[andi wilson]

Have to quote for a commercial office this week.. I normally quote what I think it will take number of hours x hourly rate. Sometimes this works and I get it spot on, other times you get there and it takes longer than anticipated. I stick to the price, but think I may quote per ft (old skool ) and see if my conversion rate increases.. Currently get 50% of all commercial I quote..

So can you give me some ideas on prices.. I realise there will be regional variations, but just want to get an idea...

Office is over 5000 sq ft..

[richie]

Really depends on what type of carpet, what cleaning system you will use.

If cleaning with HWE then try 15 pence per square foot.
If cleaning with bonnet system try 12  pence per square foot.

Richie.

[JandS]

HWE cleaning @ 15p sq ft equates to about £1.50 sq m.
Quoted the other day at posh Audi dealership @ £1.20 sq m
and still lost it.
Been quoting £1.50 and lost every one so going to drop to £1.00.
Not that bothered as I prefer domestic any day.
In, clean and away usually with cash or cheque in pocket.

John

[Big Al]

I'm not surprised you lost them, 15pence per square ft, doing 5,000 squ ft = £750, which would take you 5 hours max, can't be right???

[JandS]

Not 5 hours with a porty.

John

[Pristine Clean]

People are just over pricing now.

When they over price they say.... dont get me mixed with the cut n runs... I offer a superb service. Nothing else compares... I had training or I belong too such and such...

If they want the work they have to go alot lower. Simple. 

The £1.50 - £1.20 mark is far to high these days. Otherwise the client might as well buy new carpet.....


Dave

[ianharper]

Andi

it all depends on what type of service you provide. basic or all in. plus what system your using. also what your overheads are.

you should be working this out for yourself on your spread sheet. your price should be as individual as your business.

one last item is how busy you are. if your busy your times worth more. if your not then its worth less. for example you might need to cover your running costs if your slack.

i have a chart that a famous franchise uses that has all the systems and if the carpets clear of light furniture or heavy. its a full A4 size. so limiting your price to one set of conditions or service will not work.

Respect

Ian Harper

[davep]

Maybe you lost it because too cheap?  £1.50 - £2.00 upto 100 sqm is good, then a discount there after..

[derek west]

I'm not surprised you lost them, 15pence per square ft, doing 5,000 squ ft = £750, which would take you 5 hours max, can't be right???

 

[richie]

£1.20 - £1.50 is not a high price on a single priced job thats 5000 square feet (464 square metres).  If the customer will agree to having the carpet cleaned 2 or 3 times per year then the discount comes in and you can lower to £1.20 or even £1.00 square metre.  If you get a contract on various sites that have the same or metres then you could go as low as 85p per square metre and still earn a decent profit.

Richie.

[Neil Williams]

Maybe you lost it because too cheap?  £1.50 - £2.00 upto 100 sqm is good, then a discount there after..

Sorry to disagree but commercial go on price alone.
I've quoted £1.30 sq/yd before only to lose to someone going in at less than £1
I know because I asked them

The trick with commercial is to be the last to quote and ask what price you have to beat (some will tell you), a bit ruthless but at least then you can decide if you want it or not.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Car dealers are used to price negotiating, I find that car dealers usually get the contract cleaners in, I once did a Mercedes Benz showroom their usual cleaner who did the daily cleaning had declined to clean the carpet it again as they had issues with the quality and drying and didn't get paid, after some haggling I was still 3 times the price BUT I only got to clean it the once they were delighted with what I did as I needed to justify the price but when they asked me to quote again 6 months later they were wanting the same price as the contract cleaner and not my old price.

Shaun

[Pristine Clean]

Maybe you lost it because too cheap?  £1.50 - £2.00 upto 100 sqm is good, then a discount there after..

Sorry to disagree but commercial go on price alone.
I've quoted £1.30 sq/yd before only to lose to someone going in at less than £1
I know because I asked them

The trick with commercial is to be the last to quote and ask what price you have to beat (some will tell you), a bit ruthless but at least then you can decide if you want it or not.

Someone with sense at last....! Am I on the right forum?

[M.Acorn]

Last commercial i did 2495 sq foot,did quote it at .24p ,but they knocked me down to £500,i was done in 6 hours.They did call me and ask if there was any leeway in my price,and would i be prepared to drop too £500,would much rather that than not get it.
Happy customer,happy me.
Waiting on 2 more big ones to confirm

[Joe H]

I have said it before Mark, if you get those sort of prices for commercial you are very very fortunate.

I id a job once at £1 per sq yd and they upped it to £1.20.
Even they must have realised that a £1 is too cheap, but those sort are rare.

How low you go depends on how much you want the job. 

[richie]

Neil,
I disagree that commercial work go on price alone. Every time i have been out to quote for commercial carpet cleaning work i have found that given the opportunity to talk through the areas with the person you will be dealing with is very important. I have lost count of the times that i have qupte for commercial work and got the job even when more expensive due to the fact i talked them through the areas and process, explaining any potential problem areas.  This is what the customer listens to and realises that your the company to choose along with a sensible price.  The price certainly does not need to be the cheapest or in fact anywhere near the cheapest but you do have to be sensible. Expect to get knocked down on the price and negotiate from there.

Richie.

[JandS]

Richie

Every time I've been out to quote it's been with, usually, an office manager
or someone around that authority mark.
They didn't give a sh*t how I did it they just say yes, yes whatever now
how much shall I tell them it is.
You never get to talk to the people who are bothered about the state of
the place 'cos there never there, they just take the cheapest.

John

[richie]

To a extent John i agree this is where you have to try & educate the people that make the decision. I found that if you get to the point without boring them with all the technical stuff it works 8/10 at least.  Confidence in what you are selling is the key here.  If you go in there showing any nerves or desperation to get the job then the customer may well pick up on this. A friend of mine had a franchise and dealt mainly with insurance work.  Whenever he had a quote to do for commercial work he would call me in to go and see the client sometimes with him other times on my own.  The times he came with me he would let me do all the main talking. He lacked confidence in his selling ability, when we would get back to his offices we would each work out a price for the job. Every time my price would be higher than his and at times this could be upto 30% more.  Every job i quoted for or with him i put in at my price and he got at least 80% of the jobs.  WHY?? because of the way i approached the client.  I ended up working for this friend and we did a few shared jobs with a neighboring franchise. The owner of this other franchise tried to get me to work for him doing sales and as a carpet cleaner because he saw how my friends commercial carpet cleaning turnover had risen sharply since i had worked there.  Im not saying that im a brilliant sales person but i can sell.
I learnt alot from John Gotts at Hydramaster regarding selling. John is one of the best at it.

Richie.

[JandS]

That's just it though, you can't educate the person who makes the spending
decision because you never get to meet them.
The person showing you what wants doing usually doesn't care whether there
cleaned or not.

John

[richie]

Perhaps i just meet the right people then..... i know that many of the people i show round are not the people paying but they are the people that decide if it gets cleaned or not.

Richie.