Price Beaters

paroofer

Do you allow people to beat your roofing prices down?
We aren't the cheapest around, so we frequently get the "well so and so will do it for X amount"
Gut reaction to this........go have so and so do it then. We can't touch that price. (If we want to pay the bills, make a profit and be around for a while)
Rare occasion, we will lower the price a LITTLE. We do value our service, though so it almost never happens.
How do you guys handle this?

slowsol

Usually we don't get that up front. It happens after we finish a job mostly. They say, "I just talked to another roofer and he said he could have done it for a lot cheaper." We don't really say too much to the customer, just that people are going to say things like that. I don't understand the logic behind it, because the job is already over. Oh well...

paroofer

People are so afraid of getting "taken".
Could be a case of buyer's remorse.
Happens on big ticket items! As long as you take care of your customers, there is nothing to feel bad about.

Mike Finley

Stop selling your services as a commodity and sell them based on value and you should eliminate this.

A year ago we had a huge hail storm and almost every roof around my house was replaced. I contacted 3 roofing companies to look at my roof and determine what we needed to do.

There was no doubt that out of these 3 companies I could rank them in order based upon many criteria - who I thought would do the best job, who was the most competent, who was the most trust worthy, who I thought would actually do what they said they would do, and who was the best value.

If I could do that, so can your customers.

In the end 2 said the roof didn't need to be replaced, the 3rd said it did. With further questioning of him it turned out he was of the mindset to say that every roof needed to be replaced, it behooved him to have every customer he talked to submit it to their insurance company and see what would stick.

AaronB.

DO valuable work. People say that all the time. I was burned by a neighbor down the street because an unisured lowballer (whom I worked for before his tutelage bakrupted the company after I left)

Of all a-holes in the roofing section of the phonebook, she calls the unisured lowballer and he says he can shingle a walker for 25 bucks a square. My reply was, yeah, and then how do I pay the men?

She got me for a couple hundred and got a top quality install. They are now known as the "Deadbeat D's". (their last name starts with D, but I am not going to post their entire last name for fear of possible lawsuit.)

__________________
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Seamless Industrial and Commercial Roofing Systems, Residential Repair. For Those That Demand Quality!
Free roof inspections within 12 miles of our locale.

Grumpy

Low ballers everywhere. What can you do? Meet each and every customer and explain why they should not worry about paying more. Earn their trust. If you don't earn your customer's trust then you can only sell on price.

Just remember a good salesman will notice that a person who starts haggling on price has already decided to hire you. Next time someone tries to beat down your price simply say no. Quite often you will get the "Ahhh well it never hurts to try." If they balk you go back into the reasons you cost more... "Some guys use 15# but we only use 30#. This is why it's better for YOU. Some guys skip Ice shield, we won't touch a roof unless we can install it, in addition some guys only place it at the gutter lines and we put it in all the problem areas." Then the famous "Can I see their quote to make sure we are comparing apples to apples?" Call their bluff.

At the beginning of the year you may have heard me say I never give discounts. I have changed that philisophy only because I recognize some people, such as myself, never buy anything unelss we feel like we are getting a deal. Seriously sometimes $50 or a free gutter cleaning later in the year will shut up the price beaters.