Color samples, is it fair to charge.


dwacker

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What do your competitors do?

Most offer 6 to 12 colors, that's what you get. Most wont give color samples at all or charge. I offer 150 and up until now never really cared. I went over the numbers and am spending quite a bit of money and time on samples. Being the cheap penny pincher that I am I'm thinking it might be time to start getting some of it back. The chip box cost me nearly $300 so I was just thinking a hefty deposit in hopes it would make it back .

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PB, I have NEVER offered a customer that many choices. That's a sure way to drag out a job. Ask them what they want and then pull several selections from your chip box for them to choose from. Include with the samples a form that they can check off the selection that they approve. If none of them meets their approval, then ask them what they would change. That way you are only having to custom make a couple of samples to meet their requirements. You may already have other samples made up that would give them what they want. At any rate, when they have made their choice, collect all your samples and verify that they choose Sample # xxx, and go about your business. Only mass producers like Formica can afford to give away chip chains. Even lumber yards have to pay for sample chains of moldings so this isn't a new concept. Incorporate into your pricing the necessity to custom make a dozen samples. That should cover your expenses.

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I think it's ALWAYS fair to charge for design time and samples on true custom work.  If they don't hire you, they can take the sample that they paid for to someone else.  If they hire you, you can credit the design work, or not...

 

It's one thing to offer up stock samples, but if you're trying to meet an exact target I can't see a genuine customer having a problem with it.

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PB, I have NEVER offered a customer that many choices. That's a sure way to drag out a job. Ask them what they want and then pull several selections from your chip box for them to choose from. Include with the samples a form that they can check off the selection that they approve. If none of them meets their approval, then ask them what they would change. That way you are only having to custom make a couple of samples to meet their requirements. You may already have other samples made up that would give them what they want. At any rate, when they have made their choice, collect all your samples and verify that they choose Sample # xxx, and go about your business. Only mass producers like Formica can afford to give away chip chains. Even lumber yards have to pay for sample chains of moldings so this isn't a new concept. Incorporate into your pricing the necessity to custom make a dozen samples. That should cover your expenses.

Good plan for retail. I don't do retail, designers want choices and lots of them. It cost me the same for any of 300 colors.

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Now I get it. Every time I've worked with a designer, I've had to take a loss somewhere along the line. They expect more than ......Oh, well. I'll just say that I built in a few things up front when I was working with them, and let their customer end up paying for their idiosyncrasies.

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i know all of my designer friends would pay for the chip box if you had a standing working relationship. that's a tangible sales tool for them! clients love those chip sets... last year we created a protocol for free samples: client doesn't keep them. too many reasons to list.

 

I think $100 is very fair... 

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i know all of my designer friends would pay for the chip box if you had a standing working relationship. that's a tangible sales tool for them! clients love those chip sets... last year we created a protocol for free samples: client doesn't keep them. too many reasons to list.

 

I think $100 is very fair... 

 

Right now I loan out the chip boxes to designers and offer to sell for my cost. I lost one last month when the lady loaned it out to her customer. I think a deposit is fair to keep that from happening. 

Usually they will call and want bigger samples of a few choices. I will make up 6x10 samples but this is getting sort of expensive. Im thinking about just adding the cost of 6 samples to every job wether they use them or not.

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If you do enough work with a designer give them a box. If they need replacements they pay. If they need a bigger sample they pay.

For someone who doesn't bring you a steady amount of work, sell them a box or take a deposit. You could even write them an invoice for the cost of the box due within 15 days unless the box is returned. Anyone you deal with first time I would sell samples or take a deposit up front to cover the cost of the whole box.

During my time as a project manager I got numerous samples. Some free, some required deposits. I can tell you with the busy schedule I had the only samples I returned were the ones I had money put on 90% of the time. Never once was I offended about giving a deposit.

Just look at Home Depot. They have samples for sale of flooring and some other things.

I think you have probably established yourself enough that you shouldn't have any issues requiring a deposit on samples. If a client does protest it's probably a sign of how they are going to behave when they get your quote. If they don't want to put out $100 refundable deposit are you sure you even want to deal with them?

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I agree with Darrel, designers who are worth working with will pay without batting an eye. The ones who fuss are likely to either be careless with your samples or a pain to do business with. Charge for making larger samples but offer to deduct the first 3 from the total cost. They want 6 larger samples then they pay for the second 3 even if they order the job.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Since you are providing them to designers, offering a 'full selection' for $300 for 150 samples sounds great.

 

But you might also offer a 'limited' set for free (say 10 or so), more than that charge $5/ea, making a full sample set sound like a great discount.

 

Depending on how you do your samples, can you reduce your cost of the samples to a point where you can 'afford' to sell a full set for $100 or $50? (on thin veneers?)  I am sure even 'good' photos wouldn't show them in the best light, but providing a limited set of samples with pictures of the full set might be an option for some potential customers.

 

I do agree with some others, that providing samples with a similar policy of others in your area might help.  If they only do a few, then provide similar few, but make a 'deluxe' set of samples available at an appropriate price.

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