customers

[Ron Lippold]

We all have to buy our customers. SO my question is what kind of customers are you buying. Do you advertise price and try to make it up on volume? Are you one of thoses guys that does not advertise price and no specials, in home est only.

What makes it easier on the owner and equipment?

 

[Royal Man]

I market to local groups.

I don't have to but them.

Price isn't so much of an issue.

They buy because of their affinity to their group or from a referral from another group member.

I also mail promotions to my previous clients.

Most of them don't want the discount.

They merely see the card as a reminder.

Can you really make up a too low price in volume?

 

[Jim Martin]

you never want to advertise price.......your goal is to make the phone ring so you can sell yourself and close the deal.....if you are putting your prices down you just took away a reason for them to call......

The only est I do is on tile and commercial jobs...Residential carpet is pretty standard and is done over the phone.....with all the right questions everything can be handled very easy and when I get there everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect....I have better things to do with my time then drive all over town measuring carpet......

I target high and middle income and have been working off of referrals only for the last few years........no specials...just referral discounts....

 

[Dolly Llama]

Can you really make up a too low price in volume?

not a "too low" price..as in "no" profit or at a lose

but sure you can make money with thinner margins on volume.
Do "I" personally want a biz model based on "all" thin margin volume "all" de-time?
Nah...but I'm sure flexible enough not to pass up any opportunities to make a buck..


..L.T.A.

 

[Chris A]

Can you really make up a too low price in volume?

not a "too low" price..as in "no" profit or at a lose

but sure you can make money with thinner margins on volume.
Do "I" personally want a biz model based on "all" thin margin volume "all" de-time?
Nah...but I'm sure flexible enough not to pass up any opportunities to make a buck..


..L.T.A.

I concur, it never hurts to get creative.

 

[Brian R]

you never want to advertise price.......your goal is to make the phone ring so you can sell yourself and close the deal.....if you are putting your prices down you just took away a reason for them to call......

The only est I do is on tile and commercial jobs...Residential carpet is pretty standard and is done over the phone.....with all the right questions everything can be handled very easy and when I get there everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect....I have better things to do with my time then drive all over town measuring carpet......
I target high and middle income and have been working off of referrals only for the last few years........no specials...just referral discounts....

That's why I hired someone to do that for me.

 

[Royal Man]

I just see that a client that is drawn in through a low price is very easily drawn away from your company by the next lower price to come along.

Longterm loyalty is hard to build by price.

There are a lot better ways to sell your company.

Most of my new clients don't even want a price before reserving their appointment.

 

[Ken Snow]

never say never :-)

The world is filled with pricing everywhere I turn, I don't get the idea of not including pricing of some type to trigger a person to call, esp if attractive price points. In regards to high vs low, this is a great industry that lets us choose how we want to market, what target demo we want to go after and what margin we want to make.

 

[Ron Lippold]

Hey Ken im not trying to get personal, but I have a question for you. do you know what it cost you to get the phone to ring booked job or not just looking for adverage.


thanks

 

[Chris A]

Toburin Says $50 for a first time customer, I'm not sure if I q u i t e buy that.

 

[joey895]

For me $50 would be great, I would say I'm closer to $100 and it's not acceptable. The last few months it seems just about the only business I'm getting is repeat customers with an occasional referral or phone book job. Something is going to have to give and soon, I'm not nearly established enough to get by on repeat/referral only.

 

[joey895]

For me $50 would be great, I would say I'm closer to $100 and it's not acceptable. The last few months it seems just about the only business I'm getting is repeat customers with an occasional referral or phone book job. Something is going to have to give and soon, I'm not nearly established enough to get by on repeat/referral only.

 

[Ken Snow]

Those numbers are very manipulable and don't translate into real world application for most busineses. Take ours for instance.

I spend almost 800k in advertising, a portion of which is going to direct market our existing database, but the vast majority is in various mediums (network tv, radio, internet, newsprint, tabloids, specialty pubs etc.) If I have say 50k going to current customers and 750k going to outside advertising mediums you could argue that I spent 750k to acquire new customers. If I only aquired 5,000 new customers then you could say my cost to aquirewas 150 per.

I would argue however that I am consistantly pitting out cost effective advertising to trigger response to the whole market, which includes those people already customers so the 60,000+ customers and new customers that use us cost about $13.00 each to get their business this week/month/quarter/year etc..

There are lots of ways to look at numbers and they all have their benefits and potentials for misinterpretation. Do what makes sense for you.

Ken

 

[Ron Lippold]

great answer ken thanks for the honest info.