I recently told you about an ‘insidious tumor’ that’s likely damaging your company AND eating away at your net worth! Yep, the cancer of INFLATION can sneakily destroy you! Doubt me? Then CLICK HERE for a swift ‘kick in the pants’!
Yep, you must raise your residential prices every year (January is the best time) to AT THE VERY LEAST match the previous year’s CPI increase!
NOTE: It is much better to raise prices by an ‘odd percentage’ (such as 3.22%) instead of an even 5% or 10%. ! And yet…
You are scared! You fear new prospects will flock to your lower-riced competition! Or even worse, you’ll lose your past clients if you raise your prices! Here is ‘Steve’s Secret Sauce’ with previous customers…
Never call attention to having raised your prices.
RESOURCE: Learn how to book more jobs at higher prices in our 3 hour, online SFS: Winning over your caller! LIVE seminar. Click HERE for 100’s of ‘Lead Conversion’ ideas and systems to easily book prospects who use text, email, Facebook, website chat or even… the phone! HERE are our upcoming class dates…
Meanwhile, when a previous residential customer calls in to schedule again do NOT blurt out that “Ummmm, we’ve raised our prices!” After all, many past clients simply won’t remember how much they paid last time! And most of the few who do notice your small increase won’t care! (Especially if your company has delivered Value Added Service last time you were in their home.) Instead…
1. Calmly look up their previous work order. Now routinely review what they want done and then (hopefully without your voice trembling) say…
“The price for everything I have on your work order this time will be 328.40.” You will be amazed how many will just say, “OK”! (It is only honest and ethical to not ‘surprise’ a customer with the new price after you have arrived at their home.)
2. For the few that say… “Wow, that is a lot more than I paid last year” just smoothly reply, “Yes, Mrs. Jones, last January we were forcd to institute an 3.22% price increase. If we need to I can look at how to lower your price by not cleaning some of the less trafficked areas …” Now let your voice trail off here. Almost always people will just say to go ahead and come on out.
3. Be flexible and calm. The key here is to make your ‘re-booking conversation’ smooth, routine and NEVER justify having to raise your prices. On the other hand if you hit serious price resistance always offer to “cut the scope of the work” to bring it down to last year’s pricing. You don’t want to lose this customer over 3.22%! But on the other hand don’t let your ‘fear of the few’ keep you from raising prices on all your clients!
So with the ‘Previous Clients Phone Format’ above you can confidently raise your prices NOW! But wait, what about new prospects who hit you with… “Ummmm… how come (insert company name here) will clean my whole house for $99.00!” Let’s focus on this challenge soon!
Steve