Reasons For Not Giving Free Estimates

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Rewire said:
The plantive cry of the defeated
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you are correct..you win...logic, reason, facts, and the experience of others have not even come close to swaying you from your misguided assumption...and what you do has no effect on my daily life...so, you win, i quit...
 
emahler said:
you are correct..you win...logic, reason, facts, and the experience of others have not even come close to swaying you from your misguided assumption...and what you do has no effect on my daily life...so, you win, i quit...
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hey thats my line,you just paused had you have truly quit you would not have needed to inform me with your last post.
 
I think that at the end it seems to me that some sort of compromise is necessary.

I can fully understand that a small or single person operation can not afford to visit a small job, just to give you an estimate without compensation. That is true if that person is busy 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. If a person is that busy, then he can afford to hire another person, evenm just halftime and can offer to the calling HO, to 'swing by' on the way home to take a look at what he wants IF it can not be described through the phone.

If its out of the way, then he can suggest to the HO to find somebody close by.

So the end of it is, that the charge for the estimate visit should be left loose and if it is just a 10 min. stop on the way home, it should be on the house.

If the HO is out of the way and still insist to go with ya, then you can inform him that this is how much out of the way he is and this is the time and gas it will cost him for you to come out. We're talking about less that $700 or so jobs. If the job is over $1K, the estimate should be free like the big boys do it.

This is MY opinion and you don't have to agree with it.
 
weressl said:
I think that at the end it seems to me that some sort of compromise is necessary.

I can fully understand that a small or single person operation can not afford to visit a small job, just to give you an estimate without compensation. That is true if that person is busy 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. If a person is that busy, then he can afford to hire another person, evenm just halftime and can offer to the calling HO, to 'swing by' on the way home to take a look at what he wants IF it can not be described through the phone.

If its out of the way, then he can suggest to the HO to find somebody close by.

So the end of it is, that the charge for the estimate visit should be left loose and if it is just a 10 min. stop on the way home, it should be on the house.

If the HO is out of the way and still insist to go with ya, then you can inform him that this is how much out of the way he is and this is the time and gas it will cost him for you to come out. We're talking about less that $700 or so jobs. If the job is over $1K, the estimate should be free like the big boys do it.

This is MY opinion and you don't have to agree with it.
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and as a person who signs the front of the paychecks, not the back, i do disagree....
 
Rewire said:
my job is to keep six guys busy and I do that buy bidding every job that I get called to look at.
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my job is to make a profit, whether it's done with 1 guy, 10 guys or 100....i do this by not wasting my time chasing my tail....
 
weressl said:
I think that at the end it seems to me that some sort of compromise is necessary.

I can fully understand that a small or single person operation can not afford to visit a small job, just to give you an estimate without compensation. That is true if that person is busy 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. If a person is that busy, then he can afford to hire another person, evenm just halftime and can offer to the calling HO, to 'swing by' on the way home to take a look at what he wants IF it can not be described through the phone.

If its out of the way, then he can suggest to the HO to find somebody close by.

So the end of it is, that the charge for the estimate visit should be left loose and if it is just a 10 min. stop on the way home, it should be on the house.

If the HO is out of the way and still insist to go with ya, then you can inform him that this is how much out of the way he is and this is the time and gas it will cost him for you to come out. We're talking about less that $700 or so jobs. If the job is over $1K, the estimate should be free like the big boys do it.

This is MY opinion and you don't have to agree with it.
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One look in the phone book and I see a EC advertising free estimates,with my market it is a numbers game the more I bid the more I get and I find that what matters to the HO is bottom line price so charge or no charge I still need to price right.I believe that every HO I meet has the potential to be a customer now or in the future.Even when I dont get the job I have met the customer and left them with a good impression.Many times I get call backs from HO who tell me they wished they had used me on their first project,The only customer you will never get is the one who never walks in your door or in my case the one I don't see because I want to charge for the visit.
 
weressl said:
If the job is over $1K, the estimate should be free like the big boys do it.
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If by the big boys you mean GE or Sears, they will charge you.

Ask Home Depot to come out and give you an estimate for a generator installation. They will charge you. Who do you consider the big boys?
 
Rewire said:
One look in the phone book and I see a EC advertising free estimates,with my market it is a numbers game the more I bid the more I get and I find that what matters to the HO is bottom line price so charge or no charge I still need to price right.I believe that every HO I meet has the potential to be a customer now or in the future.Even when I dont get the job I have met the customer and left them with a good impression.Many times I get call backs from HO who tell me they wished they had used me on their first project,The only customer you will never get is the one who never walks in your door or in my case the one I don't see because I want to charge for the visit.
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I can tell you're a salesman. I've talked with a LOT of salespeople & wish I could do what they do. I've been lucky enough to find a sales method where I barely have to speak that's working well. If you're really getting anywhere near 50% sales with your method, I envy you. I was always way too depressed to keep track of it. It was probably something like 20-25%.

Last year there were SIX phone ads with free estimates. This year there are three. Two are tiny new ads & one is a big plumber expanding into electrical. They're even doing radio ads (plumbing ads & electric ads) "Big Boy plumbing & electric where the estimate is always free." In previous years this might have made me nervous, but having my time in I was thinking...just because they're making money at plumbing doesn't mean they'll make money in electrical. The last radio ad I heard was a plumbing ad..."Big Boy Plumbing"...no mention of electric.

I think the point the NJ man was trying to make is you can run the same business with 3 techs that you're running now with 6. You just need to find the Faith. Amen.

Dave
 
Dave,

it takes most guys a few years until they realize that the bottom line is what counts...

30% of $500,000 is the same as 15% of $1,000,000....but it doesn't sound as good...but it's also a lot easier to handle 3 men and $500k, then 6 men and $1mil...less headaches...

but ego's being what they are, this won't change....
 
Sparkyrob11 said:
Are both of you (emahler & Peter d) EC's?
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No, not an EC, however, I try to think like more than just an employee who collects a paycheck. It's always in an employee's best interest to work for an EC that is profitable, preferably very profitable.

I did consider becoming an EC last year and I have done a rough study of the costs involved to become one. I concluded that most EC's don't charge nearly enough.
 
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