Up Front, flat rate, straight forward, worry free, are all terms that refer to the most popular pricing format in commerce today. Your grocer, car dealer, doctor, even the tax man all quote prices Up Front. The simplest definition of up front pricing is "standardized pricing." In the service business, your technicians all quote the same price for the same task. Rather than guessing how long it might take and how much material it might require. The procedures are broken down into line items, each with a fixed price. A proper price manual will contain hundreds, perhaps thousands of various tasks and procedures. Each procedure includes materials labor, other direct costs, overhead allocation and profits. Customers prefer to know their costs out front so they can make an informed decision about their investment. Business owners enjoy the added cost control as they know the costs of each job before it even begins. Up front pricing also provides opportunities to manage overall sales with effective pricing strategies. Up Front pricing makes it easier to collect "Cash On Delivery." Technicians enjoy the performance incentives associated with up front pricing. Whether they're paid by the hour or by the job, up front pricing offers them significant opportunities to earn more. What if a job takes too long? The labor factor is usually estimated quite accurately. If a job takes longer than it should, it's because there are more procedures being performed than originally anticipated or perhaps the technician is just slow. If multiple repetitions of a particular procedure are coming up short handed, perhaps it's time to revisit the deployment allocations for those jobs. The fact is Ð companies that use Up Front Pricing are more profitable than those that don't. Switching to Up Front Pricing isn't difficult but it takes a bit of commitment. First, a business owner needs to have a heart felt talk with the check register. You MUST know, fairly closely, how much it costs per billing unit to operate your business. You'll need this number in order to allocate deployment to each procedure. If you are changing from T&M pricing you'll be facing a culture change. No longer are you concerned about billing enough labor on each job. You're concerned about delivering enough value to your customer. The more value you deliver to your customer, the happier your customer. The happier your customer, the more money they'll give you. Why will they give you more money? Because you're more valuable, of course! I hope I've been so convincing that by now, you're chastising yourself for never making the switch. There are plenty of articles written on the subject. There are many companies devoted to up front pricing. Now the question is: "Why choose Up Front Price.Com?" Funny you should ask, I was just about to give you a reason or two. First of all, I understand service work. I've handled customers, I've sold and performed jobs using the pricing systems I've created. I've trained and managed technicians using my system. In other words, I know how to make this system work profitably and can do the same for you. I can get your pricing system on line fast. Together we can work out a pricing strategy, and a training program which will quickly get you on the path to better profits. UpFrontPrice.Com is designed to let you grow. If you just want someone to maintain your price books, we can do it. Do you want to print your own books? UpFrontPrice.Com can do it. Do you need to coordinate your inventory control? The UpFrontPrice.Com has that covered as well. At some point, you may graduate to a big fancy system that incorporates everything from price books to truck maintenance schedules. When that time comes, the data you have in your UpFrontPrice.Com system will be most likely be compatible with your new system. You won't be locked into a proprietary business management system that doesn't do what you want it to do. At least not because of your choice in pricing systems. UpFrontPrice.Com is not just a price book system. It's a network. By linking other UpFrontPrice.Com users together through the Service Professionals Network, we can continue to support and develop business practices beyond the scope of proper pricing. Everyone is a contributor and everyone benefits. You're never alone (unless, of course, you want to be.) If you're ready to improve customer service and earn more profits then send me an e-mail. You deserve to have some fun, don't you think? © 2001 Randall Hilton all rights reserved.