Raised my prices

[Luis Gomez]

I was getting to many calls. So now is $50.00/room for the first 3 and then 40 ea after, free halls and baths (with the whole house). Stairs @ $4.00 ea. Yesterday had four calls from new customers, 2 booked and the other 2 said they will check with their husbands.

 

[Brian R]

"I understand your feelings, Mrs. Jones. I'd want my wife to check with me too before making an important decision. But while I have you on the phone let me ask you."

"Does the way I have this work order written Meet your projected budget?"

Steve T.
on Brian's computer.

 

[Ron Werner]

you'll find some will think its high, some will agree to it some will say: Is that all??

 

[lance]

Congrats on raising your prices.

Where did those prospects come from? How do you get most of your customers? How long did you hold your prices at the old level?

Tell us what you do for your new price......same thing as before? How about protector sales?

Please give some info.......marketing and capturing customers in as important as raising your prices. Thank you.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Congratulations on having the courage to raise your prices. However, the following statement did concern me. (And Brian too.)

"and the other 2 said they will check with their husbands."

Translation: "The other two hung up and immediately dialed the next guy in the phone book till they found someone cheaper/ felt more comfortable with/ or just got sick of it and said, 'take me- I'm yours'!"

Even in the Latino culture of Puerto Rico, Luis, the vast majority of your female callers do not need to "check with their husbands" before making a decision on who they have clean their carpets. (I know a bit about machismo since I live full time in the Dominican Republic.)

The "check with my husband ploy" is what we call a "smoke screen objection". Few women (or men for that matter) will make the adversarial statement "I think your price is too high and I'm going to call some one else". Yet that is exactly what they are going to do.

So Luis, you need to get the price objection out in the open so you can deal with it and since Brian obviously has gotten a lot more intelligent since his hospital stay I would do exactly what he says below the next time someone hits you (either over the phone or in person) with the "check with my husband" excuse.

"I understand your feelings, Mrs. Jones. I'd want my wife to check with me too before making an important decision. But while I have you on the phone let me ask you."

"Does the way I have this work order written Meet your projected budget?"

Steve T.
on Brian's computer.

The secret, Luis, is to not let these people get away without at least exploring the idea of "rewriting" the job. We never discounted but I was happy to creatively change the scope of the job. If I could lover the time on the job by say 30% I would also lower the price by 30%!

Once again, Luis, these are just positive suggestions and you deserve a lot of commendation for raising prices. But don't get complacent on the phone.

Tu vecino,
Steve
SFS.JonDon.com

PS Luis, you have invested a lot to get your phone to ring. You will lose even more in future business and referrals if you do not "bring this bride to the alter"! If ya want the complete phone script on how to make this happen here is the link to the free download:

http://sfs.jondon.com/1750/resources/sp ... one-format

 

[joe harper]

Or ...you can visit...

www.ilinkeverypostimaketojondonstatagies.com :roll:


hug's & kisse's

Off to the FrEnCh QuArTer...
harpo...."with my BEST Boston accent". :wink:

 

[Brian R]

Or you could complain about any helpful post in order to stroke your own ego. :mrgreen:

 

[Luis Gomez]

Steve, the reason I raised my prices is because I can only do so much in a day. All my jobs are
repeats or referrals. I spend $0.00 in ads. I fired a customer (new) last Friday after she bitched at the agreed price ($135.00) for a service call. Lately (the last 3 weeks) I do not want
my phone to ring, I have that much work and I do not want to loose my customer base to new
customers.

Lance, I clean the carpets. everything is included at that price; except pulling up carpet and pad replacement for urine spots. I always carry protector but probably do not sell more that 2 gals/year. When I was hurting for worked, After thanking the customer for the job I would ask
for referrals from friends and family. Two years ago was the last time I raised prices.
Luis

 

[Jamesh921]

Steve said,

"If I could lover the time on the job by say 30% I would also lower the price by 30%!
"

I'm sure we could ALL book more clients if we were Lovering our clients on 30% of each appointment. Course, I'd be WAY more tired and WAY more divorced if I took your advice. But, I guess I'd be livin' it up in the Dominican Republic sippin' iced tea with you, huh?

Now we know the secret to SFS!!

 

[lance]

Thank you Luis. It is great to read about successful operators. Keep up the good work.

 

[Shorty]

"I understand your feelings, Mrs. Jones. I'd want my wife to check with me too before making an important decision. But while I have you on the phone let me ask you."

"Does the way I have this work order written Meet your projected budget?"

Steve T.
on Brian's computer.

Crikey, yews blokes sure is flash over there.

My customers on the phone can't read my mind, and I'm damn sure they can't see my price list over the phone. shiteatinggrin

I hope we never gets as teknologikally smarts as yews blokes is.



Way to go Luis, by raising your prices you tend to lose the price shoppers and tire kickers, whilst still gaining 10% more for the same time on the job.



Ooroo,

shiteatinggrin



PS ::: Brian, I'm only takin' the p!!s outta ya mate. :wink:

 

[Brian R]

I always look forward to your posts Shorty.