HOW do i compete with 1.40/sqm?!!!!!!!!!!

« **on:** October 05, 2005, 05:15:11 pm »

My leafleters came across a rival companies leafleters today, they are offering to clean a lounge for £21 (14x12ft). By my calcs thats around £1.40 per sqm.
The offer for upholstery is down from £68 to £58 for a 3 piece suite!!.
they have operated in my area for years now and these prices are similar to another company who charge £55 for a 3 piece. personally i do not charge less than 2.20 /sqm and a three piece would be at least £100.
Should i be worried, should i compete, any advice would be gratefully accepted.

ben

« **Reply #1 on:** October 05, 2005, 05:24:43 pm »

I also have the same sort of thing where i live i expect everybody does. The £10-£15 a room lot.

The way I look at it is this:

There is cheap and value for money, If they want cheap they can get cheap and cheap results to go with it. If the want value for money then they will pick a company like mine, one that will move the furniture, leave carpets barely damp and use top quality cleaning solutions.

So you see, you are not competing with them they are competing with you as you are better value for money.

Cheers Goron

« **Reply #2 on:** October 05, 2005, 05:29:28 pm »

Depends upon the areas your leaflets are going into and how professional the rival company is.

If the rivals are good cleaners with good marketing then its difficult to compete using flyers or any medium for that matter. The rival is just doing himself a dis-service selling quality for cheap.

If your flyers are going into areas where the customers are not quality concious then theyre going to choose the rivals no matter.

Why dont you just move onto another area for the next few weeks and then come back.

Mark

« **Reply #3 on:** October 05, 2005, 07:12:26 pm »

I think it depends on your personal circumstances. Are you sitting at home waiting for a job?

Are you going round and doing in house qoute.

« **Reply #4 on:** October 05, 2005, 07:20:38 pm »

Ben,

Are you targeting your market?

You can't be all things to all people $:-\$

Person 1 living in a council house on benefits

Person 2 living in a nice 'mortgaged' semi/average income

Person 3 dual income/detached/BMW/kids at private school.

Who are you aiming at?

Regards

« **Reply #5 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:56:26 pm »

You will think i'm taking the p, but the best way to compete against this is to increase your prices.

Always move up market.

Dave

« **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2005, 11:58:40 am »

hi

did a qoute the other day for £160 got phone call day before can i cancel she said asked why
i have found some one who will do it for £90 she said
so i told her again that she will get a quality clean and went over the process of cleaning again with her asked if over company told her there process no she said.
after i finished the job the next day she told me she was glad she had chosen me in the end
so i never worry about cheaper companys.

thanks nick p

« **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2005, 03:41:35 pm »

Ben,

If you decide to compete on this price , what happens when the one roon for £12 brigade turn up .

Do you do it for a tenner.

No of course you do not.

I find with YP quotes over the phone that the price seems almost irrelevant.

The price shoppers will always find someone cheaper or hire a machine and do a DIY job.

Others seem to have decided to use me whatever I quote.

I have always found it best to work out what I am happy with and stick to it.

Cheers,

Doug

« **Reply #8 on:** October 06, 2005, 03:48:49 pm »

Ben
If you can,t beat them why not join them .
think of all the work you will get.

Imagine this you do 2 carpets ,don’t Hoover, don’t prey spray, don’t turbo dry.
just extract and go £42 up should only take 1 hour at most = £42 per hour.

but what about service I hear you scream well you are giving them what they want .
A cleaner carpet at a small price plus the benefit is it will resoil within a few months and who will they call a cleaner that charges £90 or you at £42
so you are gaining fast repeat business.
I know someone doing this, and they are booked up for 6 weeks a.

Neil
ps always uder cut but do the job faster

« **Reply #9 on:** October 06, 2005, 03:51:01 pm »

Ben, when I am quiet I drop my prices a bit just to fill the diary more, but not by much, just enough to ensure closeure and certainly not below £3 sqm.

Don't go down the road of competing on price, Martin has got it right, look at the market you are targeting and you will be surprised how many people will book you even though you are not the cheapest.

Your competitors.... if they are like some of mine, do they also clean gutters, patios, driveway, windows.... oh and ovens! if so then this is the way to rip them to bits.

Chris

« **Reply #10 on:** October 06, 2005, 08:01:30 pm »

My compitition Charge 49.00 for a suite and any 2 carpets!!

I laugh and charge 125.00 for a suite and 50.00 for each carpet AND GET IT!!

GO OUT AND SELL YOUR SERVICES instead of worrying about others!!

« **Reply #11 on:** October 06, 2005, 08:46:26 pm »

Thanks for your replies guys,

I am maintaining my prices, even though work is slow as i am new to the area. I would rather do 2 jobs a day for £200+ than 5 for £100-150.

Worthing is a funny area for targeting, its an affluent area but has pockets of poor areas spread throughout. Today i delivered some leaflets myself and within 1 street found houses converted into 10+ bedsits and 5 bed detached houses, one with an indoor pool!. I tend to look for areas with well maintained semis and detached houses, but i do get lots of work in smaller terraced and flats ( mainly from the local paper ad).

Ben

« **Reply #12 on:** October 11, 2005, 12:35:04 am »

My average job last year was 128 quid and on my estimate sheets is printed "There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people that consider price only are this mans lawful prey" My customers always agree. Do not worry about the cowboys, if your work is good and you can sell yourself to your customers the price is irrelevant. Most of my reccomendation customers do not even ask a price they want me because their friend or family member said I did a great job.

Relax

« **Reply #13 on:** October 11, 2005, 06:54:12 am »

What do you do.

We have a guy who has the largest advert in Local Press never beaten on price

Ive noticed apart from one other Carpet Cleaners have stopped advertising in Local Paper

Oh forgot another new Cleaning company has a Colour Display advert 3 rooms £59.

What happens if Customer has large room not sure.

they are not just doing traffic lanes.

Maybee they do not pre vac, but in alot of cases customer has done that.
With a quality Vac.

OK does that make them a Cowboy?

or Girl

Obviously a good presentation will get you a higher price but this can take 1 hour plus if you include travel time etc.

OK in Large Cities you may get two or three calls a day close to one another.

« **Reply #14 on:** October 11, 2005, 07:28:16 am »

Gents

Just to put my nose into this. According to reliable sources their is a gent in Bradford that charges £10 per sq m. Bradford is not the most aflueant place in the country is it. He sells himself not the cleaning.

Its not about the cleaning its about selling you. If you can crack that it does not really matter what price you sell at within reason.

Cheers

Neil

« **Reply #15 on:** October 11, 2005, 10:58:47 pm »

Glad you agree Neil, I rest my case

« **Reply #16 on:** October 12, 2005, 08:56:07 am »

In my search for Knowledge I aquired
an old
Loyd Owen manual today.

Once I overcome the smell of stale ciggarretes etc from the pages I found the section on price. In 1983 he was suggesting £1.50 to £2.00 a yard.

« **Reply #17 on:** October 12, 2005, 11:40:44 am »

As they say Ian: "There's nothing new under the sun"

This article about "Reason Why Advertising" comes from 1904 and makes as good reading today as it did then.

http://www.longlostmarketingsecrets.com/Reason_Why_Advertising.pdf

« **Reply #18 on:** October 12, 2005, 07:11:26 pm »

Exactly.

Some ideas are presented better today, but they are all there.
Why do I keep buying them

« **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2005, 04:59:23 pm »

On average how long does it take you guys to clean a three piece draylon suite?

??

« **Reply #20 on:** October 13, 2005, 05:35:46 pm »

Approx 2 to 3 hours and thats with 2 people 1 truckmount and 5 driers

Tony Harrison

« **Reply #21 on:** October 13, 2005, 06:23:34 pm »

I usually recon on 3-3 1/2 hrs- roughly apprximately. At £40 per hr thats £120 plus VAT.

I have edged the prices up in the last few weeks after a big hike 12 months ago. I am still having customers say "Is that all?" so I am still egding prices up. What with the insurance premium rises etc our prices need to go up. We have the usual 50 quid a suite chap by us and he is always complaining that he is hard up. Mind you that all his standard of cleaning is worth.

Trevor

« **Reply #22 on:** October 25, 2005, 07:13:46 pm »

Don't compete with them. One of my main competitors in Blackpool regularly posts on here so I won't mention names, but we are miles apart on price. I don't think I have ever lost to him on a quote and I believe I am the most expensive cc in this area.
Two rules, never quote over the phone, always do a better job than the other guy!

« **Reply #23 on:** October 25, 2005, 09:36:34 pm »

just an idea it works for me !!!

supply a package that can suit any budget !!! check my website

http://pileprofile.co.uk/54426.html

« **Reply #24 on:** October 27, 2005, 08:51:45 pm »

i would strongly suggest respelling "peice" to piece mind you

« **Reply #25 on:** October 27, 2005, 09:28:46 pm »

Hi James C (Pileprofile)

Fantastic website, how much does it cost to get one up and running?

Just one observation - On your homepage, with the scrolling message for the winter warmer offer, you have spelt receive as ' recive' just thought I'd mention it incase you hadn't noticed

Regards Ollie

« **Reply #26 on:** October 28, 2005, 11:45:54 am »

James C (Pileprofile)

why not include carpet protector in your gold package, adjust your price,s to include this .
good web site.

Neil

« **Reply #27 on:** October 28, 2005, 06:48:02 pm »

James, ditto re the website, one of the better ones I have seen. Is your pricing correct?

??

£38 for 24 sqm!!! a little on the cheap side that!

Chris

« **Reply #28 on:** October 28, 2005, 07:37:30 pm »

James C (Pileprofile)

You want to get yer prices put up lad, I would charge £78 for that size lounge and that would be my standard clean which compares with your gold.

« **Reply #29 on:** October 28, 2005, 11:23:11 pm »

Thanks for pointing out the spelling mistakes guys no realy English is my bad point

My prices are based on silver packages where you will find I dont move much my Gold package is much higher priced and generaly the market I aim at and generaly get but Cornwall has some poor folk to cater for too, stain protecting is a gimick on my flyers I drop, saying that they get free hall and stairs cleaned if they have there lounge or room stain garded diffrent sales approach, If any one wants info on my web site give me a bell ill be more than happy too help

James