[clinton]

Hi guys

After the last few posts on web sites and suite cleaning prices maybe it might be time to start puting our prices on our leaflets,web sites,yel pages adds etc

As i know some of us are geting new sites built at the mo so am also thinking of puting some sort of price guide on mine

I know in this cleaning industry not many have not done this but maybe it might be time for a change

My maine moan is at the mo from my web sites i have so many price shopers and even when i was in y pages i did not have as many.

Clinton

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

I think its a bad idea Clinton. Ive found the best way to more or less guarantee you work is to go around and price up first. This way you can chat to the customer and they can see that your not a gypsy and are a professional. You can even sell them Stainguard while your there and add 50% on to your wage...something you could not do as successfully over the phone or internet.

[Mike Halliday]

don't put prices on your leaflet or website because it will scare people off, especially if they are high prices.

this is what the uneducated tell you, but what if you don't want the people who are scared of high prices to call you,  perhaps high prices get rid of the price shopper.

I'll tell you the real reason not to put prices on your marketing

the same as when customers call you, the only thing they want to know is 'how much is it' if your marketing answers this question they have no need to call you and the purpose of all marketing to is to make the phone ring

once they call you can begin your sales spiel and justify your price but unless they call you don't get the chance

[Colin finney]

Mike, so why have u got your prices plastered all over your website? That's a bit hypocritical isn't it. Also if you scare off some people aren't u just robbing yourself of the opportunity to convert them into customers that's a bit silly IMO.
Col

[Mike Halliday]

clinton its what you want to do, if you want to cut out the price shopper put a price guide

eg; a basic clean of an average room will start from £55. (but not all carpets are the same please call for an exact price)

this will scare of the people wanting to get it done for £20 but quality customers will still be interested.

[Mike Osbourne]

Clinton

Just a suggestion.

Get 10k of leaflets printed exactly the same. Only difference is 5k of them have prices on. 10k a month for 3months then add up how much money you have made from each one.

Then you will KNOW the answer.

[Colin finney]

Mike going of the prices on your site u charge £80 to clean a 20sqm lounge and if it were a full house of say 100sqm then £400 which is absurd and a real turn of for the average punter. Isn't good marketing about attracting peopleto your business not scaring people of.
Col

[derek west]

i would never put prices on anything, by putting prices out your alienateing naive clients who haven't got a clue about cc. they think a cc is a cc so the cheapest is a no brainer for them. theyve no idea as to the difference in quality from one to the other and its my job to educate them, so they can make a better decision as to whether to go cheap or dear.

putting prices out is the easy option, you weed out the price shoppers and know every call should be a job, personally i dont mind the hard option which is to try (and i do fail regularly) and convert price shoppers in to getting value for money by paying that little bit extra.
getting the phone to ring is priority number one, and price advertising cuts your phone calls.
i'm not saying its a bad idea, its just not for me.
and for that reason, amoot

derek

[garry22]

What's coming across here is there is no standard approach.

Do what works for each situation. If you are not happy with something, don't do it. Better still do what Mike Osbourne suggests and test. It is the only way to get a true result.

Mike, we've never met but you talk so much sense when it comes to marketing.

Garry

[Colin finney]

Gary

[Mike Osbourne]

I've never tested prices on leaflets.

The two key things I've tested are headlines and offers as these make the biggest difference. A printer should be able to do two versions for the same price if you ask them. Remember to change only one thing at a time.

The bulk of what I have learned about leaflets is from posts by Mr Halliday, Ian Gurley and a few others. Mainly having the faith to keep on pumping them out.

[Colin finney]

Mike, it could also be the case that mike is so good on the leaflets because he has to keep on doing them because he is only prepared to serve some of the people who call him which to my way of thinking is simply ludicrous.
Col

[Mike Osbourne]

Two ways to look at this.

You only want people who are prepared to pay X, why bother with anyone who isn't prepared to pay X. And when you do this what does that make people think about your business ?

You work in the middle of the road market and want to persuade as many of the people in the middle to pay as much as is possible-by creating perceived value.

Why do people work in niches when, by their very nature are a smaller group? Because they will get more of that niche.

[Mike Osbourne]

Clinton

I don't understand the question, but we have already finished one bottle of McManis Cabernet Sauvignon from Tesco reduced from £8.95 to £4.95 and it's going down real easy.

All 'experts' will tell you never tell them the price until you have told them why you are worth it and from my experience I have no reason to question that. If you want to qualify early to filter out the crap I would talk about quality, service and value.

One of the quickest ways to split test stuff is adwords. Then keep on improving and transfer results to leaflets.

[derek west]

if you want to stop the price shoppers put.....

"we're not the cheapest but we are the best"

derek

[Mike Osbourne]

Or you could put


Respectfully No council, thank you

Paupers need not apply

If you need to ask the price, then you can't afford us

Please check these postcodes to see if you qualify.

I am joking.

[Mike Halliday]

Mike O's suggestion about testing is sounds marketing advice but is'nt as easy as it seams, to test 2 different leaflets 1 with prices 1 without you would need two identical test subjects other wise the results would be meaning less

sound silly but you would have to put out 5000 leaflets out in say March the jump in a time machine go back in time and do exactly the same house at exactly the same time of month.

our business varies from month to month if you put out 5000 leaflets this month the result would be different from the next 5000 you put out next month

testing needs a big test to be valid, I don't think 5000 would be enough.

[Mike Osbourne]

Mike H

5k yield 10-20 responses. That's statistically big enough to be significant. Plus you are doing it side by side each month with the old one so that takes into account any other variance factors.

If you don't get that response then yeah, up the numbers.

In any case what I suggest has to be better than what most people do which is whack out a load of one leaflet, see how it works, come up with a completely different idea, whack out another laod and see what happens with that.

[Colin finney]

Why not just have on your leaflet  Prices from as little as £45.00 to stimualte enough interest so they call you for a price.
Col

[Mike Halliday]

Mike when i think about it you might be right, if you do them side by side at the same time you could probably do a good test with just 5000 (more would be better though)

you'd need 2 separate numbers on the leaflet so as to really differentiate which leaflet the call came from