Do you get many (or any) people try and haggle down your cake price with you? If so, how do you deal with it? Do you ever drop your prices for them?
I have a tendency to get a little miffed (but I keep that to myself). I send them a long list of everything that they are paying for with a bespoke cake (time, skill, experience, ingredients etc) and then be mysteriously booked up for the next time they want to try and order a cake.
Would love to hear how others deal with it!
xx
you want to make a sale for every contact -- right? so if they are balking at a $200 order -- you might want to tell them what a $100 order looks like from you -- or just straight out ask them their budget -- stuff like that -- be kind & helpful -- forget your feelings -- feelings are for creating -- you've got to rapid fire switch hats during a consult/contact -- from cool salesperson to radiant creator back & forth --
best to you
i mean people often say "i'd rather have one $400 order than three $150 orders" and i get that but if you're good at it -- you can pop the three cakes out in about the same space as the higher dollar one -- kwim -- it's all good --
that's if you are after money -- if you are in it for the thrill of victory -- then stick with the fewer high dollar ones -- you gotta be creative in a lot of different ways to make this work
I've had2 this week, and the week just started lol I don't haggle with people, I know what my cost to create the cake is, I know what I need to charge to make money, and I refuse to drop the price to accommodate them. They still want the cake they want, with the bling, and the gumpaste flowers, and blah blah blah, but for $180.00. A 3 tier cake at that. I will ask about budget, and try to come up with something to stay within it, but I'm not doing the work that needs to be done for peanuts. If they want to go with the cheaper option, great. If not, that's fine, too, but they won't talk me down from $300 to 150. Never gonna happen.
Ta for the responses!
I am not too fussed if they think I'm too expensive and go elsewhere to be honest, that's totally up to them. I do try to be as accommodating as possible in that I ask what their budget is and give them several different options for something that will be as close to their budget and vision as possible.
I guess I was more meaning the people who want the $500 cake for their $150 budget and keep trying to get you to bring the price down.
I will sometimes give discounts if I get a particularly lovely person or couple. But if I have someone being pushy and asking for a discount just because they want one then nope, I am not budging.
My "advertisement" is mostly by word-of-mouth. So people who come to me, are usually already "warned" about the prices - I find it helpful. I have had a share of "your price is crazy!", but not yet a serious attempt to talk me down to make an expensive cake for a lot less than its actual cost. Since my cakes is not our family primarily income (not yet at least), I also do not feel obligated to fight for every potential order. So that makes it easier in a way, I guess.
Like many, I can offer design options for a different price range, and work with the budget, as long as it has been made clear that if a budget is $300, there is no way I can make a cake that's $600, and accept only half for it. Most recently, in the price negotiations and budget VS design aspect, the customer had found a way to increase the budget by a third (and decrease the size and some design options), to accommodate her overall expectations, and my "price per slice". They were very happy with the result, in the end.
I am thorough usually, in my discussion with a potential customer - kind of a routine Q&A of budget and ideas, but I have lost a few due to prices. With everything going on in our lives, I cannot be building my business up on a cheap-deal-seeking customer base.
Like you said, me_me1, often it is easy to spot the pushy ones, and I make sure to nip those interviews in the bud. In my experience, these people have already been told in other places, how much their cake will be worth, and it becomes a sport for them, to haggle down the price. My - and yours - time also is worth something, so haggling pointlessly with someone who is on a search for a cheapest bargain "for fun", is detrimental to our business, as we could be spending it on a more productive activities.
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