Price check please

[GraphicDisorder]

You are very, very, almost unbelievably lucky fella if you've never had a scenario like that.  Count yer blessings!

Well to be more clear sure I have had people want to add to a order, but we are 1 day zone from one of our suppliers, zero issue to get it here.  We never have a problem finding enough stuff to get to free shipping either.  So I don't see any risk there that out weighs loosing a order over a few cents more in mark up on 2XL and up.  Even in our niche were most guys are big dudes the orders are still most always a small portion of 2XL and up than the bulk of the order since they are buying to resell them in most cases. 

There are a lot of ways to draw people into being a customer.  This is one for us and it's paid off in spades.  I just did a 5,000 shirt order and they went with us due to the difference of $.25 cents in mark up on the 2XL and up.  Of those 5,000 shirts, there were 300 2XL's.  So the other guy lost a 5000 order over $75 bucks.  That's not the only order we have gotten like that either.

In the event we no longer are covering the costs of 2XL and up, we'd raise that price. 

[alan802]

You gained a 5K piece order over $75 bucks...nice.  If we lost a 5K piece order over $75 then we didn't provide the service we should have.  If a customer doesn't care about service or quality and is only motivated by price then they probably won't be a customer of anybody's for very long because there will always be someone who will do it cheaper.  Take the 5K piece job and cash the check and be glad.   

[Inkworks]

Sanmar Canada is C$2.70 extra for 2XL - Gildan 2000.....

better phone your Rep, it's $1.88ea. extra ea. for me.

[GraphicDisorder]

You gained a 5K piece order over $75 bucks...nice.  If we lost a 5K piece order over $75 then we didn't provide the service we should have.  If a customer doesn't care about service or quality and is only motivated by price then they probably won't be a customer of anybody's for very long because there will always be someone who will do it cheaper.  Take the 5K piece job and cash the check and be glad.

Yup and we get and keep customers like that everyday.  Just because people shop on price don't mean they won't stick around once they found a good printer at a good value. 

[royster13]

Sanmar Canada is C$2.70 extra for 2XL - Gildan 2000.....

better phone your Rep, it's $1.88ea. extra ea. for me.

Sanmar Canada has pretty much told the little guys to "piss off" with their pricing.....I have pretty given up trying to sell much in the way of tees these days.....Except Zorrel for folks that want something cheaper than the name brands......

[3Deep]

Brandt you could be right, but I'm leaning more with what Alan said, it's very hard to keep a price shopper for a long term customer if they are price driven no matter how good you print the order.  If they thought they beat you down once they will most certainly try and do it again, we've had some of our customers tell us they had to get 3 quotes and ours was a few cents higher and they still went with us, because they felt good about working with us.  We all are price shoppers there's suppliers I buy from even though they are higher than another place, because I like and trust my sales rep, but who am I your company is shooting up a like rocket so you must be doing something right.

Darryl

[GraphicDisorder]

Brandt you could be right, but I'm leaning more with what Alan said, it's very hard to keep a price shopper for a long term customer if they are price driven no matter how good you print the order.  If they thought they beat you down once they will most certainly try and do it again, we've had some of our customers tell us they had to get 3 quotes and ours was a few cents higher and they still went with us, because they felt good about working with us.  We all are price shoppers there's suppliers I buy from even though they are higher than another place, because I like and trust my sales rep, but who am I your company is shooting up a like rocket so you must be doing something right.

Darryl

I didn't drop my price so they didn't beat down anything. Everyone that comes to you the first time is a little bit at least about price.  The notion that goes around that a shop can't keep a customer who found them while pricing shopping is ridiculous. 

I say let them find me on price.  We will keep them on service, print, and art. 

[3Deep]

The notion that goes around that a shop can't keep a customer who found them while pricing shopping is ridiculous. 

While this is true, I'm talking about real price shoppers, I have customer's that was price shopping and they are still with me today, but these customer's are not ordering 2k to 5K shirts every month or so.  Those 2k/5k type of customer's tend to price shop and are only loyal to the cheapest, you've had them and I've had them you make the money and move on.

[GraphicDisorder]

The notion that goes around that a shop can't keep a customer who found them while pricing shopping is ridiculous. 

While this is true, I'm talking about real price shoppers, I have customer's that was price shopping and they are still with me today, but these customer's are not ordering 2k to 5K shirts every month or so.  Those 2k/5k type of customer's tend to price shop and are only loyal to the cheapest, you've had them and I've had them you make the money and move on.

For sure everyone gets and looses people that are just pure price shoppers, but we've managed to keep most all of those.  Certainly lost a few though. I think our prints, art, price and our service are well above the average out there.  There's certainly better than us.  But there are tons worse than us.  When we see a client price shopping and they do bounce out for minute, many of them return.  I am OK with that.  Many of us do the same things in life.  We try out another car brand, we buy another type of phone, we try a different restaurant and so on.  Let them try someone else. 

[inkman996]

Experience shows we have lost a lot of price shoppers in the past due to them always looking for cheaper. And it never had anything to do with our quality or turn around time. Proof of concept is the amount of them that came back explaining they made a mistake with some cheapo and got bad quality work, but they miss our quality so they are back.

[alan802]

We've had a few customers leave over the years and depending on what the reason they leave for the majority will eventually come back.  That tells me our price is fair, our quality and service it top notch.  We have a weak spot or two in the sales staff that I can't really do anything about so we end up having to break our backs to make up for those people who can't seem to focus on one order long enough to actually get the shirts purchased and the order written up completely.  The customers we've lost due to a bad salesperson doesn't usually come back no matter how great everything else is. 

[mimosatexas]

I've had two clients leave over price and come back after seeing poor printing or feeling "unappreciated".  I have also had a handful never come back.  In the interest of being honest, none of those kinds of clients are enjoyable to work with and I could mostly care less whether they use me or not. They always seem to be the pickiest and most time consuming to finalize the details on a job, while at the same time trying to pinch pennies and negotiate over pricing.  It isn't worth the 25 emails to figure out their one color text design that they want ASAP and complain about paying anything for...