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Wholesale discount

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
My business is primarily B2B and occasional walk-in customers. Sometimes I do small jobs for the competition: another sign shop or graphic design studio, say some cut vinyl if they have a sudden rush or equipment is down. I'm on good terms with my competitors and will throw in a 20% discount if it's not a big deal, though none have ever asked for one. One business orders decals for resale regularly and I don't do any weeding or masking, so I kick them a little discount.

I'm dealing with a new designer now who needs some truck graphics asap, two colors of cut vinyl about 10sf total. Thought I'd be nice and squeeze it in before the weekend, and I quoted him 20% off my usual price. He comes back with it was a bit higher than he expected and he wants to make sure he's getting a wholesale discount. Uhhhh...I felt like telling him to go find a wholesaler or trade provider but held my tongue. I'm not a trade provider and he knows that. Something about his attitude struck me the wrong way and I might tell him not to come back again after I do this job.

How would you handle this?
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
When someone asks "Can I have a discount", I usually respond "I'd rather raise the price then lower it". Usually gets a laugh and let's them know I'm not budging.

You can deal with whoever you want... that's the benefit of being the boss. You don't even need a reason. Sometimes people call me and if they talk too slow, I refer them out.
 
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ikarasu

Active Member
Tell him 10 sqft does not make him a wholesale customer, once he starts bringing in volume you can talk wholesale rates.

10 sqft is nothing.... Especially for a new customer. Tell him your pricing is based on volume, and it takes you xx minutes to run 10 sqft, and it'd take you the same xx minutes to run 100 sqft.... So he'll get better pricing once he gives larger orders.


Even our wholesale customers don't get a good deal on low volume orders

[Edit] especially being 2 cut vinyls. Hopefully you do sanity checks and realize just how much small orders cost you! Make a spreadsheet and fill out how long you talk to the client, how long you spend checking / fixing their artwork for your workflow.... How long to load and cut both colors, weed / premask / whatever you do, then package / give to the customer. Then watch your 10 sqft order end up costing you money. The smaller orders usually aren't worth it... We still do them, but if a new customer came in asking for a cheap rate on 10 sqft of vinyl, you know it's going to be a sour relationship from day one.
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
If he orders wholesale, then he can have a wholesale discount. A small one off order is not wholesale. Tell him he is welcome to open a trade account with you, it needs an initial order of $30,000 then $10,000 per month thereafter to maintain it.

It does annoy me a bit when someone asks for a trade or wholesale price, without actually realising what that means. In a previous job I did to open a trade account with one main supplier needed an initial order of $150,000 of stock from them. Without this they wouldn't supply you anything. I imagine with even bigger companies then the initial order would be even more.
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
I also get the ones who say 'if you supply this order of one item at a big discount then i will order hundreds more from you in the future'. In this case I always say 'well I'll charge you full price for this order, then when you place the order for hundreds I will deduct it from that' :D
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
damonCA21 said:
If he orders wholesale, then he can have a wholesale discount. A small one off order is not wholesale. Tell him he is welcome to open a trade account with you, it needs an initial order of $30,000 then $10,000 per month thereafter to maintain it.

It does annoy me a bit when someone asks for a trade or wholesale price, without actually realising what that means. In a previous job I did to open a trade account with one main supplier needed an initial order of $150,000 of stock from them. Without this they wouldn't supply you anything. I imagine with even bigger companies then the initial order would be even more.
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Name one trade wholesaler that has a requirement like this.

I'm not a wholesaler, but I'll give a discount to another sign company for bringing design ready artwork and the time savings of dealing with a knowledgeable client.
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
As I mentioned, this was not in the sign or print industry, it was a different area.
Do you think you can open a phone shop, call Apple and order two iphones from them at wholesale price?
Also, if you are going on a wholesale website and just ordering a few bits and pieces as you need them, you aren't actually getting a whoelsale price from them, you are just getting their normal price ;)
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
Texas_Signmaker said:
Name one trade wholesaler that has a requirement like this.

I'm not a wholesaler, but I'll give a discount to another sign company for bringing design ready artwork and the time savings of dealing with a knowledgeable client.
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There is a big difference between the price you would give to someone bringing in a one off job and getting a bit of a discount than what you would charge someone who is ordering large quantities from you every month. A small trade discount and a wholesale price aren't the same thing
 
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PW66

New Member
That's why I like online or email sales. Difficult to haggle online, the invoice is sent, payment received then production is commenced.

B2B cash customers are the worst for expecting discount. Regular customers already get discount on the basis that the artwork is on file but thet still want more for cash.
I have a sign on my counter saying 'card payment preferred' to head off the 'cash is king' brigade. The card company only charges me about 1.5%. When Bob the Builder pulls out cash he expects 20% discount.
 
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signheremd

New Member
He may be fishing to see if he can get a few more dollars off. I would let him know you have already given him your B2B discount. True also that 10 sqft is a very small amount to expect a big discount
 
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netsol

Active Member
we buy from a fairly expensive kosher deli that has 2 cash registers, side by side, one for cash, one for credit cards
 
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PW66

New Member
victor bogdanov said:
20% cash discount would come out on top vs doing cc if you just put the cash in your pocket...
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Some cash is always good if you want to avoid tax, but all you can really do with tax free cash is eat or drink it. You can't always pay your suppliers or other bills with cash and you can't spend it on anything that would leave a paper trail.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
He's just trying to get a deal. Don't budge on your price. Your business is like mine, it's not set up to do wholesale. You aren't buying 10 rolls of 50 yard vinyl for a discount, you aren't cutting 50 yards at a time or printing 2 rolls a day. You are doing small jobs and small runs therefore you can't give discounts like that. A place like signs365 or Firesprint is running their printers all day long and they buy tons of materials at once at a discount - we can't do that. And in the world of cut vinyl, I'm not sure there's much of a wholesale market unless you have one of those expensive weeding machines - which neither of us have.
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
gnubler said:
say some cut vinyl if they have a sudden rush or equipment is down
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Uh, I'm sorry, but nope. I'm in the business for the money, they're in it for the money, if/when my competition has an issue not completing an order due to equipment failure, I'll either bill them accordingly or ask how they priced it to see if I could supply it for that rate. If they bring their own material, I remove that from the equation but no other discounting. Now other sign companies out of town within the association (WSA, MSSA, I reckon ISA), I'll do them a favor, as long as it doesn't generate overtime or consume materials, but they don't expect me to discount them in their time of dire need.
As far as 'designers', f*ck that. We have a 'branding agency' in town that makes logos and websites. They had taken on an existing customer of ours and helped them rebrand. They asked me for a price to do a little tenant panel on a monument, and kicked back on my price, asking for a discount. I told them I'd be happy to work out a rate with them, but not until we've established a working relationship.
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
This was my point. Companies like that are truly buying their materials at wholesale. You often get people saying 'how can they sell that much cheaper than me, they must be making nothing on the orders' - nope, they just arent paying anywhere near what we are for materials, they are getting a true wholesale price due to the amount they order from their supplier.
 
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RabidOne

New Member
We used to do a "wholesale " discount with volume customers, but that kind of volume was in the hundreds of thousands per year. And that company I used to work for has serious buying power. We got some of our material at costs cheaper than local wholesalers.
We give a wholesale discount here to another shop that doesn't have some of our capability, but they get that discount because we can be running a full day a week on their jobs.
10 sq ft is a one off, this guy can't be serious.
 
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