• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

OMG, How Do I Compete?

jiarby

jiarby

New Member
Had a regular customer (mostly A-Frames & Banners) ask for a quote on some coros last month.

I putzed around and never got back to him. Now last week I see the signs around town.

So, I drop him a line:
"Sorry to not get back to you in time for that coro job... what did you end up paying for those. I just finished building a press to make them and it wasn't ready in time to do your job."

He writes back...
"$375 for 400... including wire stakes"

OMG!
I can't buy the blanks for that! Forget about the stakes too! I gotta find out where he got them so I can just buy the blanks!
 
David Wright

David Wright

New Member
As far as competing goes, price isn't the only detriment to bad business, not following up in a timely fashion with customer inquiries can't help either.
 
JasperST

JasperST

New Member
You only compete with that if you want to be the lowball in town. Or the internet, which is probably where he got them.
 
royster13

royster13

New Member
Even if you have your own press, you can only compete if they need signs today or tomorrow....If they have a few days for them to get shipped in, it will be hard to compete with the volume shops who buy blanks by the container load at a time and run 100s of jobs a week....
 
I

imagep

New Member
jiarby said:
Had a regular customer (mostly A-Frames & Banners) ask for a quote on some coros last month.

I putzed around and never got back to him. Now last week I see the signs around town.

So, I drop him a line:
"Sorry to not get back to you in time for that coro job... what did you end up paying for those. I just finished building a press to make them and it wasn't ready in time to do your job."

He writes back...
"$375 for 400... including wire stakes"

OMG!
I can't buy the blanks for that! Forget about the stakes too! I gotta find out where he got them so I can just buy the blanks!
Click to expand...


Thats less than the cost of the materials. No way man. He is pissed because you didn't get back with him so he is getting back at you by lying about the cost of the job. Been there, done that.
 
SignManiac

SignManiac

New Member
Not that I would want to compete with these guys, but if you really want to, charge $350 for the same 400 signs. You won't make any money but you'll give them a dose of their own medicine.
 
Dice

Dice

New Member
We Get Customers all the time, asking for 100+ Coro Signs. After we tell them that the absolute best we could do is around $4 each. They laugh and say "Man that is way higher than the 99 cent quote I have"

"If you have a quote for 99 cents, why did you call us?", "I was hoping for 98 cents"

Don't even freaking bother with these people.
 
K

knifemaker3

New Member
I just quoted a 4'x8' coroplast sign to a real estate lady a little while ago for $264 and I thought she was going to choke on the phone!

I'm only charging her $7.50/sq ft. + the substrate.

Some people just think you should actually pay them for the privilege of doing their sign! But, try and get them to give you a break when you want their services......NO WAY!

Just don't worry about it and move on to the next real job!
 
C

CentralSigns

New Member
Hey man real-estate companies are use to getting signs from the lowballers. They by a huge order for the whole office and seldom want the signs piece meal locally. Face the fact, your only going to get the the stuff that they can't ship cheap or the stuff the big company doesn't do. All I get is the last minute stuff, the cover over the mistakes stuff and the huge stuff form them.
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
We have some shops selling 4'x8's to real estate agents for 75.00$ Yes they are produced on a flatbed. That is what they call agent specials. Standard prices for a printed 4x8 on 4mil coro goes for 160.00$ around here. I am starting to think that these UV inks are making people stupid. I'm more than happy to compete with these guys with my old inkjet thats paid for (can't compete with the 75.00$ special though and i wouldn't either). No way am i interested in buying a 100 grand machine to compete with idiots.
 
Flame

Flame

New Member
Baz said:
We have some shops selling 4'x8's to real estate agents for 75.00$ Yes they are produced on a flatbed. That is what they call agent specials. Standard prices for a printed 4x8 on 4mil coro goes for 160.00$ around here. I am starting to think that these UV inks are making people stupid. I'm more than happy to compete with these guys with my old inkjet thats paid for (can't compete with the 75.00$ special though and i wouldn't either). No way am i interested in buying a 100 grand machine to compete with idiots.
Click to expand...

That's insane! I charge $380 for a full color, 4x8 coro!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top