However, to me, if someone calls about quotes multiple times, gives the work to others multiple times, but still calls for quotes, that maybe says that they have lots of work, or leads to jobs, and has the work done,or subs out the work to the lowest qualified bidder... this is standard business practice..
If the person hiring for the job is ONLY looking for the lowest price, why continue to waste your time and rescources to look at their jobs? I'm not going to lower my rates to work for them, so why bother? I'll spend my time and energy finding the clients who will pay what it costs to have me do the job.
It's been proven over and over that hiring only for price gets you what you pay for.
If I was to not get the bids time after time, that tells me I am much higher, or bidding higher than the competition. Just because someone bids lower than I did in this scenario does not mean their quality of work is lower than mine, it means I am overpriced for the market and trying to charge more than what the market will bear.
Anyone that gets the attitude that everyones quality of work is lower than theirs just because someone charges less is too full of themselves and needs a reality check.
I disagree, it means you're overpriced for the customer you're talking to at that moment. Some people are ONLY concerned with price when they look to hire, and I'm not concerned with getting those jobs.
In some cases a higher price does not mean better quality, but in many cases it does. Reasonable people know this, or they'd always hire the lowest priced guy. I've sold 4 jobs in the last two weeks where I was told as soon as I delivered the bid that they had estimates for less.
"Sorry, I can't beat that price....is there a reason you're still getting estimates for the job?"
"I didn't really like the guy....he was (rude, smelled of alcohol, unlicensed, wanted to use heavy equipment in my flower beds, or just didn't inspire any confidence in their ability)"
Pick one...all four have been told to me in the last two weeks.
It could very well be that the other competition does not have the overhead someone else has, such as financing on equipment, maybe they pay less for insurance due to good track record, or competitive pricing..maybe they pay less for employees than someone else, there could be many reasons why someone can bid less for a job than someone else.
Sometimes this is right on the money. Other times it's not. But lowering your overall rates because you've encountered a bunch of low bidders only further degrades the market we're all trying to sell jobs in. Almost every tree guy out there is selling jobs for 50%-66% of what we were getting a year and a half ago, because of the lowball (hack) competition we're bidding against. If you're closing every job you bid, you're too cheap, and costing yourself profit in the long run, and working harder to make the same or less money.
The obvious is if bids are lost repeatedly is that the bid loser is overpriced.
We've all had to adjust our rates to a certain degree, but that does not mean we're competing to be the low bidder. Price and quality DO have a direct correlation.
But you already know that, or you'd have bought some 60cc saw off ebay for a couple bills instead of shelling out for a 361. When you bought your Harley, was it the cheapest bike you could find?
Wether it's tangible goods, or services, price and quality will ALWAYS be related.
The customers who get to me right off the bat are the ones who say:
"I want it trimmed up REALLY good....all those pesky leaves will be dropping in a month, and I don't want to clean them up."
