It can be really tough for people just getting into the sign business to have enough guts to let a customer walk when they say they can get a particular product online for so many dollars less. We won't bat an eyelash when hearing it. It's basically like, "well, bye!"
Sometimes it's really about calling that customer's bluff. Because some of those price claims they toss out are just made-up BS. We know what it costs for specific materials, labor, etc. We have to cover those costs. We're not going to sell something and take a loss on it. Customers don't know our costs, overhead, etc, but some will sure try to act like they're experts on it. They'll belly-ache like we're trying to rip them off or something. You just have to stand your ground. Most of the time they give in and buy the product. And of the ones who actually walk, well you probably don't want their business anyway.
SameDay Signs said:
i can draw up a nice banner in the matter of 5 minutes print a 3x6 in 5 minutes
That sounds like BS. How do those
5 minute designs look? Is it something more than ugly default Arial squeezed and stretched all to $#!+?
rjsigns said:
Key phrase in the OP's post: "..client has a general idea". Translated: Time wasting zero profit most irritating thing I've done in months.
Some customers believe labor is not worth anything. So it doesn't bother them if they cause you to make lots of revisions on a job, even something cheap like a banner. They think computers all work like the BS they see on
CSI: Miami. Just rattle some gibberish into the keyboard real quick and the job is done. Then there are some customers who don't want you making any kind of profit on a job. Locally there is a couple douche-bag types we ended up black-listing over that kind of nonsense. There is a lot of people who have money who are still decent people, but I really can't stand the types who feel like they're losing money on a deal if they don't make you lose money. That's just sleazy.
Ultimately all clients and projects are different in their own way. Any kind of flat pricing runs counter to that reality. If we're doing a big sign project for a new restaurant or some other kind of business and they're buying lighted pylon signs, lighted building signs, directional signs, interior signs, etc it's nothing for us to throw in a temporary banner or construction site sign for cheap or even free. We'll especially do that if it's a repeat customer that has bought a lot of stuff from us.
First time customers right off the street are another matter, especially if they're people wanting things for personal projects not related to a business. Someone may come in wanting a banner for a birthday party, class reunion, welcome home troops, etc. We can't spend a bunch of time dinking with design revisions on that kind of stuff.
Even on big permanent signs or vehicle wraps we try from the outset to get the customer to narrow down what they want at every stage. If they're going to be iffy, not know what they want, etc we're not going to waste time creating finished designs with all the dimensions and material specs on the sketches. We're certainly not going to do that if any elements have to be hand-drawn and/or created from scratch. They're going to start out seeing basic doodles, quick pencil sketches on paper (or iPad), etc and be forced to decide on things at those stages before the elements move into the final design stage.
If we're doing this with a first time customer they're going to know from the outset that the meter is running (especially on things like vehicle wraps). There's not much we're going to do for free. Some people are just price shopping; they'll let you produce 10 revisions on a design project only to walk to a competitor that low-balled the price.
And they'll try to take your artwork to that competitor!
