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SALES QUICK HIT: All About Price, or Not?
By Tim Holliday
Sooner or later, you have to
discuss pricing with your customer. But at what point in
the sales process do you discuss it? How do you price
your embroidery? Do you break out your embroidery
pricing, or do you include it in with the price of the
goods? What do you do when your customer questions your
price? Here are some tips that I've learned.
1.
At what point in the sales process do you discuss
pricing? I'm a big fan of finding out what my customer's
price range is upfront, and then giving him an option
that fits within that price range; then, a "better"
option that might cost more. For instance, I recently
worked with a customer who came in wanting to do polo
shirts with his company information on them. It was a
relatively small order, and the logo was very complex,
and would have required extensive digitizing. Once I
asked the customer what kind of price range he was
looking at, I gave him options on not only the shirts,
but also the embroidery, to fit his budget. He ended up
picking a nicer-quality shirt, but saved money by using
a stock font for the name of his business, instead of
having his complex logo digitized and sewn, which would
have cost considerably more money.
2. How do you
price your embroidery? Different embroiderers have
different opinions on this, but I believe that you have
to be able to price your embroidery in a way that your
customers can understand. Sure, you can explain the
digitizing process, the hooping process, the sewing
process and the finishing process, but if you have a
pricing structure that you can't quickly give a price to
a customer, all of that explanation doesn't mean
anything. What the customer cares about is how much it's
going to cost, and if that fits in their budget. You
should be able to look at a project and quote a price.
The last thing your customer wants to hear is that you
charge by some formula or whatever and you'll have to
get back to them.
I've set prices to sew flat
goods with lettering of any stock font within a 15 cm.
hoop. I have slightly more expensive set pricing to sew
flat goods with any design within a 15 cm. hoop. I have
different set prices to sew hat lettering with a stock
font. I have slightly more expensive set pricing to sew
any design on a hat. I have set pricing for specialty
fabrics that require more work (like towels), and of
course, my set pricing is tiered to give some incentive
breaks for ordering higher quantities. I don't have to
guess at what to answer a customer when we talk about
price, and because of that, the customer trusts that I
know what I'm doing, and do a lot of it.
3. Do
you break out your embroidery pricing, or do you include
it in the price of the goods? I actually do both,
depending on the situation. I try to quote most of my
jobs with the embroidery included, as again, it's just
much easier for my customers to understand. Who wants to
hear a price, plus another price, plus another price?
It's much easier to just hear one price. That said, some
things you do, you just have to break out the pricing
on. For instance, we embroider a lot of baby blankets
and gift items. The customer buys an item from our
shelf, and then we tell them how much it costs to
embroider it. Of course, we quote a set price for this,
so it's still very straightforward and easy to
understand for the customer.
4. What do you do
when your customer questions your price? Ideally, this
never happens! Seriously, if you have worked within your
customer's budget, given him options and explained how
the embroidery process works, you shouldn't get a lot of
questions about pricing. I usually don't. If I do, it is
usually from someone who's pricing all over town (or the
Internet), and says that they can get it cheaper. My
response to that customer is that I'm not the cheapest
and never will be, but I provide the best service. I
show that sample sew-outs and recommendation letters
from other satisfied clients. At that point, it's up to
the customer to make a decision on what he wants and
what he's willing to pay for. And, more times than not,
he chooses to go with me. However, if the customer
chooses to walk over price, he's probably not a client I
want anyway.
Credit: TIM HOLLIDAY, and his wife,
Cynthia, own Children's World Uniform Supply in
Sarasota, FL. Holliday is an industry veteran, with
experience in all aspects of embroidery. Contact:
tim@childrensworlduniform.com.
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