Selling a job! Ideas...

jl-construction

When you guys bid a job, do you focus on price? Quality? Both? Or a combo of all?
When I do a bid, I try to observe/listen to the client and find out whats important to them. All the normal salesmanship stuff, but most importantly find out who the "boss" is and go from there.

Thoughts...

oh'mike

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nap

My thoughts are that this is a DIY site and what a contractor charges has no place here. There are plenty of pro forums out there for the pro's. This site is dedicated (as evidenced by the title "DIY Chatroom") to the non-professional.

ratherbefishin'

Thoughts? You got thoughts? Can I have some? Mine keep wandering off........

Proby

I gave up on trying to bid low a long time ago. I sell on quality work, or at least the perception of quality work that a customer gets when they see my high price.

I'd rather get only 3 jobs for $1,500 than get 5 of the same jobs for $1,000.

I might not win them all, but the ones I get make up for the ones that I lost.

__________________
Anything fun is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

canadaclub

Its always about the price....pays the bills. You calculate material and what you want for labour...then bid. The quality of the work you do decides if you get respect and a reference or a lawsuit. Estimate your hours honestly, based on what you know you can, or cannot do, fast or slow. Nothing worse than getting a job and not knowing how to finish it, OR it takes longer than you think and you end up making $6/hr. I see a lot of that in my area and more often than not, the customer ends up holding the bag...literally.

canadaclub

Sorry..forgot one point. The customer is paying the tab so they are the boss. If I hire subs, temps or whomever, then I am their boss. I make that clear to my customers from the get go. I am responsible for paying them and I am responsible for their mistakes. If there are issues then I ask the customer to address me with them, not my people.