protect its reputation will over service the job and give them what they didn't want to pay for anyway .


We also have the integrity to do the best job we can and won’t cut corners to lower the cost. Sometimes that means we aren’t the right fit for every situation.

That is darn Beautiful!

"This is not a Race to the Bottom!"
 
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PrimaDonna

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If you seem to be losing out on a lot of jobs recently (with competition giving it away at lower prices) you could also consider a "special situation" where they get "2 rooms at regular price and 1 free" perhaps.

We aren't losing jobs, and if we were cause they don't want to pay our prices, I'm okay with that.


Was your estimate commensurate with other companies in your area?
No. We never base our prices off what the competition is offering. We offer a different level of service and value than our competitors. If someone isn't able to see that and wants to select their provider based on price, I'm okay with the "competition" having them.

One point is that they are selling the house; they might be leaving your market area
Exactly why I didn't just discount.

When you get jobs like this that aren't from you usual marketing efforts or referrals, its not unusual to get a price objection
It wasn't a direct referral, but she did see our van 2 doors down. I took her call as a kind of "keeping up with Jones'"or if they use you, then that is a good enough endorsement of your company for me. She went so far as to tell me how the floor plans of their house differed from that of the neighbor that used us. I also think she wants to use us, but maybe wasn't expecting the price to be what it was. We were the first quote she got (if she is even getting others). She didn't say that we are more that other cleaners she spoke with and she also didn't just dismiss us when she got the quote or she wouldn't have bothered to email me back. I think she wants us to do the work, but just needs to justify the cost and see if there is anything she can do to lower the price. Perhaps if she were staying in this house, she wouldn't have an issue with dropping $1k to clean. But its a chunk of change if you leaving.....

If we get it, we get it, if we don't we don't. I thought it would make for a good post and wanted to know how others have or would handle this. Cause, we will all face it at one time or another.

Meg
 

Hoody

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I think you handled it very well, I wouldn't water down your brand by just dropping the price to get the job. Too many people do that and people talk about that and they have a hard time over coming price objections. Only thing I may have added was that you work for and with people who sell their homes all of the time. You work with realtors in the area because they know the first impression of a home to a buyer is crucial. If the home looks well kept it lessens the worry for the buyer to having to put a lot of money into the home unless they want to update cosmetics (paint, lighting, flooring). You want to give the same level of service that you do for everyone else and to help get their home sold quickly by giving a great first impression.
 

PrimaDonna

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I think you handled it very well, I wouldn't water down your brand by just dropping the price to get the job. Too many people do that and people talk about that and they have a hard time over coming price objections. Only thing I may have added was that you work for and with people who sell their homes all of the time. You work with realtors in the area because they know the first impression of a home to a buyer is crucial. If the home looks well kept it lessens the worry for the buyer to having to put a lot of money into the home unless they want to update cosmetics (paint, lighting, flooring). You want to give the same level of service that you do for everyone else and to help get their home sold quickly by giving a great first impression.

Love this...and I did toy with adding something in like this. I didn't do it though as I didn't want the email to be too lengthy and turn them off....or sound like I was trying too hard to sell/convince them.

Always a fine line to walk trying to determine what will speak to them most and close the sale vs. overwhelm with too much info.
 
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Jim Pemberton

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Love this...and I did toy with adding something in like this. I didn't do it though as I didn't want the email to be too lengthy and turn them off....or sound like I was trying too hard to sell/convince them.

Always a fine line to walk trying to determine what will speak to them most and close the sale vs. overwhelm with too much info.

Wisely said Meg. All of us are overwhelmed with information today, and many are turned off by "scroll down" messages. Keep your sentences short, use short paragraphs, indent or double space, do everything you can to make your responses easy on the eyes and easy on the stress level boiling beneath their skin from "life"...
 

PrimaDonna

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There's normally a short pause of confusion, and then she'll say "well my realtor says you're the best, so when can you do it?"

And if she didn't get your name from her realtor, but rather from seeing your van in the neighbor's driveway....then what?
 

hogjowl

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I realize my response sounded like Yocum. I am terribly sorry for that. Because I don't have three or four guys looking for me to provide them a paycheck, I can afford to be less ... conversational. However, I really have been amazed at how successful simply saying "no" has been. When I was younger, I tried to get all yankee with my sales wording and it normally tanked the call. If I simply say something like "no, I only know one way to clean", it often goes the right way.

Your observation that there may be a different outcome if their Realtor didn't refer me is correct. If they don't know me, or know of me, they will be much more likely to end the conversation at that point. I've never cared, because I normally stay busy enough anyway.

Way back, when I ran crews, and before I was corrupted by these boards into thinking I was worth so much more than anybody else, I would offer callers like this what I called a "yellow truck cleaning", or "basic cleaning" which was nothing more than a prespray and rinse extraction. No prevacuuming or special spotting, stain removal, deodorization ... nada. I would blow in and blow out 45 minutes later and the carpet normally "looked" great. They'd ask me about the bugs and debris still left on the carpet and I would tell them they're clean, if they really wanted it removed they should have vacuumed better like I suggested.

Not the best way to build brand awareness, but it got me those callers that I used to think I wanted so badly.
 

Willy P

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Your response sounded way too braggartly. How many companies all claim they're the cats pajamas? Top of the heap?
Most of them. And they're all wrong. It's the customer that decides that.
 
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handdi

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good job meg
great response.You know if I'm on my a game for the day i always ask
what did they think it was going to cost?
That right there will tell all.
 

PrimaDonna

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It's the customer that decides that
And I can say, with confidence, that our customers do say that about us.

Check out our feedback cards (which I'm behind in updating over the past couple of months). https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152449982447258.1073741827.319745177257&type=3

And we have one Best of Bucks and Montgomery Counties for carpet cleaner the past 3 years. We also have a fantastic referral rate (most of our new business comes from referrals) and hoards of people that post our name when people post on Facebook community pages that they are looking for a carpet cleaner.

I'm super proud of what John and I have built/accomplished and how our customers feel about us and I'm not afraid to let people know we are different and we are better.
 

PrimaDonna

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I'd of offered a cash discount

.L.T.A.

Never in writing or via email. Not a good practice to begin with. You never know who is at the other end of the email or phone. Could open you up to a huge issue. I NEVER offer that. Sometimes the customer initiates that conversation, but I never would put it out there.
 

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