By: Bob Daniels
www.plan-itgraphics.com

I often get asked if it’s a good idea to create a marketing piece with an area to write in a price/estimate for the customer. I’ve seen many posts on web forums about the topic. The following is just my opinion and should be taken as only that.

I feel leaving a price for services is a good thing. If you know that you would mow, fertilize, etc. that lawn for $50 than why not tell the potential customer. I noticed that one of the major concerns is another lawn care company seeing your door hanger, flyer etc. and making their price lower. But take a second to think about that… You now are assuming that other lawn care companies are out doing “estimates” the same day as you, and are assuming that their marketing piece has a place to write in a price…unlikely for the most part.

Second thing to think about is your price. I know that we all have a margin of error and can raise or lower our prices if needed. But the price should be the price. If you figured out that you need to make X/amount of $, for X/amount of turf, then you should be confident in your price. There will always be someone priced higher and lower than you. It’s the nature of business.

Third, and in my opinion the most important reason for leaving a price. As a whole we live in a society where people like “easy.” Call it laziness, call it hectic lifestyles, whatever… but if someone needs their lawn cut, and sees a reasonable price, they would rather call you and schedule it right then. If no price, they need to call you, and other companies, request estimates, wait for the estimate to arrive…call you back, or wait for you to call. By then it’s a week long process. Think of a conversation like this, between a husband and wife, and tell me if this is not how the conversation would go…

Husband: “Honey did you schedule the lawn cutting?”
Wife: “NO, but I got a door hanger the other day and this company can do it for $49, I was going to all around for other estimates”
Husband: “It’s not worth the hassle, what are we gonna save a couple of dollars, just call them so we know were on schedule, and it’s over and done with”
Wife: “OK, sounds good.”

Now again, I’m not saying this is a perfect method, but I have tried both, leaving prices and not leaving prices. The response might be the same, but the cost per sale with leaving the price is much lower. You are wasting less time not having to go back, and do a follow up estimate when you were just there the other day.