Listing prices?

[Devin Johnston]

I don't particularly feel comfortable with gift-wrapping anyone the opportunity to undercut me, especially given the competitive nature of the market.

My point exactley.

[Brodie Geers]

I would think that sometimes this would work in your favor and sometimes not. We played this game at a place I worked for that sold kitchen cabinetry. Our major competitor was down the road. We basically arranged it so that in order to get a quote you had to come in, let us layout the kitchen in the computer and then we'd give you an overall quote. The whole process could take 1-4 hours. At that point the customer could either accept our quote or go down the road and face another 1-4 hours in order to fiind out who was cheaper (sometimes we were, sometimes we weren't). If the customer didn't want to spend the time elsewhere, we got their business by the simple luck that they came in to us first rather than the competition. Presumably our competition got just as much business by default. If they decided to check out the competition our 1-4 hours often was a waste (so long as the prices were close they'd usually just buy from them since they were already there).

 

Do you find a correlation with your work?

 

-Brodie

[MBetke]

Intersting thread.

I also don't display prices and wonder how people can estimate a specific price for each project in advance.

Here in Germany I see people charging amount XYZ for a sqm or per seconds of a movie. I really would like to know how they can calculate on it because they would be messed up if a client wants a detailed building for their website price.

 

I also browse the web and see portfolios for the 200€ guys for an exteriour rendering. Got mailed by such a company recently and their portfolio looks nice. So clients looking for cheap work will probably hire them. I think problems with such low cost companies arise if it comes to revisions.

 

I outoruce sometimes too but have freelancer which I know for a longer time and althought they are from another country with less costs for living they do solid work without later trouble.