We try to please all customers at any level.
Give them a three tier pricing scheme and you should win most quotes. Explain to them what they get for this or that and then wait for an answer or dumb look.
30 years ago, I was doing vans for around $350 a shot. Later, when the computers came along..... after hand painting them, the computer made much of the lettering part much easier and go faster, but we still had the overhead of the computer and vinyls. Price went up, but my analogy was always... what $350 bucks ?? That's a dollar a day for one year to advertise. Where else can 10,000 people a day see you for a dollar ?? Even your phone bill was higher than that. How many people other than those looking for you ever see ya there ?? Out on the street everyone sees you whether they want to or not. You have for the most part... a captive audience.
There is no reasoning with the customers of today. There's too much internet activity hitting you from all sides, too many back yard mechanics that haven't a clue as to what this stuff is worth, but most of all, most people are living on a shoestring budget. People are buying cheaper toys for their kids, eating at less expensive places and just in general pinching their pennies. No one today looks at the long scope of how well something will wear or look in 5 years. They are living in the 'Present' and the 'Very Very Near Future' of about 4 weeks.
How many of you ever heard of signs lasting 20 or more years. It's impossible if you're a vinyl jockey, wrap specialists or digital print shop. Heck, even the paint shops making signs won't last much more than 8 to 10 years. The hardest thing for me to 'wrap' my head around was for signs to only have a life expectancy of 5 to 7 years and with digital stuff 3 to 5 years at most. Its a whole new game out there and its only gotten way more expensive to get into this field, but even way more easier to be a sign pro..........
A normal van according to copy, details and work fabricating it, should cost between $450 and $850 for a good job and as pro said earlier.... one of my oldest quotes is.... I'd rather have 90% of something than 100% of nothing. Other than a full wrap.... with today's machines anyone can do a truck for about $75 out of pocket expenses. It's your overhead and other costs that will jack that price up. Can you afford to give in once in a while. That's up to you. If you're losing all your jobs to the guy down the street.... investigate why. Go in and talk turkey with him/her and get a feel for what they're doing different. Then perhaps you can both raise your prices again and both come out ahead.
My last thought.... if you think taking a cut in price is a bad thing, then why do you suppose you are seeing so many sales, promotions and 1/2 price cuts in the newspapers, television.... even here at s101. People are trying to drum up business. They'd rather have a piece of the pie then to let it rot away to nothing. Any smart businessman/woman will do anything to keep their doors open. Don't sell yourself short, just on principle.... not in these economic times.
.