Why Your Window Cleaning Prices Are Probably Too Low
December 1, 2007 – 2:40 pmAll right, time for some straight talk about pricing. Yesterday, I had yet another experience to bolster my confidence in the fact that there is no such thing as “the correct price”.
A received a phone call from a new prospective customer, expressing interest in having us come and clean their windows for them. They had been using another local company for years, and were not happy with their service.
When I asked her how large her home was, and the nature and scope of her home’s windows, and using the online pricing tools that we make available to our clients, we quickly found that her home would fall within our “Medium-sized” pricing category. She also expressed interest in having her eaves cleaned, and we added a charge for that, and even offered her a “bundling” discount, since she was using 3 of our services on the same day (exterior window cleaning, interior window cleaning, and eavestrough cleaning).
The price we gave her, for a medium-sized, semi-detached, 2-storey house, was $550.00.
Her reply: “WOW! Your prices are great!”
At which point I kicked myself. Naturally.
Here is the point that you can learn from this: I have recently increased all of our pricing to a much higher price point – in many cases, twice and three times what other companies charge. There are many local competitors that would do this specific job I am talking about for $200 or $250, so our recently-adjusted price of $550 is high.
Or is it?
The truth is, to the CLIENT (the most important individual in the equation), they are getting an outstanding value for their money, even for $550.
Which means that I could have charged them $700 or more for this same job.
Which ALSO means: There is no such thing as the ‘right’ price for anything, including your company’s window cleaning services.
How did you come up with your current window cleaning pricing? The next time you raise your prices (which I suggest should be in about 45 seconds, after you finish reading this post) train yourself to ask “How much would my prospective client be willing to pay?”.
This is the same reason why I happily pay $12 for a hamburger from one restaurant and yet could have bought one down the street for $6. It’s all subjective. Pricing is subjective for hamburgers, paperclips, and bottled water, and its subjective for your small window cleaning business, too. Figure it out, and you’ll earn more profit in less time.
Which, incidentally (as if you haven’t already figured this out), is the point behind this whole website, and my spending months to assemble the tools, tips, and strategies that are currently at your fingertips.
Understanding marketable pricing strategies can make the difference between your window cleaning business making $50,000 in the next 12 months, or $80,000 or even more. For the same work, and the same amount of time.
Wanna learn more about how to effectively and lucratively market your window cleaning company?
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