Quoting Large Jobs

[Daniel Markovich]

I have been asked a few times for quotes on orders of 1,000+ items and not sure how to go about them. I want to offer a discounted rate however not sure how much. I don't want to under quote the job or quote too high and lose it. Does anyone have a good method of finding a happy medium? Thanks guys!

[Gary Hair]

Daniel,
Whether it's a small job or a large job the basics of pricing are still the same. You need to know all of your costs associated with running your business and then determine what hourly rate satisfies that cost. Costs include - salary (yours too!), rent, lease, mortgage, equipment, repairs, utilities, insurance, etc., etc. To determine a price on a job you need to know all of the particulars of that job - design time, receiving product, unpackaging, fixturing, lasering, cleanup, packaging, shipping, invoicing, etc. Take the total hours * hourly rate and you get a starting price. Adjust that up or down based on perceived value, market conditions, quantity, etc. You might want to check to see if anyone else is offering the exact same thing to see what the customer will find if they search around a bit. That doesn't mean you have to lower your price to match a low-baller, but you need to be prepared to answer why you are the price you are. Finally, I always make sure the price is enough that I want the customer to return with another 1,000, or 2,000 pieces to engrave again - if not, raise the price to where you are happy with it. If that's too high for them then you probably saved yourself some headaches. After looking at your website I'm guessing that you are pretty new to the business - don't cut your prices to "get your name out there" or because you don't think you are as good as the others who have been around longer, all that does is let people know you are cheap...

Good luck!

Gary

[Daniel Markovich]

Thanks Gary, that makes sense. Very helpful!

[Joe Pelonio]

Gary does make sense. For large jobs I have charged as little as $0.80 per item or $25 per item, it depends on the material cost and amount of labor and laser time to produce them. people may expect a great discount for quantity but you can only pass on the savings you have in doing many of the same item and for laser work it's not much. Basically the setup spread over the total rather than many setups for several small quantity jobs.

[Rodne Gold]

On qty jobs , we have found most customers are incredibly price and delivery sensitive. Often they will accept another method of marking/making to save a few cents or a few days, so your traditional pricing may not count. You need to be competitive with alternatives , not just within lasering. You will find that your normal time based quoting is also most likely non competitive as it's almost always too high. A galvo laser can mark something 10x faster than most flying head machines , so even if their pricing is 3x per minute more than yours , they still cheaper. A good starting point is to ask the client what they were thinking it would cost em to do the job , sometimes what I cliant has in mind or is able to pay isnt anywhere near what would be profitable to you ...

A lot depends on your circumstances , if you short of work , a 1000 piece order at 1/2 your normal price might be great , if doing the 1000 pieces you have to turn away 50 regular full price clients , thats not so great. It's almost impossible to give you a recipe for pricing. The ultimate determinant of whether it's good is whether you and the client can strike a mutually satisfying deal. If you quoting on these jobs and not getting any of em , well your pricing is wrong or something else is.
A good idea is perhaps get quotes from your competitors/alternative methodology suppliers on the job , you will see if you in the ballpark and can either equal a quote or even farm the job out.

[Bill Cunningham]

I'm sure your probably wise to this, but if the quote request comes in an email, and the end line asks what kind of credit cards you accept, it's a scammer. Don't waste your time... Unless of course your not busy and you want to have some fun with him... Some of these can be very entertaining..:p