How is your Pricing?
If pricing is an issue in your window cleaning business, then read below…
Hello Steve,
In preparation for launching my marketing machine, I did some pricing comparisons and spoke with a person who ran a window washing business in my city for several years and recently retired from the business. His sons have carried on the business here and operate it today.
Any way, he recomended I charge around $1 per side of a window and $1 per screen. So for an inside and out side window job, each window would be around $3. Does this make sense? That seems really, really low to me.
Based on that comparrison, what do you reccomend I charge? There are people in this city with money, and I would like to think my services are worth more than that. Still, I don’t want to price my self out of business.
Any input would be helpful. Thanks a lot.
Jared
My Response:
Hi Jared:
It’s good to hear from you. And it sounds like you are ready to crank it on up. Excellent.
First I’d like to say that what you charge depends on your business model. Do you want to be "affordable"? Or do you want charge a higher price, make more profits, and have ecstatic customers?
These are 2 completely different business models. As you may have noticed, right on the cover letter of my estimate package (you can access it on the webpage where the flyers are), I write to my prospects about me choosing between being "affordable/cheap" or being higher priced. I wanted prospects to know exactly where I’m coming from and what my company is all about.
Being affordable forces you to be fast and to finish jobs quickly. You may not have overjoyed customers but you’re not charging much, so they’re happy in that respect.
Charging more will slightly limit the number of customers you secure, but on the other hand, the customers you get will be thrilled with the job because you’ve taken your time and did it the way it should be done. And your company will be more profitable, you won’t have to do as many jobs, etc. etc. There are a lot of advantages to you and your company by adopting the higher priced business model.
I personally believe in the "charge more" business model. People will pay it. As long as you can present yourself with a strong, high impact presentation, and wow the socks off the prospect with your presentation, then you’ll turn ‘em into customers. That’s proven every single day.
In my hometown, I knew a window cleaner who believed in the affordable business model. And he was running all over the place trying to make a living. I stopped and chatted with him one time and asked him what he was charging for the commercial job he was doing and he responded with "$5.00". I mean it’s not even worth putting the key in the ignition for a $5 job.
This guy mentioned in your email is at $2 a window (not counting screens)? Wow. That’s nutty. I wish him the best with that.
Here’s what I would recommend you do…go with $5 per window to start (in/out). Smaller bathroom type windows are $3. But regular double hung windows are $5.00 each. If I had to climb a ladder then I would put the price to $7.00 per window. My screen pricing was generally $1 per screen, although if it was a larger screen, I’d go with $2.
At the end of pricing/estimating a job for a prospect using the above numbers, many, many times I would do a slight bump-up. So if a job was estimated at $141 for example, I’d present it to the prospect as $159. A lot of this depends on whether it’s a yellow page caller, postcard respondent, flyer respondent, etc. Yellow page callers are more price shoppers and the postcard respondents are not, so you can generally do a little price bump-up for postcard/flyer respondents.
With the above mentioned prices, if you’re closing around 80% of the prospects you present estimates to, then your pricing is fine. If you’re closing less like 40% or 50%, then I would recommend dropping the window price by $1 (look at your image first to make sure it’s strong), but still try and keep the bump-up at the end. If you’re closing close to 100% of the prospects you present estimates to, then you need to raise your pricing a tad. In this case, I would raise your per window price another $1.00.
I want to leave you with an email I got the other day. I copied the portion that relates to pricing. It proves that people will pay if your presentation is rock solid. I’m referring to your "look", how you present the estimate, etc. Here’s the excerpt:
I am thrilled with the professional image that your material presents. I constantly get positive comments. I have had 26 jobs so far and I consider that to be good. I have been increasing my price and I think I am near the threshold for my area. People have shown me previous bills from other companies that were $60 less and yet they were quick to recomend me to their friends. One customer paid me $120 for one hours work even though she had estimats for under $60.
I am doing this full time and so far have only had about three jobs per week. But the pay has been between $650 and $1000.
Let’s look at what tim writes a little closer. Ok, so 3 jobs per week. Doesn’t sound like much, right? First off…he’s relatively new, but let’s look at the profits he’s pulling in ($650 to $1000 weekly). If he was an affordable/cheap window washer, he’d have to at least double the number of jobs completed in the week to 6 or even 7 jobs to make the same money.
And the above is a great example of a profitable company without the constant pressure of looking for jobs. And as tim mentions, the referrals will also come. So it’s a win-win all around.
There are soooooo many advantages to charging more money (this needs to be backed up with a solid image though) that I’m surprised more window cleaners don’t do it. I think many window cleaners have an employee mentality. So they end up being content going after $12, $15, $20 per hour. But if window cleaners change their mindset from being a window cleaner/employee to the owner of a window cleaning business, then profits rise and their business jumps to the next level. It’s as simple as that. It’s not about price or being the cheapest. Obviously not every prospect will jump into our business and agree to use our services regardless how we might impress ‘em. But who cares? Many of them will.
So…don’t make the mistake of pricing yourself out of business as you mentioned. The good news is that you’ll never have to worry about it if you employ the correct pricing business model for your business.
I hope the above helps and answers your question on pricing. Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
256-546-2446
What’s your Hook?
An email recently asking about screens, free time, and more…
Hi Steve
I have a few more questions.
The first is about the monthly payment for The Customer Factor. I placed the first months payment on my personal credit card. I now have a business credit card that I want to use for all future payments. Do you send out bills every month or do you just automatically put a charge on my credit card. If so, I will have to call you and give you the new credit card number.
My next question has to do with washing the screens. Have you ever tried to use a pressure washer on the screens? No something that is going to blow the screens out of the frame but maybe a small electric one. Getting down on my knees and washing the screens gives me a sore back after awhile and I’m thinking maybe I could wash them standing up with a pressure washer.
I have also washed some where they look clean when I’m first done washing them but after they dry, I see white stuff on them that didn’t get out. This looks like pollen from plants or maybe something from cottonwood trees that is hard to get out of the screens. I was thinking a pressure washer might get this stuff out of the screens better.
Other than that, business is picking up. I did a job for a woman in a 200 unit complex who just happens to write the complex newsletter. She did a nice write up on me and now I’m starting to get more calls in the complex. <Employer Deleted> is slowing me down though. Even though I’m part time, they scheduled me for 37 hours this week and 40 the following week. So far I have been able to squeeze all my customers in but there isn’t much free time.
Regards
Dave
My Response:
Hi Dave:
Hope your weekend is going well.
With The Customer Factor, it is set up on an automatic recurring basis. It takes place on the 11th of each month. So if you’d like it changed by august 11th, please give me a call on it for sure.
As far as screens, I have not tried a pressure washer when cleaning screens. I got down on my knees and used a soft bristle brush with a hose/soap. I talked to a guy recently who told me he uses a brush attached to a pole. Kind of like a broom, but he has a nice soft bristle brush at the end. This helps him to avoid bending down, and he says it does just as good a job as if he were to bend down. So you may want to give this a try perhaps. But as far as a pressure washer, I wouldn’t think it would work. I mean I can’t see where you would be able to get the dirt out with a pressure washer. A brush needs to be applied somehow (either on pole or bending down).
Cool on the business picking up. If you just apply various marketing methods for one full year, your business will take on a life of its own. I see it happen all the time.
The woman who writes that newsletter is exactly what happened to me in a retirement community. Jean and Bob Barnes were the newsletter editors for their development. So they wrote stuff about my company, and I was also able to use their comments within my display ad in their publication. It carried a lot of weight obviously. So it’s great to have a newspaper person on your side for sure.
As a side note, and here’s something to think about, a window cleaner I know submitted a "press release" not too long ago to his local newspaper and they ended up writing a nice article about him. When he sent everything to them, he included some photos (the less work an editor has to do, the better) of himself, business vehicle, and a couple of customer homes. To be interesting though, you need a "hook" of some kind. His hook was that he only catered to the elite, wealthy homes. He was cleaning windows on homes where he’d make hundreds of dollars per home.
Other hooks could be the way your company "looks". For example, there was a guy I know in florida who was a chimney sweep. A very dirty job, right? Well…his "hook" was that he cleaned every single chimney in a tuxedo. He got a bunch of free press because of that. So if you can think of something different that no other window cleaner is doing (this shouldn’t be hard because most of them do the same stuff), then the press will be your friend.
I’m not talking about better service, more dependable, more professional, blah, blah, blah. Everyone says that. But something real different. Just an idea for you to think about. But getting written about locally would be an absolute boon to your company and put you on the map. It’ll definitely accelerate your time frame on leaving <employer deleted>. 
)
Speaking about <employer deleted>…, right, they’ll definitely put a crimp on things. Wow…37 and 40 hours? With so few hours left, it’s tough to do much of anything when it comes to building your biz. I mean you might get a call here or there, but it’s vital that you continue to market regularly. Otherwise it’s just a matter of time before it grinds to a halt.
Oh…speaking of marketing, don’t forget to try and establish relations with some maid services also. These type of services will feed you business on a regular basis.
Take care for now. Have a good weekend.
Regards,
Steve
256-546-2446
