Another "What would your number be?" Q

[Emanon]

I told him between $900- $1100. He seemed surpised that I gave him such a low number. He said something to the effect of "You're the most reasonable out of the six people I've called." The fact that he called six people is a different rant, but it is important to note that he didn't tell me how many people he contacted until after I told him my price, if this holds true to how he handled his other phone calls than one can assume that people were giving him realistic numbers.

If he had said one or two others were higher than I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but six is signifigant. I guess what struck me the most about this is the strategy other EC's may be trying to adopt in these lean times. I would have expected him to say something like "I've got one guy that'll do it for a ham sandwich and a warm Coke." It's good to see that we aren't in the throat cutting paradigm yet but do you think that less work out there means EC's are trying to make up for lost profit on one job?

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but it struck me as really odd.

This is an intresting observation and I am for it. It is about time we all start staying within the higher range quotes. For me, the slowdown has made me realize what I am worth, not how much can I do and how low can I go to stay busy. I have actually raised my prices on some jobs. I need to account for my estimating time that has increased. Jobs keep getting put on hold, canceled or given to the lowballer and even some contract jobs have stopped midway due to lack of funds.

On a side note and you guys really need to work on this. Every one here on this forum has something to share, but people are going astray from the OP topic. There are alot of 5 page diatribe posts containg "fillers", without anything of note actually responding to the OP. ie.. Permits and inspections need to be in another thread...

 

[ishium 80439]

Emanon, I agree w/ you, I started the thread and am guilty of leading it astray.

To my original point I often read on this board of people preaching charging what we are worth, not what we can do the job for and I agree. Certainly this one phone call doesn't establish a trend but from past experience with similiar situations I know that my pricing is sometimes high, sometimes low and sometimes in the middle of the pack. To get a response that I was the lowest out of six people (and apparently quite a bit lower from the HO's reaction) was surprising.

The one good thing that every down turn brings is that it shakes out the dead wood. Once the hacks and wannabe's can't make easy money they start to scurry away. I wonder if this is the leading edge of that?