Louis Massaro tells moving companies to raise their rates, starting with a simple increase like $10 per hour on a three-man crew. He shows the math: bumping a $135 rate to $145 on 200 moves a month adds $14,000 monthly, or $168,000 a year.
Questions this video answers
Add $10 per hour to the three-man rate (example: $135→$145).
200 moves per month (example figure).
7 hours (average move length in the example).
Extra $70 per move; approximately $14,000 extra per month.
Approximately $168,000 per year.
Chapters
First thing that you need to do right now, everybody raise your rates. I know this could be a scary thing. I know that, you know, the thought of if I raise the rates, people aren't going to book with us. If I raise the rates, you know, my sales team is going to complain and they're going to be scared to try to sell at that rate. And you know, we've been at this price and things seem to be working. Our fuel price is up. Are your other expenses up? You need to be able to raise prices and then emphasize your service. Sell your service, not price. Okay, I'm telling you this not because I want the public to pay more for moving services. I want you to make more money for all the work that you put in to your business. And from what I see, companies are not charging enough in their market. So let's talk about the ways that you could do this. First of all, you could do it across the board as actually, it's funny, I had one, I was on a call, my coaching client the other day and we talked about it and I said, you need to raise your rates, right? And it's actually a couple and the guy gets up and walks out. It's a video call, it's a Skype calling. Where's he going? Is he going to raise the rates? He literally walked out, went raised the rates, came back into the room and they're still booking jobs. Okay, so you could raise the rates across the board. Meaning, you know, if you charge, you know, 125 an hour, go to 135 an hour, you can charge, you know, extra for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you could raise your prices. You should definitely be raising your prices at the end of the month. Okay, so one strategy here. I suggest across the board, 10 bucks, right? Whatever your price is, if you have not already raised it, right? So I know some of you have. If you haven't already raised it, take your three man rate, increase that by $10 and then adjust everything else accordingly based on that. Alright? I want you to do the math. I'm going to tell you exactly what sent him out of the room. Okay? It was this conversation and I don't remember the exact numbers. I said, how many moves are you doing a month? So let's say the number was 200. I said, all right, well what are you charging now? He said 1:35 an hour for three men. Okay, so let's say we go to 145. What's your average move said? Seven hours. Okay, so that's an extra $10 an hour for seven hours. Right? So it's an extra $70 per move times the 200 moves. No, 70. 70. 70. Yeah, that was Right. I don't know if you could see that. $14,000. $14,000 on a month extra for someone that's doing 200 moves a month. Times that by 12, that's $168,000 a year extra. Where does that go? In your pocket? Right. That's extra money on the top. It's the first topic today. This is such a big deal, and I want to make sure that you're getting the money you're worth this season. Okay? I'm talking to too many people who are at capacity. They're like, louis, things are great. We're already booked up for the end of the month. It's like the fourth or the fifth or the sixth. They're already booked up for the end of the month. That's great. But that tells me your price is too low. Raise your price, maybe you're won't be booked up already by the beginning, but you'll still book up at those higher rates. Okay? If you're a little nervous about it, you can always, always, always bring the price back down. Once you put something in your mind, it tends to happen. I guarantee you right now, regardless of what your prices are now, you have customers here and there that aren't booking with you because they say your price is too high right now at your current price. Okay? So that will always happen. Unless you're like the lowest of the lowest of the lowest, which I don't think anybody on that's here with us is, you know, charging that low, low, low price. Okay? It's a different mindset to be there because those companies are putting themselves out of business slowly and they don't even know it. You have to understand that, you know that first week when you raise the price and your salesperson's like, oh, my God, I didn't book this job because they said our price was too high. You cannot panic. You have to stay strong and continue to go through it. Now's the time at the beginning of season, because your demand is higher, okay? You're going to naturally be busy. So if there are a few people that don't book because your price is a little higher, that's okay. You're still going to have the business. There's no reason you should be booked up at capacity, not able to handle any more moves, and charge these low rates. Okay? So again, across the board, my recommendation would Say, take the three man rate, add ten bucks to it, whatever it is, okay? At a minimum, look at charging extra on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and you don't have to position it that way. To the customer, you could say, listen, our price is 135 an hour. However, we do have a discount from Monday through Thursday at 125 an hour, okay? So don't make it like, oh, it's like you're punishing them to move on the weekend. Instead, flip it and make it like you're incentivizing them to move during the week. Lastly is the first week of the month. I want you to look at your end of the month, the last weekend of the month, and everything around the 30th, 31st and the first to see what your schedule looks like. You guys all know the end of the month is a busy time. Everyone needs to be in and out of their new place by the first. So there's a lot of moving activity going on. Then if you start to see that it's booking up, you're like, well, we're definitely gonna book up for that day. Raise the price even more for those days. Raise it 40 bucks an hour for those days. Whatever it's gonna be, you're gonna get it. There's a lot of markets out there where, you know, the end of the month, it's, it's scarce. It's hard for people to find movers. I want you guys to get paid. I want extra money going in your pocket. Take the amount of moves you do. Take your average amount of hours for each job. So if it's six or seven or eight, add the extra money. So let's say it's 10 bucks an hour, you're gonna, you're gonna go up. Multiply that by the amount of moves, and if that number doesn't motivate you, I don't know what else will. All right? Raise your rates, please. Let me know. I want to hear about it. Just go out there and make some money, all right?
