Pricing Structure

ErieTint · March 10, 2018

I know we all have different pricing. We all have a different equation that adds up to how we price our work. From film brand(s) we offer to film type to location to shop size (literal size and/or employee count) to clientele we would like to keep etc etc etc...

I am trying to work up a "basic" pricing structure to go off of for quick answers and consistency. I also have two friends that own audio shops that I am working with and would like to give them a sort of cheat sheet so when people call or come in they can give a rough quote along with my information if the customer asks "well, how much for my car?" to possibly weed out some of the undesirables. Also, when I start approaching dealerships to try and lock down some work with them, I want hard "retail" pricing before they try to beat me up on price. I know what I want to give them depending on how they want to structure the relationship. Also want ammo walking in the door so they see a number and (hopefully) realize that I will not be using cheap film or doing cheap work.

To avoid talking actual numbers (unless we want to do that) and just talk rough information, my current proposed breakdown of vehicles looks like this;

Cars

SUVs

Trucks (Standard Cab)

Trucks (Extended Cab/Crew Cab)

Front Roll Ups Only

Full Windshields

Sun Strips (Eyebrows)

All pricing is listed as "Starting At" to cover my butt in the case of things like Tesla windshields.

I had a suggestion from one of the audio shop owners to split the Cars category into Coupe/Sedan pricing but I am not sure if I should or not.

Currently I have category pricing in mind for Dyed film and will be offering a Ceramic option as requested for now. Once I am moving faster I will stock ceramic if the market dictates. I have my Ceramic currently priced at about a 75% markup from the Dyed film pricing. (Just for those not quick at math, every $100 in Dyed film would be $175 in Ceramic film so a $250 install would be $425.)

Let me know what you guys think. The collective industry time that this forum provides has been a huge help to the new guy in town.

(I'm looking at a few of you in particular. AHEM! @TNTLady @highplains @TintDude @DynamicATL @jh812 Pretty please.....)

:thanks

pbalentine · March 10, 2018

I charge the same for Sedans and Crew Cab trucks. Also do Coupes and Extended Cab trucks same price. Makes pricing a lot easier. Coupes with large side 1/4s are priced the same as a Sedan. Some dealers here price Sedan, Coupe & SUV the same.

highplains · March 10, 2018

So my menu pricing is set up like this

Fronts Only

Regular Cab Pickups

Cars(both coupes and sedans) Ext & Crew Cab Trucks, Small Crossover SUV's like the Chevy Trax and Honda HR-V that have no cargo area windows

Standard SUV's and Station Wagons

XL SUV's and Vans

I have two different Eyebrow price sets depending on whether an eyebrow is being done on it's own or in conjunction with other windows.

I currently carry two film options, a standard dyed and a carbon. Depending on the application the markup between them is anywhere between 15% and 25% and is largely based on my market figuring about a 100 mile radius.

DynamicATL · March 10, 2018

My goal when setting up pricing was to make it as simple as possible...this way we can easily quote the same amount. This is how our structure looks...

Vehicles:

Coupe
Sedan
SUV/Truck/Wagon
Van
Front Doors

We started with our Sedan price since that is the majority of work. We originally did not have a Coupe price, but you do get those customers asking why is it the same price. So we decided to offer a separate Coupe price...we simply subtracted $20 from the Sedan price. To get the SUV/Truck/Wagon price, we added $20 from the Sedan price. Now most shops charge less for trucks and breaks them down into Single/Double/Quad cabs. Personally I that is too completed so we charge the same price for all 3 models especially since we do not know what still back window it is. I look at it this way, some vehicles you lose a little due to bigger windows or longer installation time, while others like the truck you make extra on. To this day, we have never had anyone question our pricing on trucks. Vans are a little harder since there are so many different models and configurations so we usually quote them once we see it. We dropped the front doors price a little lower to attract more of them to fill in any 30 minute gaps. Since we generally upsell to Ceramic, we still get good money for them since that is usually what they select.

For customers that are doing partial tint like everything but the front doors or all side windows but no rear window...we take the normal price we charge for the window they are not doing, cut it in half and that is what we discount off the job. So say you normally charge $200 for a Sedan, but they do not want to tint the rear window. If you normally charge $100 for the rear window, we would cut that in half and discount the job by $50...making it $150. If anyone asks why a small drop, we let them know you get a better price doing the whole package versus part of it.

Now for odd vehicles or older vehicles (we do anything older than 2000) we typically want to look at the vehicle to see the condition.

As far as your film markup, that sounds like a good setup...we are roughly the same.

jh812 · March 10, 2018

:reading :lol

I'm about the same as the rest of the guys here. Coupe and sedan are only 20 dollars difference for me. Trucks are the same as my coupe price for crew and extended cab. Regular cab is about 30 bucks less. Regular small SUV is the same as sedan and large SUV is about 50 bucks more. Imo the only thing I see is if you're selling ceramic that high you may need either A) something to bridge the gap or B) reduce the price some. Of course windshield strips and sunroof large and small. Also something to think is what is your per window sides and back. That'll help avoid hesitation on those weird requests. Hope this helps.

ErieTint · March 11, 2018

8 hours ago, pbalentine said:

I charge the same for Sedans and Crew Cab trucks. Also do Coupes and Extended Cab trucks same price. Makes pricing a lot easier. Coupes with large side 1/4s are priced the same as a Sedan. Some dealers here price Sedan, Coupe & SUV the same.

Thanks @pbalentine!

7 hours ago, highplains said:

So my menu pricing is set up like this

Fronts Only

Regular Cab Pickups

Cars(both coupes and sedans) Ext & Crew Cab Trucks, Small Crossover SUV's like the Chevy Trax and Honda HR-V that have no cargo area windows

Standard SUV's and Station Wagons

XL SUV's and Vans

I have two different Eyebrow price sets depending on whether an eyebrow is being done on it's own or in conjunction with other windows.

I currently carry two film options, a standard dyed and a carbon. Depending on the application the markup between them is anywhere between 15% and 25% and is largely based on my market figuring about a 100 mile radius.

Thanks @highplains! I have some a la cart pricing listed as well. (Front Doors Only, Windshield, Sun Strip) I would price things differently if they wanted to piece things together from there. Give a discount and make them feel good about getting a deal by combining things.

7 hours ago, DynamicATL said:

My goal when setting up pricing was to make it as simple as possible...this way we can easily quote the same amount. This is how our structure looks...

Vehicles:

Coupe

Sedan

SUV/Truck/Wagon

Van

Front Doors

We started with our Sedan price since that is the majority of work. We originally did not have a Coupe price, but you do get those customers asking why is it the same price. So we decided to offer a separate Coupe price...we simply subtracted $20 from the Sedan price. To get the SUV/Truck/Wagon price, we added $20 from the Sedan price. Now most shops charge less for trucks and breaks them down into Single/Double/Quad cabs. Personally I that is too completed so we charge the same price for all 3 models especially since we do not know what still back window it is. I look at it this way, some vehicles you lose a little due to bigger windows or longer installation time, while others like the truck you make extra on. To this day, we have never had anyone question our pricing on trucks. Vans are a little harder since there are so many different models and configurations so we usually quote them once we see it. We dropped the front doors price a little lower to attract more of them to fill in any 30 minute gaps. Since we generally upsell to Ceramic, we still get good money for them since that is usually what they select.

For customers that are doing partial tint like everything but the front doors or all side windows but no rear window...we take the normal price we charge for the window they are not doing, cut it in half and that is what we discount off the job. So say you normally charge $200 for a Sedan, but they do not want to tint the rear window. If you normally charge $100 for the rear window, we would cut that in half and discount the job by $50...making it $150. If anyone asks why a small drop, we let them know you get a better price doing the whole package versus part of it.

Now for odd vehicles or older vehicles (we do anything older than 2000) we typically want to look at the vehicle to see the condition.

As far as your film markup, that sounds like a good setup...we are roughly the same.

Thanks @DynamicATL! I am thinking of possibly knocking some off on coupes just to make them look a touch more appealing. Really like the idea of cutting then discounting if they want to drop windows. That would make an easy system of getting to a sedan with back only tint. Very nice idea there.

7 hours ago, jh812 said:

I'm about the same as the rest of the guys here. Coupe and sedan are only 20 dollars difference for me. Trucks are the same as my coupe price for crew and extended cab. Regular cab is about 30 bucks less. Regular small SUV is the same as sedan and large SUV is about 50 bucks more. Imo the only thing I see is if you're selling ceramic that high you may need either A) something to bridge the gap or B) reduce the price some. Of course windshield strips and sunroof large and small. Also something to think is what is your per window sides and back. That'll help avoid hesitation on those weird requests. Hope this helps.

Thanks @jh812! I may draw up a full a la cart price list separate from the full vehicle list. Include things like Sun Roofs, Rear Windshields, Single Windows, etc...

ErieTint · March 11, 2018

I am a LLumar dealer (I know, I know, $$$...) and really like the idea of the heat rejection in the ATR and CTX lines. However, I am not a fan of the potential issues with ATR, hence the Dyed and Ceramic pricing that I mentioned in my first post. Would it be worth my while to carry ATR instead of CTX? I know there is a huge price difference there but I don't want to have to order some CTX because one install that I did had an issue with one window and now I have a roll of CTX that I don't normally stock and will likely never finish. I would rather price it accordingly and stock Dyed and Ceramic and just skip the in between. I really like the idea of having an in use roll plus a spare roll of everything in stock and skipping over ATR and sticking to ATC and CTX would help that.

What do you guys stock normally for customers? Do you take special orders for VLTs that you don't stock? Do you up charge the customer if so because it isn't a stocked roll?

I ordered 50%, 35%, 15% and some Air 90 with my opening order. I just had to order some 5% for a job I did last night for a friend. Should have done more reading and tried to plan a little better before my first order. I am going to stock 20% in place of the 15% once I run through what I have now. Then there is a 15% step (50/35/20/5) between each offering with the exception of the Air 90. Helps my OCD as well. Haha!

Thanks again for all of the feedback everyone.

TNTLady · March 11, 2018

@ErieTint Sounds like every one has given you the advice I would have given you. I however do not charge less for 2 door coupes because the doors are longer And generally the back windows are longer and more sloped lending to more difficulty in tinting them. I would also advise you order the 20% in the ATC Series because there are some 2 door jobs that it will match up better to than the 15% ATC Series. I only carry the CTX Series, the ATC Series and Air 80 in the LLumar films. :thumb2

Edited March 11, 2018 by TNTLady

highplains · March 11, 2018

23 minutes ago, ErieTint said:

What do you guys stock normally for customers? Do you take special orders for VLTs that you don't stock? Do you up charge the customer if so because it isn't a stocked roll?

I'm a 3M dealer and carry their FX Premium and Color Stable lines. In FX I stock 5, 15, 25, and 35. In the CS I stock 20(15) and 35. I could easily drop the 25 in the FX line as it's my slowest seller but it's nice to have on hand for the customer that wants an in between shade. In the past I've handled special orders two ways, ordering a cut roll (and charging the extra cut fee from my distributor) so I wouldn't have to hang onto a bunch of extra or when that wasn't an option ordering a full roll and charging the customer for it at a lower markup rate. Both worked out well, you just have to be upfront about it: "this is a special order and as a result it's going to cost $x.xx"

1 minute ago, TNTLady said:

@ErieTint Sounds like every one has given you the advice I would have given you. I however do not charge less four 2 door coupes because the doors are longer And generallu the back windows are longer and more sloped lending to more difficulty in tinting them. I would also advise yoy order the 20% in the ATC Series because there are some 2 door jobs that it will match upbetter to than the 15% ATC Series. I only carry the CTX Series, the ATC Series and Air 80 in the LLumar films.

:yeah that is exactly why I charge the same for coupes and sedans. More often than not your actual glass sqft (material usage) is close to the same. Plus from a labor side they are more of a pain to install, especially if you're a big guy like me.