Should you include prices on flyers?

[Team Gopher]

Should you include prices on flyers?

Yes or no.

Feel free to add why or why not too.

[MrMojoRisin]

I say no. Who knows what lies in the backyard..............

[The Coach]

No........ But I might try something next year such as

Weekly lawn service as low as $XX.00. Please call for your FREE estimate.

[Stephen M.]

NO.

Its been my experience that one shouldn't "lock or box" themselves into a single pricing strategy. I won't give pricing on the phone sight unseen and I won't give a "ballpark" pricing. People read into and hear what they want to hear.

Say, your "normal" pricing is $30/cut for a 5000sf yard and you give that as your "ballpark" figure sight unseen. When you get to the potential jobsite, you find that "5000sf" yard is actually 7000sf on a hillside with obstacles. Guess what, you just loss face and "money" because that potential customer misrepresented his square footage and heard $30/cut! when you real should be charging more than $30.

[MortNuke]

YES!

Include one or two "for example..." of your fee structure based on size that is consistant with the neighborhood you are targeting. If you move off this example price, you should carefully explain your reasoning for doing so (difficult terrain, fences, etc.).

Reason #1: Saves time and money. This pre-screens the folks who call looking for the lowest possible price. If you are running a legit business (taxes, insurance, etc.), then you will not be the lowest priced company. Even when potential customers call, continue to use pre-screening questions to gently probe whether they will be wasting your time.

Reason #2: It encourages calls from folks who are "phone-shy" (mostly females), and extremely busy (mostly men) who are not prone to calling around for low-ball pricing. These inquires are very high percentage successes: They are prepared to pay your fee (since it was on the flyer), and won't be calling every outfit that comes along to get a better deal. Treat them right, and you'll have a customer for life. If a female calls, it's nice to probe whether she can make the final decision on her own, or if someone else needs to be there when you make your visit. I have found that most husbands will NOT make a favorable decision based on your visit with his wife. Schedule your visit when they can both be there, whenever possible.

Mort

[Stephen M.]

Good points Mort.

Pre screen does save time, but I still have a hard time throwing a price out there sight unseen. The exception is gutter cleaning, where we will say our minimun charge is $130 + tax, and it goes up from there. I suppose one could say that the minimum charge is $30 to mow xyz square feet, and it goes up from there based upon these mitigating factors...

[MGO]

No!

I do, however, tell prospects on the phone what my minimum charge is to "drop the gate"....this keeps me from wasting time going to someones house to quote it when they are thinking that I am going to be the same price as the 13 year old kid down the street...

[Allan]

Not only do I put a price on all of my flyers, I sign up my customers without ever looking at their property. I just ask them a couple of quesions and then go mow. If they lied, then I drop them. It works really well.

[John Galt]

Not only do I put a price on all of my flyers, I sign up my customers without ever looking at their property. I just ask them a couple of quesions and then go mow. If they lied, then I drop them. It works really well.

Agreed. While other LCO's are giving estimates at props in my area, I drive right to the house and pick up a check before I start up a piece of equipment. What difference does it make other than square ft? Sure there might be a couple of more trees, which Might require 2-3 more minutes trimming time, but
that just the guy mowing the front lawn ends up blowing. Brief the customer on the phone. If you or your crew finds out what they said on the phone isn't what is found on the prop, well keep on drivin'!

[Stephen M.]

Old dogs can learn new tricks!! Thanks for broadening my horizons and giving me some stuff to think about.

Allan's thinking is problematic to me. The assumption, if I reading correctly, is that some money is better than no money; a tactic used by the hotel and airline industries. But we sell time, and if its one size fits most all properties, you're losing money. Its a common business mistake to think that you will "make up" the loss on volumn; that doesn't happen. Its like a hotel that doesn't rent out all rooms every nite, its lost revenue that can't be made up.

Sure, scoping out a property and giving an estimate takes time, and for the solo operator, Allan's method may save time and money. But for guys like me who sends out 2 crews of 2-3 people per crew, this would be a money loser. The biggest return on investment is for me, boss/owner, is to look at each property and give a quote.

[Allan]

Old dogs can learn new tricks!! Thanks for broadening my horizons and giving me some stuff to think about.

Allan's thinking is problematic to me. The assumption, if I reading correctly, is that some money is better than no money; a tactic used by the hotel and airline industries. But we sell time, and if its one size fits most all properties, you're losing money. Its a common business mistake to think that you will "make up" the loss on volumn; that doesn't happen. Its like a hotel that doesn't rent out all rooms every nite, its lost revenue that can't be made up.

Sure, scoping out a property and giving an estimate takes time, and for the solo operator, Allan's method may save time and money. But for guys like me who sends out 2 crews of 2-3 people per crew, this would be a money loser. The biggest return on investment is for me, boss/owner, is to look at each property and give a quote.

You are assuming wrong. The idea is that I am interested in serviceing certain types of lawns only. A small chat with the homeowner will tell if their lawn meets my qualifications or not.

So, lets say that you still want to do the estimates the traditional way. Lets say that you sign up 1/2 of all of the clients. It would take about 1 hour per estimate and that is fairly conservative.

I signed up 200 new customers this year alone. It would have taken you 10 weeks (40 hr per week) just to do the estimates - nevermind all of the rest of the work. But I can do the whole process from the phone ringing to on the schedule in less than 15 minutes.

BTW, I am not solo.

I don't do any of my properties at a loss. The ones that are marginal, we either change their service/price or let them go.

[Team Gopher]

Great insight!

[Pookie]

Hey guys frist time to post. Allan what kind of pre-screen questions do you ask would be customer? I am just starting and in my area I am just working out what the market will hold for price and what it takes for me to make a decent profit. Would like and help in cutting time on job quotes

[Allan]

Well, I already know their lot size so I just ask them if they have any steep hills, retaining walls, or anything that makes it difficult to mow.

That's about it. If they lie I drop them.

[Que]

Allan, how do you determine 'if' it is the customer or your crew that is lying about the property? I mean you are relying on the crew leader to do part of the estimating / evalution of the property.