Have you ever felt that while you have scores of satisfied customers, your bottom line doesn’t seem to be on the upswing? This could be because you aren’t properly pricing your pest control services to reflect their value.
The two most important factors in pricing your pest control business are time and money. If, however, you are unsure how they affect your pricing, check out the following helpful guide from your friends at Fieldster.
Operational costs include overhead expenses and cost of sales. By analyzing your operational costs, you are determining exactly how much it takes to run your business.
Overhead costs are the expenses that are incurred without providing any pest control services, such as rent in an office building, utilities, and insurance.
Cost of sales are everything needed to deliver quality services to your clients. Not only is this the cost of labor and chemicals used during the service, but it also includes the costs of equipment, vehicle maintenance, drive time, and fuel.
Adding these two types of expenditures together will determine the baseline number for how much your company needs to bring in throughout the year in order to break even. When you know how much your business is costing YOU, you will have a greater understanding of how to price your services for a profit.
Before we discuss profit pricing, let’s take a quick step back and look at how to determine the efficiency of how your company delivers those services. That’s critical in making sure you both price yourself competitively and set yourself up for a sufficient profit margin.
This is the job of service tracking, which helps you collect information on variables, such as how much travel time there is between each service, how long your pest control technician spends at each job, and what services were performed at each location. You can then use this information to get a better understanding of your process flow, find ways to optimize efficiency, AND then, you can properly determine a competitive and profitable price for the services you offer.
Having service tracking software that meets your needs is instrumental in collecting this information in a way that provides clear and actionable insights. With Fieldster's Route Management feature, you can group similar services by their location and map out the best route for your pest control technicians to minimize drive time.
Once you factor in your cost of sales and overhead expenses, you can set your profit margin. How much profit should you aim to make? Find a balance between what is fair to you and your customers, as well as an amount that would allow your business to remain competitive.
Check out any other pest control companies in the area to get an idea of what they charge for their services. Survey your customers to find out if they’re satisfied with the value of your services. While you shouldn’t base your prices solely on the opinions of your competitors or customers, it will be a helpful reference in finding a pricing strategy that will support your business growth.
One of the most important aspects of generating profit is using those returns to grow your pest control business. From hiring new technicians to adding more equipment and services, reinvesting into your business will provide opportunities to expand your reach and increase your service capacity.
Another way to invest in your business is with Fieldster. Our software is designed specifically for pest control companies to help them increase business efficiency, streamline communication between the team and customers, increase sales and retention, and deliver exceptional service each time. Learn more about how we can help you grow your business by scheduling a live demo of our software!