[georgiehopper]

..and why does this bother people so much?

A guy asks for a patio with stone mulch.... the entire area is only 400 sq. ft...he emailed me the measurements..since I knew where he lived and was familiar with the area, I knew that access to the property is extremely difficult. You have to go through the guy's garage, then down a set of steps into the backyard. No machinery of any kind can get back there...its all manual labor...hand-carrying everything..wheelbarrows hardly fit and they have to be hauled down steps.

So I priced the thing at $20.00 sq ft... of course he came back and said "that's too much"..and he asked for stone mulch instead.... I gave him a price for a smaller patio with stone mulch and he said it was still too much. I asked for his budget and said I'd see what I could come up with.

The guy wont give me a budget and said that now he wants to see a price for stone mulching alone and no patio.

I'm starting to feel just a little annoyed... its like pulling teeth.

[ckcland]

I tell my clients the budget is necessary because of so many design choices. In hardscaping you could add circle patterns, walls, columns, ect if the budget allowed. The same obviously for all other areas. For me this is a great subject to gage the clients level of commitment on the project. They should have an adea of budget already and also an adea of what should be included. Sometimes I'll tell people I can't move forward until they decide.. it's like throwing a dart at a dart board.

[agla]

This is the type of stuff that I was talking about on one of your other threads.

When you act like a door mat people walk on you. Stop jumping through hoops for people. You somehow seem to think that you owe anyone who calls upon you some kind of closure.

These people like children who want something else for dinner than what you are serving. You can tell them to eat it or go hungry, or you can keep offering them other things.

If you tell the kid to eat it or go hungry, he eats it or goes hungry. And the next time he'll most likely shut up and eat or go hungry without much fuss.

If you keep offering the little darling a long menu, you'll work twice as hard. The next time the kid will pull the same move on you again, and again, and again. He'll be sleeping in your bed 'til he's fourteen.

Use common sense, or that book they always talk about on Rugrats -Lipschitz, I think it is.

[Bill Schwab]

Say this:

I can't help you until you disclose what budget you have because regardless of what knowledge you may or may not have of what things cost, you need to know that all things cost something. You need to invest something realisitic in this work. If you are unwilling to invest anything I have many others who are right now and perhaps you can call me at a later date when you have decided what it is you want to accomplish."

It's kind of like going to the grocery store and standing in line expecting to have the cashier tell you what you food will cost without ever havuing seen what it is you want to eat for the week. Not likely to happen,.

NEXT PROSPECT!!!!!!!!!

[agla]

One free estimate. Then start charging or driving.

I don't ask for a budget. That works for me. I give them the price for what they are asking for. Nothing more, nothing less.

My belief is that someone ought to have a rough idea of what things cost in order to take action in calling someone in to do the work. They might have thought it would cost less, but they are usually close enough to either put up the extra money, or scale down the project. Changing it all together means they are flakes, or way out of the loop. In either case, there is not a lot of good reason to put more time in dealing with them. I'd like to think that I would have picked up on that before giving the first estimate.

I have actually told people on several occassions that we were not the right company to do their job rather than trying to make it work - a diplomatic cut and run.

[Fine Edge]

I like that, a diplomatic cut and run. And yes, it was Lipschitz.

[cutntrim]

Originally posted by agla

I have actually told people on several occassions that we were not the right company to do their job rather than trying to make it work - a diplomatic cut and run.

Likewise.

[VoodooChile]

Since you are very familiar with the area, you might also be able to gauge how serious a prospect is based on your success selling work to other folks in that neighborhood.

For instance, I did two hardscaping estimates in a new-construction development last Spring that went nowhere, and found out during the second estimate that the lead had already sollicited 20 other bids. All further calls from that neighborhood, and there were some, we simply referred to other companies because "our 2005 schedule is booked".

Maybe I missed a plum account, but I doubt it....

[mark m]

...and found out during the second estimate that the lead had already sollicited 20 other bids...

20? Good night!

I met a woman last August? that wanted a lawn renovation / drainage work done and when she told me that she had already gotten 8 estimates I almost flipped. 8 estimates for grading, sodding, drainage solution...maybe around $6,000? I got angry in my head just thinking about it and wrapped up the conversation. She wasn't getting one from us. No one needs that many estimates for something like that. But 20? How big of a job was it? Not that it could possibly matter.

Mark

[Lanelle]

If a lead is getting a large number of estimates, I might be tempted to ask if they are doing market research with the idea of going into the landscaping business.

[Stonehenge]

Originally posted by VoodooChile
All further calls from that neighborhood, and there were some, we simply referred to other companies because "our 2005 schedule is booked".

Geographical profiling - I've done it myself.

Birds of a feather.