Quotes to jobs ratio

[Treeaddict]

I was curious about how many of your estimates become jobs.

I was an estimator for a very large plumbing and mechanical contractor. I averaged about 10% which was industry avg.

Currently, I quote and perform residential plumbing services. I average 93% conversion.

What’s it like in the tree world?

 

[SkwerI]

I no longer have a tree business, but I always tended to underbid because it was more important for me to help the client than to help myself. Almost all of my work was referral work, so a friend of a friend deserved extra special pricing. I never got rich but I closed about 90% or more of my calls. Looking back, I'm embarrassed at how cheaply I did some of those big jobs. I strived to close closer to 50%, but never could bring myself to raise my prices that high.

 

[flushcut]

Probably 70-80% but if I am hitting 80% my prices go up.
I just got a referral from a tree guy who put 1400 on a removal that I would put 5000 on. He is probably selling 100% but running his crew ragged for little money.

 

[flushcut]

Two years ago it didn’t matter how high my price was. I was batting a 1000.

 

[BeerGeek]

About 40-50% here, as most of my biz is referrals, and I'm honest as to why it will cost what I quote. Also, I'll give a very large number and indicate it's not something I can do without bringing in additional help (eg: crane or bucket, which few other companies want to collaborate with me on, as they are all help deprived here as well). If they ask for written, they're equally on the hook for overruns, as it's stated that prices are estimates and may change based on unknown conditions or more/less than expected work (and yes, some good custys paid less than estimated due to perfect scenarios). I stopped working for nothing after the first year in biz, once I understood what my costs would be. Recent inflation has also played into to it, especially on some older estimates.

 

[TINYHULK]

I don’t do the estimates but my bosses price on a value based system. If we know this tree is going to take one day with so many men and so many runs to the dump, we know what we want to make in a day and see the value of the tree and meet somewhere in that area. We saw our first scary week or two with the recession and they priced some jobs low just to keep us working instead of making any money. Now we are backed up for weeks and got big jobs coming back in

 

[pete mctree]

I’m at over 80% currently and have started pushing my prices up a little. A lot of my work is through referrals, so I have to be careful not to price myself out of the market. I find it a difficult part of my business to manage to be honest.

 

[Treeaddict]

I agree with the difficulty to manage, Pete. It took quite a while to get used to charging good money. I always wanted to try to do the best job for as little as possible - didn’t want to hurt the customer. Then, I grew tired of working my rear end off in a nervous fashion to try to make money at the lower price point. The other end of the spectrum is refraining from over charging when I know I can get away with it. It can be a challenging situation to be fair to all parties involved.

 

[Bodean]

 

[SeanKroll]

I work for established customers, referrals, and on strong reputation for knowledge and skills in my area.

I don't advertise.

If a company is cold-advertising, the closure rate should be lower, maybe 1:2 or 1:3.

Removal jobs (demolition) are different than tree care (remodeling), and more often go to the low bid.

 

[Nland]

All referals here. I get 70 percent of what I look at typically. If I advertised that would likely go down.