But My Husband is an Engineer

SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO CHARGE THAT MUCH…

I guess you could call this a gratitude of Confidence. A confidence that allows one to hold true to their commitment of giving a quote on a performance and sticking to it. A confidence that even under pressure one can persuade a client that they got exactly what they asked for, but maybe not in the way they had planned.

The Landscaping Business

In the transitional years of my business when we were still more of a maintenance company, before we moved completely into full landscaping, we did a lot of hedge trimming. We would include this service for our usual customers and also random clients who found us in the phone book or by word of mouth. Our normal rate I would attempt for was approximately $75 per man hour (this was not disclosed to the customer). In the mid 1990’s, it was unheard of to get that much for trimming hedges, but I was comfortable and had good success at getting this rate when all went well. On this particular job I knew it was small so I bid it a bit higher. As I walked around this very nice upper middle class house with the customer she explained what she was wanting, we agreed upon approximately $600 and she was excited when I told her I had a crew that could actually be out in about an hour to get it taken care of today. It was around 2:30pm and with 3 guys they could easily finish in a couple hours.

An Unexpected Change of Plans

I had all the equipment in the back of my truck so I could leave it for the crew and I could head out to do another sales call. But right after my crew chief said they were on their way, I received a call back in less than 5 minutes to tell me they had some mechanical problems and would not be able to make it out there that night. Frustrated with the news of the truck and now bothered by her expectation of getting the job done tonight, I made a quick decision to just do it myself. I called and rescheduled my appointment, and then informed the customer that it was her lucky day, she was going to get the owner to do her trimming.

Not trying to brag, but I had literally trimmed thousands of bushes, shrubs of every shape and size and like everything else when you do something so repetitive, you get pretty good and you get very fast. So what would have taken a crew of three a couple hours I was able to whizz through the front and back, quickly clean up and even look for any pop ups that I may have missed. The only problem was I had finished in a little over an hour. Why was that a problem?

I had quoted her around $600 and I took great pride in always keeping my word on what I would quote my customers. In thousands of quotes throughout a 30 year history I became trusted that if Schroeders quotes you a job that price is firm.

The Principle of Pricing

You see I was always a bit frustrated when I would go into a mechanical company and they would quote you a price and 2 days later your bill was 45% more than they told you. Yes, I realize some businesses can’t pinpoint an actual end price but when they didn’t even call you to let you know of an increase it was at times maddening. So one of my tenets for my customers was that unless it was a crazy situation that was so obvious, I would not charge extra. In 30 years I can barely remember a couple cases where this occurred. But in this case I knew there was going to be a conversation in the opposite direction.

The Uncomfortable Conversation

As I knocked on her door I could tell she was surprised when I told her I had finished the job and I wanted her to come out to make sure she was satisfied with the way everything looked. I noticed as she was looking around, and at the same time she was looking at her watch, I could read her mind and then she said. “Wow I can’t believe you got this done all by yourself, so fast—how did you do this?” “Well,” I started, “I’ve been doing this for so long, and with good equipment and no one to bother me I can get in a good rhythm and the good news is with my experience your shrubbery honestly looks better than what my crew would have done. I guess I just have a knack for this stuff.” In other words a humble way of saying I’m damn good at this stuff when I’m in my zone.

We continued walking around her landscape and as I finished she said it looked great and she was going in to get her checkbook. As I waited outside I began to ponder how this next conversation would evolve, my guess, based on her facial expressions and mannerisms during our walkthrough, it wasn’t going to be a quick one.

“But My Husband is an Engineer”

She emerged through the doorway and as we sat on her chairs on the patio she inquired, “John, it really looks good and thank you for getting it done tonight, so what do I owe you?” “Well,” I said bracing for a reaction, “we will just keep to what we agreed.” Silence. I could imagine her brain trying to contemplate her next thought. “$600, but, but you have only been here a little more than an hour.” Yes, I had a feeling this was where this was going to go, then she continued. “I mean that’s almost $600 an hour, and don’t take this the wrong way, but my husband is an engineer and he never makes that kind of money.” I could see her hands beginning to shake a bit as she held the pen and checkbook. And my mind raced as I began to put my thoughts together on how to very calmly explain my reasoning.

I must note that when she told me her husband was an engineer my first thought was to tell her, “I’m sorry, I know a lot of engineers and well let’s just say they can be a bit ah, interesting. We will discuss engineers on another day, but, my experience and comedic personality doesn’t always mix well with the engineer type. They are a bit too linear. And as I’ve mentioned before when I work for engineers their mindset requires me to deal with them differently than most other customers. They just have to be given a bit more attention. But knowing many engineers and attorneys I do respect their intelligence and hard work ethic but our personalities are probably on opposite sides of the landscape garden, so to speak.”

Owning Your Worth

“Well first of all, does your husband own his engineering company? Understand, as the owner of my company, I’m different from my employees in that I understand the finances of my company and I know you may just see me as a guy with a pretty quick hedge trimmer. But I do have a college degree and though I may not be an engineer I had the confidence to start a company that would allow me to be in control of what I wanted to make.” Silence. “And again the good news is that since you got me today your landscape probably looks better than if my less experienced teammates did the job.” Silence.

If I could read her mind, my guess would be: How can I pay this landscaper this much money? I was hoping maybe $200. Two, is he really going to make me pay this much? And three, what in the world am I going to tell my husband if he asks the obvious questions? So most likely a husband at the dinner table may ask, how was your day? Did you get the landscape trimmed today? What did it cost? And how many were there and (here it comes) and how long did it take them? Yes, engineers are very analytical and they are very much into numbers. Which is good. Unless you’re the wife who, if you are honest, will have to say we just paid a landscaper nearly $600 an hour in the 1990’s.

“I just thought that since it was just you and it didn’t take you very long at all, ah well, it would be a lot less.” I think her thinking was very accurate. I believe 95% of housewives in the Evansville area would be thinking the same thing so I was not surprised at all with her thought process. What she didn’t realize was that she had encountered John Schroeder, not your normal landscaper and a man of confidence who was definitely not your normal person (call me anything, but don’t ever call me normal). So as I saw her struggling with this moment of contemplation, a thought came to me and for me when a thought occurs I usually will share it.

Demonstrating Value Beyond Hedge Trimming

You see, I believe what she was struggling with was the fact that to her, I’m really just this young man who is doing manual labor and I’m suddenly charging doctor’s prices. And that was not acceptable. So maybe I can show her and share some wisdom that would give her a bit of solace for what she was about to do. So, here is where I went next.

“Mrs. _______, I can tell you are having a hard time writing that check so let me spend a few minutes discussing some topics that may surprise you. Would you be interested in discussing iambic pentameter, the writing form used by Shakespeare, or maybe we can discuss the philosophies of Nietzsche (remember the man who said, ‘that which does not kill you makes you stronger,’ I know you thought that was Conan the Barbarian) or maybe we can discuss Immanuel Kant, another philosopher we studied in philosophy class.” She had never heard of Kant.

“If you would like, we can talk about Nishikigoi, jewels of the pond.” (I had recently gotten big into koi, the very expensive fish adorning people’s water gardens). I felt that maybe if she realized my IQ was above that of a… she may be more at ease. I mentioned a few other topics I’m pretty sure she did not plan on learning about that day.

Resolution and Reflection

I saw her slowly write the check for the amount agreed, and as she handed it to me her mind was somewhere else. “OK, thanks,” she muttered not really looking at me and she turned and walked inside. “Ok,” I said, “let us know if you ever need us again,” realizing it would probably be a cold day in Hell before that would ever happen. As I walked away I imagined the possible dinner conversation. And if so I planned that I may in fact get a call from an analytical engineer. But it never came.

Through the years, as I look back on that day in the yard of a very confused customer, I reminisce on the fact that I drove away with a $600 check in my possession because of a number of factors. But the one most obvious to me was that in my life I had the opportunity to listen to a lot of really great people. People that I respected and really believed that they could help me become a better person. They were people who in effect taught me how to be a person of confidence. To be confident and not waver in tough situations. They taught me a confidence that said never back down for fear of inferiority. John, you are a person of principle, of good character and honest. You have the tools of patience and respect and you know a little bit about math. Stay true to yourself and when you are in a tough situation. Think through the process and maybe come from a different angle, a different perspective to explain why you’re worth what you’re worth.

Gratitude

So to Bert Miller, sister Jane Michele, Bobby Watson, John Newhouse, Dan Adams, my father, and one crazy Uncle Donny and so many others. Thank you for giving me the courage to trim a bush quickly and not be afraid to discuss iambic pentameter at the same time.

Remember when you become confident in yourself and you begin to achieve your dreams, look back and make sure you remember who gave you the lessons to be more sure of yourself.