Professionals:Be Like Ben The Fencer?

My neighbour is a fencer. Let's call him Ben-because that is his name. He has erected our fences and gates and many in the neighbourhood. I believe he is a good fencer but I guess I wouldn't really know. I do know however that Ben is a good fisherman-but that is another story.

Recently I asked Ben how he prices his jobs. His first response to me? “Weren’t you happy John, you should have said…?” I told him no, no, exactly the opposite. I said I was delighted with his work but that I was just doing some research and informed him that the majority of my practice these days is helping professionals price their services up front, blah, blah, blah. I could see Ben’s eyes starting to glaze over.

Ben told me that although he has been erecting fences for many years no two jobs are exactly the same. He said he never quotes jobs over the phone but goes and views the site and has a discussion with his prospective customer. I asked him what he discusses with them? He said he tries to work out what they really want. Sometimes he told me people “just want a fence”, sometimes they want the fence to be “a feature” and sometimes they don’t really know what they want until he asks them some questions and maybe explains to them some options.

He told me he doesn’t even quote a job on site but goes back home, does some calculations and will then will usually ring the prospective customer with the job specs and the quote. Sometimes he gives them some options. Usually he gets the job but sometimes he doesn’t.

“I won’t discount when I have given a quote because I have sufficient work to keep me busy....there are probably cheaper fencers around than me but I really don’t know what other fencers charge. That is their business not mine. If some people go for a cheaper quote so be it.”

“Sometimes I do jobs cheaper, sometimes I do them dearer”. I asked him why he would do that? He told me it might be that he just doesn’t want to do a job. I asked him why he might not take on a job. “Could be because I don’t like the customer”, or because “it’s a difficult job, or I am just too busy with other jobs, and they want it done quickly and jump the queue.”

“Oh and I would quote cheaper for a job for an elderly neighbour say than I would for a similar job for a big builder or someone who drives a Rangy.”

“Builders used to ask me that if they gave me a certain volume of work whether I would give them a discount and make their jobs a priority?” He said he did that a little in the early days of starting up his business but has not done that for years. “I now tell them “no”... as firstly they can afford to pay me more and are passing on my quote with a margin to their clients and secondly I didn’t want to be indebted to a builder if it meant I had to give them priority over other customers and if I couldn’t take some time off when I wanted."

I asked him if he ever gets his quotes wrong? He said occasionally, but it is “usually my fault... either I didn’t properly check out the site carefully enough.....maybe couldn’t get access to the timber I needed.....maybe had to pay a higher price for my timber …(so)…my margin was cut a little”. But even so he said he just gets on and does the job.

I also asked him if he charges by the metre? He said he does his own internal calculations using meterage as a guide but “I don’t quote that to the customer”.

Finally I asked Ben if he ever charges by the hour? He looked at me somewhat quizzically and asked me “why would I do that?”.

“I don’t know how many hours it is going to take me to do a job…..like everyone I have good days and bad days and sometimes I work abit slower, or want time off to take my kids surfing or go fishing.”

He also mentioned that he didn’t think his customers would not like knowing what the cost is to them up front "and neither would I.”

Finally I asked him if he had ever heard of the term “value pricing? Ben said no he had not.

Should more professionals be like Ben?

John

www.chisconsult.com