Deal With It?

W

Will

New member
Question for you Commercial guys out there?

I recently bid a commercial property that has about 9200sf. Now, I looked over the property (closely) and found lots of gum and a few things that will require quite a bit of wand work. The guy also mentioned that he use to have it done every month but it had been about 4 months since it was last cleaned. I wanted to get the account so I went in at .030 sf and was going to charge about .06 for the first time cleaning which I decided to waive (the upcharge). Sounds pretty fair to me?

This other guy goes in a prices it at .015 sf. I may be new at this but there is no way you can make money at that price.

This guy sold him on a 6 month contract.

I told him if it did not work out to give me a call when he needed a dependable, quality job done. We left it on good terms and that was that. This however is the 3rd time with this guy and the same story. I do not work for free nor will I and the 2 properties I have seen this fellow do look like they never are cleaned.

How do you deal with this guy?
 
That is too bad Will and your right you dont want to work for nothing..... sooner or later those jobs that he cant even clean will bite him in the bottom. and you will get your chance....... I never bid on square foot .......I look at the job and determine how long i think it' going to take then I throw A figure out.......I have never been "burnt" ........

When i know it's going to be a once a month job i ask my self this.

CAN I do this job for 200.00 ( just guessing on a price)

That means 200.00 extra dollars a month x 6 = 1200.00

To me thats a payment..
..........................................................................................
he is doing it for 138.00 << and he dont even clean it >>

your price 276.00

you have a fair price and im afraid my price would of been higher yet.............
hang in there he wont last long...........
 
Why don't you offer to come in and clean an area for free for the potential customer, after the previous guy does it. That way he will have something to compare, and see what it should look like.
 
DITTO on what Scott says, I do it all the time and be sure you do it in the middle of the other guys work, that way it stands out.

Compromise on price if he signs with you although I don't work on contracts, hand shake and verbal are good for me, so far.

I would sign a contract if the customer wants one with no problem.

From the sounds of the amount of gum it has been more then 4 month since it has been cleaned OR the other guy does not remove all of it. After about the 3rd month the average account looks clean all the time with few exceptions, the trash can area nd soda machine area if the account has them.

Don't wait for him to call though, go back next month and when he says I have your card and will call if I want you right there is when you offer to do that demo, have your equipment with you and if possible do it right then.

Jon
 
Thanks Guys

I like the idea... I will throw that at him for a free area... I did offer a free demo area but he had to break the appt twice. I will just be persistent but I am not going to lower my price.

By the way, you are right about the gum Jon, he has not been removing diddly.

Thanks for the help
 
Will,

What I am about to say is my opinion only and you have every right to disagree as others do also.


By not being willing to compromise on price you might be losing more then that one account, I say that because business owners know other business owners and they talk, one might ask another "who does the pressure cleaning for you" and if it is you guess what your more then half way in the door.

So you make a few bucks less per job, by not having that account how much are you making from it?

For one time jobs or a business that only wants it 4 times a year I would not budge on price either, in fact it is higher then normal so I can continue doing the quality I do and make a profit.

BUT if it is a local chain, franchise or national company I would indeed give a better price.
 
I agree with Jon.

Sometimes you may have to lower your price a little bit if it comes to repeat work. Its called Negotiating. If of course the price that the other guy gave them is ridiculously low which it sounds like it is then do the free demo to show them that you can do a much better job and maybe offer to do it for a little less then your original offer so you can get the job. Repeat business adds up in $ signs in the years end.

A fast example of this would be lets say you get the job for $225 per visit and in the future you have employees working for you and you pay them lets say $15/hr and this job takes 3hrs then do the math.

Now the job is done. Your worker made his $45-$60, gas cost you $15 and chemicals and others cost you $15 bucks you still walked away with $135 for that one job and you weren't even there. Thats what happens if you get big enough in the future.

Lowballing of course is another topic which doesn't apply to this.

So good luck and get that JOB!

John
 
If you ask me, this guy is playing you. Do you know for sure he really got a quote of .015 from this guy? Come on....thats ridicuous. Even a high school kid with a garden hose would know enough to charge more then that!

Doing a sample for this guy will only give him more of what he wants..........something for nothing! In my opinion, you should forget about this guy, and move on to other property managers who wont jerk you around and waste your time.

My two cents.
 
Facts of the job.

When I say I will not budge on my price it is because of the property itself.. some of it will be a pain to reach and there is quite a few obstacles to work around.
As far as this other guy he is doing it for .015 a sf. I know it seems ridiculous but one of the other properties I picked up showed me a bid from this guy.... they went with me because of another customer I have and the fact that I was priced right in the middle of their other estimates(5 total). I would probably do the job for $225 on a monthly/bi-mothly basis but I want a contract on it for that. I do not want the guy promising me work and then not delivering on it after I have cut him a good deal for just one job. I get the feeling this guy is so so ( I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night)

In my opinion, my price is fair as I have walked the job. We all know that every job is a little different some easier, some not.


I appreciate everbody's input here and I never take any offense to it. I read tons of posts on these boards and find a lot of good info on them.

Another note: Picking up a brand new rig tommorrow.. Will have some pic's next week...Took a look at her today, she is purty.
 
This is a topic that I could get screaming mad about. I have dealt with one guy here that all but ruined me becuase he played all of my accounts, and bid them at half the price I was charging. Everytime I lowered my price to keep or get an account he came in lower. I finally learned that if you win a contract based on the cheapest price and not the highest quality of work, then you will lose the very same contract based solely on price. I finally told a couple of customers that I would meet his price and perform the same quality of work for one month, and they could compare it with the previous work I had been doing. It worked and I kept about half of the accounts that he had tried taking from me. Price wars are nasty battles. I have yet to truly win one against those guys.


Kendra
 
Below are pictures of a job we bid and lost. However these pictures where taken right after the other guy did the service. He was about 30% lower than we were. This is one of my well-known competitors. He has and established business and does OK work. That’s the key it just OK. Our demos over his work must have impressed the owner. He has contacted us but has not given us the info yet. Even when you go to extreme measure like this doesn’t mean you will get the work. Pictures are proof and when we sy where the best some just take it as a sales pitch. Consumers don’t realize the difference in services can range dramatically.


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On another note: let me explain what happened to a 54-account customer once. We lost the account because a guy came in and just about slashed our bid in half. The customer then got pissed at us, he called me and said Ron you been robbing me for years. Of course I went through the you get what you pay for and assured him the guy would not be able to clean the accounts after a few time because they had been cleaned so well his perception of what its really going to take to maintain them are wrong.


He made and attempt to offer me the stores at 100.00 dollars each, I declined and told him it was impossible.

Months went by and we were getting ready to shoot some photos of the dirt and grim that was building up. Then I stumbled on the guy washing the sites. Keep in mind that this customer accused me of being to high. He asked me how long are you at one of my locations. I replied about 3 to 4 hours depending. Well he said that’s too high. That’s way to freaking high. Now I pull up at the grocery store to get my stuff and notice this guy pressure washing this location. He just got there. I look at my watch and go into the store. I only needed a magazine and a gallon of milk. I was in the store about 20 mins. I walk over to my truck not being in a hurry and start reading my magazine and I notice the guy is rolling up. He finished in 27 min’s to be exact. That’s been ridiculous, that’s over 200 dollars per hour. Who is robbing who???????

Well you know how this on turned out after we gave him proof with the photos. As you probably know I’m not the most popular guy in town with companies that don’t do there job. We mail & e-mail many photo demos to customers every week. If you’re doing a bad job we let them know.

I have only had a couple death threats. For every death threat I have had guys call me and thank them for letting them know their guys where running stuff in the ground.
 
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