Price Beatdown

[TyrantDesigner]

It doesn't matter what you sell, there will always be someone who sells it cheaper. I always remember a joke that relates well to ANY business as to why you sell to make a profit in all cases. ...

Two men decided to start a business selling bananas so they buy a truck, go down to the docks and buy their bananas and head on off. They sell their bananas for what they bought for them and they sell out in a matter of minutes because they are the lowest in town. Month down the road they are going out of business and one man says to the other "We should have bought a bigger truck." :ROFLMAO:

Every day I get tire kickers ... doesn't mean I tuck tail and fold ... people know I will give them a solid design, a reasonable price and won't blow smoke up their rear end.

We are in this business to make money. Are you bleeding shop costs? start using those expeditures in focused ways ... advertise. take that ink you have to bleed and print on cheap vinyl to go onto coroplast ... send your helpers out to stick the coroplast around town. Got employees sitting around? make them go out and drop brochures off at businesses. Are you dieing in a specialized economy? diversify, diversify, diversify. Have designers twiddling their thumbs? make them work on your company branding, make them launch into social networking to get the word out, make them earn their money ... heck ... tell them to go out and sell in the field ... give them a commission for doing so.

 

[lexsigns]

Could be wrong but I think that's regarded as price fixing.

not mean price fixing... just a chat about industry standard??

 

[royster13]

Regardless of how fast or price breaks on material-we should all be charging the same in our area for cast and calendared(not that I would use calendared on wrapping a vehicle) Have you tried calling and talking to these guys? Doesnt everyone want to make enough money? If their overhead is lower they should be making more profit- not save the client money- DUH!!! Maybe a chat will help but then again,..

We do need to stay competetive but no one should be giving away design, labor or materials...it was like this when vinyl first came out- either find a niche or educate the client (or both) in my experience these guys giving the work away dont stay in biz very long

You make it sound like there will be no differences in the number of jobs sold at a higher price versus at a lower price.....I think that is so wrong.....In my mind it will be easier to sell more jobs at a lower price....

Higher volume and lower overhead allows a shop to make the same gross profit on their lower price job versus your higher price job....I doubt many clients will follow your logic even after you "educate them"....

And lower price shops are not always doing lower quality work.....That is just something you folks have heard so often you believe it....Expensive shops also do "crap work" from time to time.....

 

[lexsigns]

It doesn't matter what you sell, there will always be someone who sells it cheaper. I always remember a joke that relates well to ANY business as to why you sell to make a profit in all cases. ...

Two men decided to start a business selling bananas so they buy a truck, go down to the docks and buy their bananas and head on off. They sell their bananas for what they bought for them and they sell out in a matter of minutes because they are the lowest in town. Month down the road they are going out of business and one man says to the other "We should have bought a bigger truck." :ROFLMAO:

Every day I get tire kickers ... doesn't mean I tuck tail and fold ... people know I will give them a solid design, a reasonable price and won't blow smoke up their rear end.

We are in this business to make money. Are you bleeding shop costs? start using those expeditures in focused ways ... advertise. take that ink you have to bleed and print on cheap vinyl to go onto coroplast ... send your helpers out to stick the coroplast around town. Got employees sitting around? make them go out and drop brochures off at businesses. Are you dieing in a specialized economy? diversify, diversify, diversify. Have designers twiddling their thumbs? make them work on your company branding, make them launch into social networking to get the word out, make them earn their money ... heck ... tell them to go out and sell in the field ... give them a commission for doing so.

 

[lexsigns]

I am not saying there should be no price breaks for quantity- or that sometimes the client wants a temporary job ... I have a lways just worked better making friends in the biz with even my competetors. Maybe they just dont know. The client may or may not know the differences either. Does it hurt to talk to the guy down the street doing the same work at 1/2 the price?? or educate the customer on why they should dpend more money with you? Sounds like no one knows for sure what this other shop is doing for the money- did they design etc... Is the client just lying to get your price down?? Helps to talk to the other shop I think

 

[HulkSmash]

Regardless of how fast or price breaks on material-we should all be charging the same in our area for cast and calendared(not that I would use calendared on wrapping a vehicle)

Are you serious? If you have the advantage of less overhead.. why would you charge the same as everyone else? If my guys can wrap a van in 4 hrs, and the shop down the road takes a week then... how can you charge the same.. If i pay half the price for wrap vinyl... why would i charge what everyone else charges...that makes no sense.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

This is the first I've heard of this. I hope it doesn't catch on.

 

[cdiesel]

Volume is the key.

Guys like ProWraps and Colorado, and AZProSigns are doing more wrap volume in a month than I do in 6,

There's one big difference: We get ~$2600 for a standard van wrap. We sell a good volume, but we don't sell on price. The shops down the road that do shotty work, use crappy materials, and give it away can have the $2,000 van wraps--I don't want 'em. They're just not smart because they're leaving a good amount of money on the table.

We just finished a pair of vans for $2396ea (two same design), and we were $220 higher than the next quote the customer had. Still got the job based on service, quality, integrity, and just overall likeability.

 

[ProWraps]

They're just not smart because they're leaving a good amount of money on the table.

or their market is just completely different from yours.

 

[cdiesel]

Dude, there are whores here just like everywhere else. You have to outsell them. Period.

The job I just posted we were $440 higher than the next guy for both vans. We sell jobs like this EVERY day.

 

[jkdbjj]

Another factor that Dan pointed out in another thread, and I wrote a blog about it. Design has been for the most part eating by many shops. I know several personally in my area that don't really charge for it.

Aside from that, is the design itself, as Dan said, the market will evolve. Customers will get smarter and demand that their brand be represented better than what is on the road currently. When that happens, look out, cause many shops won't know what hit them. They will wonder why no one comes, and it will be because they simply don't offer brand management.

Just wanted to throw that in the mix.

 

[parrott]

This is exactly why we don't chase the wrap business. I will happily quote whatever comes our way with a healthy margin and lose probably 75% of the bids. I have no interest in spending that amount of money on materials and labor and not making s#$% on it. I can make this same amount of money on our screen presses in half the time with a fraction of the material costs. Every business has their niche and thank god this is not ours.

 

[jkdbjj]

This is exactly why we don't chase the wrap business. I will happily quote whatever comes our way with a healthy margin and lose probably 75% of the bids. I have no interest in spending that amount of money on materials and labor and not making s#$% on it. I can make this same amount of money on our screen presses in half the time with a fraction of the material costs. Every business has their niche and thank god this is not ours.

AMEN to that 99% of the day!

 

[Techman]

Are you serious? If you have the advantage of less overhead.. why would you charge the same as everyone else? If my guys can wrap a van in 4 hrs, and the shop down the road takes a week then... how can you charge the same.. If i pay half the price for wrap vinyl... why would i charge what everyone else charges...that makes no sense.

You charge the same or more.. NEVER less. A lesser prices lowers the set point for the entire area. That is not smart business. You add value to the product by throwing in a special add on.
Why? Because the laws of economics and capitalism say so. A business is an entity that is supposed to maximize profits and minimize costs. That is the rule. Otherwise the business is not acting in the best interests of the stockholders.

Any business owner that lowers the price because he has lower production costs is not not a business man. There is only two ways to make money. Raise prices or lower costs. The best way is to lower costs by increasing production. That is the way of things.

But lowering a price below commonly accepted by the area just because a business has a lower overhead is nothing more than ignorance of the rules of running a business.

 

[tsgstl]

I didn't start my own business to follow some guide.
I charge whatever it's worth to me. If a direction isn't worth going in "for me" then I charge enough for it to be worth it. A set system would not give you as much control over what direction you would want to take.

 

[JoshLoring]

You can still get top dollar in CA. We get 2500+ for vans plus art. Art runs 300-1500 plus. All depends.
We run horizontal panels seamed at the bottom of the doors away from eye level. Sides seamed perfect on a finishing table pre install. Rest of van seamless. Takes 68ft of material.

 

[Wraps ink]

This guy doesnt do a large volume nor is he the best or the fastest...my take is he is hurting for business and assumes something is better than nothing. Whats funny is the customer said he had poor customer service...was never at his shop and never answered the phone..and actually done work for this same guy that had to be replaced within a year cause it was falling off...(but hey his price is good) lol I've learned that customers like this arent worth having. Why would I charge $2,100 for a 15 passenger van when the day before I got $2,700 for a midsize suv minus the roof...If people see value in your product they will pay!

 

[Wraps ink]

we also do horizontal seams never understood why shops put 3 vertical seams down the side we always hide our seams and no one around here can touch our designs...you can actually read our wraps..lol the other guys grab a pre-made fills disc and throw a logo on it and call it a wrap.

 

[Farmboy]

When having these discussions at a round table about sign pricing, will there be reps from Staples, Kinkos, UPS and any other big box print shop sitting in? This industry will never conform to a standard pricing.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

we do standard cargo vans for $1995. no roof. its the way the business is. either get with it and evolve or get run over.

Really? I've seen your "special" price of $2,495 for a van all over the web. Thought that was a fair sale price. Now your regular price is $2K? Dang...are you forced to those prices due to local competition or is that all your customers can pay? I'm just trying to get my finger on the pulse of price ranges for different areas. Thanks.