[jwholden]

I got a call today from a guy who would like me to come out and maintain his gardens. I did some work for the guy this spring (a $300 replacement job) and he's a nice guy but likes to add little things. I spoke to the contractor who was there before me and heard this guy is high maintenance. Also, the price the landscaper told me and homeowner had a difference of 100% for the installation.

I left a message and told him it would be 400-450 to come out and do the work. By the time I drive out there with two guys and kill almost a half day with travel time and him adding more work that's what its worth to me.

He wants me to call and discuss the price and do less work to make the cost less. I'm not interested (I have enough work that I'm not that desperate).

In the interest of being politically correct and customer friendly is this the best way to say thanks but no thanks. Other years I would try and fit this type of stuff in and work with the customer a bit. But I'm getting tired of leaches sucking my blood.

Do I call back and say the price is firm? Should I call back at 6:30 in the morning, when he leaves me messages, and tell him I can't do it for less then that? Can I just stop there and move on?

I'm liking the stop there and move on idea and that's where I'm headed. However, I love other opinions.

[Lanelle]

It sounds to me as though you might be talking yourself into using a mobilization minimum --Job has to be at least X$ for you to be able to send the crew out, regardless of what they do once they reach the jobsite. This is a reasonably professional way of telling a client that you can't come out for a few measly bucks.
To send a truck and a crew to a job incurs overhead expense and labor costs. In tracking job costs, we found that we actually lost money on jobs that were less than $1000.00 because we were sending a salaried foreman and 2 or 3 crew guys in a nice big truck to the site. Now, you may want to bend that rule for certain loyal clients but for one-time callers---it clears out the clutter of cheap, demanding homeowners. Good luck.

[Pelican]

I agree with Lanelle.

I'm in a similar position right now with a new client. When I first looked at the job, I was uncomfortable with the conversation we were having, but it's a brand new development 1/2 mile from the yard.

I bid the job, they accepted, and 2 days before I was to start it, they scaled it down. We were supposed to meet over the weekend, but no one was there. She left me a phone message that they want to scale it back even further, I'm going to decline the job, I'm just getting the feeling that this can't come out in my favor.

I read your other post, you and I seem to be at the same stage of growing our business.

[Nebraska]

Lanelle has an excellent point. There should be a certain point where you walk and DO NOT LOOK BACK. A half of day with two employees and the owner just driving without reimbursement for your time seems a bit excessive to start off with.

[Tim]

I agree with Lanelle's point as well. There has to be a bottom line, so you can stay profitable. An excellent route to take when addressing the issue with your prospective client.

We once had a client like this. We went ahead and did the work. We had finished the job in our minds three different times. The home owner kept politely nit-picking us back to the job site. We finally halted this by handing him an itemized bill for the last trip in. He paid it, and never bothered us again. He did however have more work he wanted us to do in the following year. We were unfortunately, just too busy to work it in to our schedules!

JW As far as how to deal with your potential word of mouth critic, I strongly advise you to keep your professional candor and give him/her your final answer. Do it by letter, verbally, or by message. Just make sure you follow through. No advantage comes from ignoring this duty. It would only create bad will. Tim

[Stonehenge]

JW - since you've already told him you'd do the work for $450, I think your option now is to say that you're have recently landed some large projects and can no longer take this one on.

But for the future, I would use Lanelle's 'mobilization minimum' (very slick term, BTW - I use the same concept, but didn't have a slick name for it). In fact, I'd avoid projects less than $2K if you can at all avoid it.

If you think about every project you've done for less than $2K, I bet you can think of some miscalculation or unforseen circumstance that made a 4 hour project a 6 hour project, or $200 in materials became $300 in materials. Or a goof up by an employee, as they do sometimes happen, added an hour onto a tiny project.

All of those things can't be absorbed in a project that small. Imagine how much time you've spent chasing after 5 projects for $2K. Compare that to what it'd take to chase down 1 project for $10K. Dump the little stuff.

[jwholden]

I was chasing a lot of stuff this spring to make sure I kept busy for fear of being slow. The concept of only going after the big fish makes me nervous, what if the fish aren't biting?

I see the point of what you are saying . The bullseye post touches on that a bit. I have some customers I do those small jobs for who make it take three calls to line it up every year.

I am seeing the referral, from a client or related trade, as the only way to get good leads (I'm going to give the doorhanger idea a try to).

Most of the desireable 'big fish' don't have the time to sweat the details and trust me to do it for them. I LOVE IT!!! As I was working today it occurred to me that these people pay me to do what I want with their yards (yes I use their input as to the direction I head). I get paid to do what I love, how cool is that!!!

I am hoping to line up work for the spring so I don't go into next year with anxiety about getting work and then I can focus on hooking the 'big fish'.

Perhaps it's the change in seasons but I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Thanks all for being a sounding board.

[Stonehenge]

JW, quite honestly, I think you should worry less. I've been where you are right now - wanting to land all kinds of work now for next spring, so you have jobs banked when the snow melts. I used to brim with pride that in August I was booking work for the following spring. But you know what I found? The people that wanted to book now for work in Spring tended to be difficult customers. They know that time is on their side, so they make change after change after change, and have time to shop around for the best possible price. You don't want that kind of client. You want the ones with lots of disposable income and little time to plan ahead, and an appreciation for your talents.

If you know the success rate of your marketing (by tracking it over a few years), and can trust your close rate, then trust yourself. Market in spring. You will land the projects you want. Don't sweat if you don;t have 3 months of work booked come April 1. Do what you know works, and trust that it will. On March 1 of this year, if I recall correctly, I had zero work booked. But I was tired of worrying about everything, so I didn't. I know that my door hangers get about 10% lead generation, and my close rate is around 70%. So I hung 150 door hangers and got the appropriate amount of work. By then all the multiple phase customers were calling, and word of mouth referrals, and before I knew it I was swamped, just like the years when I was working like a dog to land work in November.

The funny thing is, once you believe in your heart that you will make the sales you need to make, and you know the clients will love what you do, you get more relaxed. The more relaxed you get, the better salesperson you become, which leads to bigger and better projects.

Good luck JW - I know you'll do well.

Jeff

[Stonehenge]

This time of year is great for reflection and planning for the next year. Take lots of notes.... Or better yet, post lots of notes here.

[agla]

Another down side to booking for next spring is getting back logged. We usually kept the hardscape and preplanting prep work going all winter as the Atlantic keeps us a little warmer than the main land. We had a real winter last year that came in early. that kept us from getting three pools done (gunite crew shut down). Normally the pools get finished allowing for all the hardscape,...

Between that and me adding to the amount of design work getting done, we were far behind in March. That means catch up ball all year. It means hopping from one job to the next, customers unhappy with progress, and taking on new work that you know you aren't going to get to for a while.

The concern is a greater chance that your reputation will suffer, you'll work less efficient (putting out fires), and you won't be able to pick and choose from the flood of new jobs in the spring (as houses get completed over the winter, people don't focus on the landscape until they see spring approach).

Just some thoughts. It is like a fishing derby. If you can only keep three fish, do you let the small one go and hope to get a bigger one? If the chances of getting the bigger one is high, you'll let the fish go.

[jwholden]

Nice input Agla.

[jwholden]

Got a call from the guy this morning on my cell.

So here's how it went:

The guy calls and says hello and some remark about how hard it has been for us to connect. Then asks about what servuces I would be providing during this visit. Being prepared, I explained calmy and slowly and the basics of what I would do. Then it got comedic.

He says since he couldn't get in touch with me he called two other contractors and got their prices. Get this, and I quote "THEY WERE WITHIN TEN DOLLARS OF EACH OTHER AT 325. HOWEVER, I LIKE THE JOB YOU DO BETTER. COULD YOU DO IT FOR 325?"

I calmly explained how I have two men with me and wouldn't make any money at that price and would have to pass. He then said how he liked my work better than the other contractors and asked if I could do it for 400. (I resisted the temptation to get smart and said ok).

I explained that we would fit him in in about two weeks and then he got serious about how he waited so long and don't be late and call him and tell him it's too late, yadda yadda.

I know he's going to nitpick about something when we're there but perhaps this will be my opportunity to practice my face to face professional conduct with PITA customers.

Thanks for the advice all.

[jwholden]

We completed this job a few weeks ago and I wanted to let everyone know how it went so we can all learn.

I did the job and mailed him the invoice, expecting to get a call complaining about something. THE CALL NEVER CAME, JUST THE CHECK!

I hate to say I was shocked I got paid but I was surprised. I used to have the attitude that I have to get the job or its the end of the world. I would get a lot of low profit and PITA jobs using this idiotic ideology. I'm sticking with charging what I should be getting and not worrying about the cheap people or PITA's, they can hire the competition (unless things start to slow down, hey, there's an exception to every rule!).

[Stonehenge]

I'm glad you got paid, but I hope you'll soon stop taking on any of those tiny projects...they will just drag your bottom line into the mud.

I expect that in a very few years you'll reach the point where if you don't land a job you'll see it as their loss, not yours.

[jwholden]

if you don't land a job you'll see it as their loss, not yours.

Jeff, I like the way you think!