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4.95. How do I get my pricing consistent?

When I am quoting jobs my pricing seems to be all over the place. How can I get consistent prices?

A: The key to consistent pricing with EstiMate is not over-thinking the subjectives section of the software.

We will begin with a discussion of each slider in the subjectives section, how these sliders influence the creation of an estimate, and how to optimize them for consistent quoting.

For the sake of this discussion, let?s use the example of a simple one sided, 18 inch x 24 inch .032 aluminum business sign with 1 color of vinyl that reads 'Fabric Fantasies 555-1212'.

Vinyl Coverage %
It is very important not to over-think this one. The purpose of this slider is simple: how much of this type of vinyl (premium, intermediate, etc) are you putting on this sign? We set this slider to 85% for every quote we do, with the exception of signs with a border - those are 90%. And that?s that.

Artwork Complexity
The Artwork Complexity slider allows you to adjust the design time. This includes all the time it takes to design the sign in the computer which may include logo design or clean-up, font selection, and general layout of the sign including logo and letter placement. In the case of our example above, the artwork complexity would be set at 3 percent representing about 15 minutes of design time. By going into Management > Configure EstiMate > Minimums you can set the artwork complexity slider to default at 3%, or 5%, or wherever you feel is best. Then when you or your employees quote a sign the design time will be automatically entered and consistent for any basic sign.

General Difficulty Level
The General Difficulty Level slider represents the production time required to produce the finished sign, including cutting, weeding, and applying the vinyl. If this were a painted sign, the production time would be the time to assemble the paints and brushes, setup the sawhorses, prepare the board, paint the color on the background and the lettering on the foreground. In other words, production time represents the time spent actually making the sign(s).

In our example, the production time is at 0% representing about 15 minutes of production time. This comes from the software?s internal logic which calculates production time based on the area of vinyl coverage. This is the production time for a one color, simple sign.

Shop Workload
Most of the time the Shop Workload slider will stay at 50% and be constant throughout your estimating. Above 50% it will add to profit and below 50% it will subtract. This slider allows you to compensate for how busy your shop currently is. One common use for this slider is to add a rush charge; many users will put it up to 100% to add to the profit side of the equation and cover themselves for the extra workload the shop will have because of the quick turn-around.

Market Level
The Market Level slider defaults to the percentage you have setup in the configuration section (Management > Configure EstiMate > Market Levels). Like the shop workload slider, at 50% it will have no effect on the quote. Only when its value is above or below 50% will the hard numbers be affected. Knowledge and effective setup of your market levels can go a long ways towards consistent quoting; the best scenario is to 'do your homework', so to speak, by calling competitors in your area and obtaining prices on different types of sign work you commonly do: aluminum signs, banners, etc. Then set up the pricing screen with all the basics we have discussed and adjust the market level to the percentage that brings the price in line with your area?s prices . Do this for each sign type, and average the percentages, and you will arrive at a well-thought-out market level for your area.

'Margin'
The final subjective we will address is the Margin slider. This slider will also nearly always remain constant and at 100% where its effect on the estimate is null. Not to be confused with profit margin, the margin slider is only to be used when there is a difficult customer (a person who causes you ?unnecessary stress?). This could also be used for a customer who is a credit risk. The reason it is called the 'margin' slider is because if they are looking over your shoulder while you are pricing their sign, you can say, 'see - I even lowered my margin for you!'

To summarize, we now have our artwork complexity at 3%, General difficulty level at 0%, shop workload at 50%, market level at 53% (our shop?s default) and Margin at 100%.

Now you have a mental starting point for future signs. When a customer needs a sign this example will serve as an outline or springboard for your quoting. The only things that will change on any given job will be the substrate, vinyl selection, artwork time and general difficulty level; and most of these can have defaults specified in advance.

Let?s look into how to remain consistent when other details are added. If the customer requests a border around the sign, for example, you would simply move the vinyl coverage slider to 90% to account for the extra vinyl and waste that will be needed to make the border. This will also increase the production time proportionately.

Additional colors of vinyl simply require more production time; the difference with more colors is the time spent to cut, weed and apply the vinyl - so to compensate for these you bump the general difficulty level slider upward.

In the area of design time, a common addition is a company logo. This will simply mean about 45-60 minutes of additional design time and you can adjust the artwork complexity slider to achieve this.

This is how effective use of the subjectives section of EstiMate can contribute to consistent quoting. Pricing a simple sign can be used as a mental springboard or starting point, and then from there you can change the specifics for other signs. You can apply these techniques to the other pricing plugins in EstiMate such as digital printing and screen printing to bring consistency to your pricing there as well.