Buying Contracts

AHS

I signed a contract the other day which was a referral from my Mom. The customer said my price was $200 more than one of the other estimates & they asked if I could match the price. I had no problem with matching the price but asked to look at the contract to see if me & the other contractor had the same scope of work & specifications. Well...what I ended up finding out was....The OTHER contractors contract kicked my contracts A**.

So this got me thinking about offering the next few customers I have $50 to buy the competitions contracts (estimate forms) to gain some valuable information about their pricing & how they specify the scope of work & materials to use.

Do you think this would be bad etiquette?

I know some customers would not be receptive to this but if you had an easy going customer... why not... I'm sure they would like to save an extra $50

What are your thoughts......

Shingle Monkey

They should just give them to you...I have a folder of them

Never hurts to ask

Grumpy

Scalping... I pay my salesmen $15 per scalp. A scalp is a competitor's contract. I know everything about most of the established competitors in my area. Nobody's contract kicks my ass. Just Like SM I have a folder of them as well.

Don't pay customers. You'd be suprised how easily they will give away the proposals to you, especially if they hire you. "Can I take those other proposals off your hands? You won't be needing them."

I especially like when a customer calls me back trying to compare, then I sai... "Can you fax that over to me so I can see what they were bidding and I can better answer your questions?"

Melissa

I'm so nosy, I love to see other company's proposals. Which reminds me my husband said there was a stack of about 4 other proposals sitting out for the job he's working on right now. I told him to sneak and make copies! Guess he could just come right out and ask- what a novel idea!

You could always save yourself $50 bucks and get some 'free' estimates of your own- JUST KIDDING!!