I should have known better!

[ATD Signs]

I like to think of most people with good intensions when they call and ask me about what I can do for them.
One week ago a lady from a real estate office calls me and asks for price for 2 open house signs, 2 boards 2 sides 4mm coroplast, 3mil vinyl, size 20x24.
I figure material cost $6.50 times 2= $13.00. Time to cut up, weed out, premask & install 10 mins. each side for a total of 20 mins. x $1.00 per min.= $20.00.
So I tell this lady $35.00 for each board. Then the lady tells me that my price is too high and that they only pay $5.00 per board from another sign shop.
Really lady, did you really think you could get your sign for less than $5.00. What waste of my time!
These are my rules next time someone calls
1 How much do you want to spend?
2 When do you need it by?
3 If your price shopping, you tell me the price you got from the first guy you called down the road before you called me?
My vent for the day

 

[CanuckSigns]

I like to think of most people with good intensions when they call and ask me about what I can do for them.
One week ago a lady from a real estate office calls me and asks for price for 2 open house signs, 2 boards 2 sides 4mm coroplast, 3mil vinyl, size 20x24.
I figure material cost $6.50 times 2= $13.00. Time to cut up, weed out, premask & install 10 mins. each side for a total of 20 mins. x $1.00 per min.= $20.00.
So I tell this lady $35.00 for each board. Then the lady tells me that my price is too high and that they only pay $5.00 per board from another sign shop.
Really lady, did you really think you could get your sign for less than $5.00. What waste of my time!
These are my rules next time someone calls
1 How much do you want to spend?
2 When do you need it by?
3 If your price shopping, you tell me the price you got from the first guy you called down the road before you called me?
My vent for the day

You should have hung up at real estate agent

 

[Bigdawg]

That happened once to me when I had my own shop. A walk-in stopped by and asked me to quote some coro signs. He answered about the same way. I told him to go back to the cheap shop and have them done then He got huffy and told me he couldn't... they were out of business. I just looked him with a "ya' think" kind of look on my face...

(

I like to think of most people with good intensions when they call and ask me about what I can do for them.
One week ago a lady from a real estate office calls me and asks for price for 2 open house signs, 2 boards 2 sides 4mm coroplast, 3mil vinyl, size 20x24.
I figure material cost $6.50 times 2= $13.00. Time to cut up, weed out, premask & install 10 mins. each side for a total of 20 mins. x $1.00 per min.= $20.00.
So I tell this lady $35.00 for each board. Then the lady tells me that my price is too high and that they only pay $5.00 per board from another sign shop.
Really lady, did you really think you could get your sign for less than $5.00. What waste of my time!
These are my rules next time someone calls
1 How much do you want to spend?
2 When do you need it by?
3 If your price shopping, you tell me the price you got from the first guy you called down the road before you called me?
My vent for the day

 

[TimToad]

This is what happens when those within our industry bent on commodifying everything we offer down to its lowest "per unit" cost forget that ALL advertising has an intrinsic value above the raw cost of making the sign.

Just because someone has a printer that can spit the stuff out at hundreds per hour and is located in mostly "right to work for less" states, does not make a "for sale" sign for a realtor who will make thousands and thousands of dollar on a sale any less valuable to them.

We get this kind of call all the time from realtors and we just quote the stuff normally and if pressed about matching their online suppliers or some idiot willing to underprice his or her work, we just explain that we offer local, prompt service with extra charges tacked on for anything and when one really adds up all the costs to buy them from some online source including extra color charges, shipping and handling, etc. its usually close to what we can do them for to begin with.

So if a landscaper, home builder, contractor, etc. wants 25 yards signs from us and they are paying $25 a piece and think its a good deal and has a great ROI, what makes realtors so special that they deserve to get them for less?

 

[decalman]

It takes all kinds.
Quacks like that, you just got to shake off.

 

[Gino]

I completely feel your frustration.
Back in the days, when you hadda handpiant these things, it seemed unfair in the late 80s that someone with a 4b could do it faster, cheaper and more accurate than me and cost less. It was hard competing against the few shops that had these new fangled gadgets. Move ahead and now everyone has a computer and cutter, but not everyone has a flatbed. At $5 a pop, you are making good money. You have 75 cents in cor-x, 45 cents in ink and about 2 minutes of time. Throw in your overhead and whatnot...... and you are still more than doubling your money. Not how we do it, but I understand.

 

[ams]

You can get $5.00 coroplast signs online however they come out of China and take nearly 3 weeks to get them.
Next time ask for the quote or invoice from the other company, chances are they don't have one.

Customers like to make their own prices for signs. They ask me often "Don't you just push a button and it makes the sign?"
Customer see a cheap piece of plastic and assume it's value.

 

[player]

Real estate businesses should never be your customer.

 

[veloxgraphics]

I would have replied with, "Well, they ARE actually only $5... plus points, plus closing costs, plus escrow fees, plus..." See how far you got before they stopped you.

 

[Gino]

Real estate businesses should never be your customer.

Guess you just never had the right real estate companies for customers. They're great..... and for the last ten or so years, everything is for sale, so we're making a sh!tload of signs for all of them.

 

[TimToad]

This is what happens when those within our industry bent on commodifying everything we offer down to its lowest "per unit" cost forget that ALL advertising has an intrinsic value above the raw cost of making the sign.

Just because someone has a printer that can spit the stuff out at hundreds per hour and is located in mostly "right to work for less" states, does not make a "for sale" sign for a realtor who will make thousands and thousands of dollar on a sale any less valuable to them.

We get this kind of call all the time from realtors and we just quote the stuff normally and if pressed about matching their online suppliers or some idiot willing to underprice his or her work, we just explain that we offer local, prompt service with extra charges tacked on for anything and when one really adds up all the costs to buy them from some online source including extra color charges, shipping and handling, etc. its usually close to what we can do them for to begin with.

So if a landscaper, home builder, contractor, etc. wants 25 yards signs from us and they are paying $25 a piece and think its a good deal and has a great ROI, what makes realtors so special that they deserve to get them for less?

meant to say "WITHOUT" extra charges for anything.

 

[TimToad]

Real estate businesses should never be your customer.

We do work for over a dozen real estate offices regularly and probably dozens more infrequently, some with as many as 25 agents in one office. The majority of them "get it" on the cost of having a very professional quality and appearance in their signage.

I find its the struggling or hobbyist realtor who is doing it part-time or only has a listing or two that are the penny pinchers.