Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: CLUELESS DEs with NO BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE WAKE UP
Page 2 of 2
TheRealTK421
Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:40 pm
#14
Lukious,
I stopped reading most of your posts after about the 5th sentence (and later after you 'bagged' on Micco....Naughty, naughty). I understand the frustration and the basic premise of your post. Anyone that's heard me speak to price in the past knows that I advocate slowly raising your pricing over time...regardless of what other DEs do.
My advice: Worry less about how other DEs run their business and worry more about how you run YOURS. The reason I'm sure that I've been successful over time is not just about providing quality product. It's about service. How you provide that is up to you but I know that I have clients on my list that bought from me on my first run up the MDE path...and they are STILL buying droids from me. I'm sure that I price higher than some or many. I honestly don't care about that. It's all about service. The 'service' that most people know I provide when they come to me comes in the form of knowledge and experience.
That's all about generating customer loyality. I can tell you that many players will be loyal to an MDE crafter/businessman and paymuch higher thanthe going rate for a product if they think the 'service' is worthwhile. You just have to ensure that it is...
Example: Some guy wanted a combat / space / harvest droid. He dropped me an email.I educated him that his choice wasn't a good one and suggested a separate droid for Harvest and a combat/space droid. I spent the time to ensure he got the RIGHT droid..instead of giving the 'junk' he'd have ordered had I not really cared to gain his loyalty. He sent 3 or 4 of his friends my way for their droid purchase.
If there's anything I've learned over time as an MDE in SWG, it's that the DE community of a server can (and should be) a...hmm...'cooperative'. It just works better.
By that, I mean that you get to know the other players that are making droids. Build relationships and see if you can work to better the market as a whole. "What's that," you say, "...develop a 'friendship' with my competition? Blasphemy!!"
Yea, yea...well, see..........................................I know it works.
I stopped reading most of your posts after about the 5th sentence (and later after you 'bagged' on Micco....Naughty, naughty). I understand the frustration and the basic premise of your post. Anyone that's heard me speak to price in the past knows that I advocate slowly raising your pricing over time...regardless of what other DEs do.
My advice: Worry less about how other DEs run their business and worry more about how you run YOURS. The reason I'm sure that I've been successful over time is not just about providing quality product. It's about service. How you provide that is up to you but I know that I have clients on my list that bought from me on my first run up the MDE path...and they are STILL buying droids from me. I'm sure that I price higher than some or many. I honestly don't care about that. It's all about service. The 'service' that most people know I provide when they come to me comes in the form of knowledge and experience.
That's all about generating customer loyality. I can tell you that many players will be loyal to an MDE crafter/businessman and paymuch higher thanthe going rate for a product if they think the 'service' is worthwhile. You just have to ensure that it is...
Example: Some guy wanted a combat / space / harvest droid. He dropped me an email.I educated him that his choice wasn't a good one and suggested a separate droid for Harvest and a combat/space droid. I spent the time to ensure he got the RIGHT droid..instead of giving the 'junk' he'd have ordered had I not really cared to gain his loyalty. He sent 3 or 4 of his friends my way for their droid purchase.
If there's anything I've learned over time as an MDE in SWG, it's that the DE community of a server can (and should be) a...hmm...'cooperative'. It just works better.
By that, I mean that you get to know the other players that are making droids. Build relationships and see if you can work to better the market as a whole. "What's that," you say, "...develop a 'friendship' with my competition? Blasphemy!!"
Yea, yea...well, see..........................................I know it works.
Just the other night, I bumped into (we believe) the only other 'old-timer' MDE left on Ahazi beside myself.Bothour shops (I'm sure) are well known and we have good word-o-mouth and a large clientbase. Wanna know what I did?
I gave him some of of the dropped resources he needed for his FS crafting quest. I don't really consider other high-end MDEs as competition, since there's plenty of business to go around for all of us. Even if he had been 'undercutting', I'd have done the same thing. However, I likely would have spent time trying to work with him on his pricing (by giving examples of how he was 'dropping his pants' and tossing away credits he could be making needlessly).
My point is that developing those sorts of relationships is the key to avoiding the situation in which you find yourself. If you and a few others charge a lot for droids (but provide 'quality' service), and most all others charge little (and offer little service)...the 'undercutters' won't be around too long. They very likely will get tired of DE and move on. Guess what peoplewill pay for droids when only the long-term, dedicated (read: higher priced) are left?
The sort of (proper) premium that it really should get.
If this issue is of such concern to you, I'd recommend you try to get some like-minded MDEs on your server together for a chat some night at a quiet cantina and solve it. Together. I know it works.
/bow
Respectfully,
I gave him some of of the dropped resources he needed for his FS crafting quest. I don't really consider other high-end MDEs as competition, since there's plenty of business to go around for all of us. Even if he had been 'undercutting', I'd have done the same thing. However, I likely would have spent time trying to work with him on his pricing (by giving examples of how he was 'dropping his pants' and tossing away credits he could be making needlessly).
My point is that developing those sorts of relationships is the key to avoiding the situation in which you find yourself. If you and a few others charge a lot for droids (but provide 'quality' service), and most all others charge little (and offer little service)...the 'undercutters' won't be around too long. They very likely will get tired of DE and move on. Guess what peoplewill pay for droids when only the long-term, dedicated (read: higher priced) are left?
The sort of (proper) premium that it really should get.
If this issue is of such concern to you, I'd recommend you try to get some like-minded MDEs on your server together for a chat some night at a quiet cantina and solve it. Together. I know it works.
/bow
Respectfully,
Shugard
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:14 pm
#15
Lukious wrote:
i am a Master Artisan I dont NEED harvesters I can just sample all the resources I need
lol...I saw a newb in planet chat the other day say, WOOT, 5 more resources and i can make a CDEF pistol! hehe...i thought itwas pretty funny. And he was so excited in planet when he made that CDEF, he just had to go out and try it out
On the other side. Lukious. You are on bria am i correct? I saw your post on the bria forums. Well, I tryed your idea of selling droids for high prices when i became one along time ago. It didn't work. I got laughed at. They walked away and said they will do there business elsewhere. I desided then something is wrong with my methods of get rich fast. So I lowered my prices to about 50-80k for an R3 droid depending on what they want in it. Now I have a steady clientel base that always comes back to me. I am friendly fast and curtious to them. They then refer there friends to me. So on an average day I can get about 15-20 custom orders now. All it took was getting a base.
I also give a new person to the game any droid of there choosing for 5k. I just tell them I want there services in the future and I email them a waypoint to my shop. I have had like 50 people come back to myshop a month or 2 later and say "remember me? I haven't forgotten you. Now I need 4 more droids can you make them for me?" They are on there feet at this time and I charge them normal prices.
Just a few tips.
If you in Droid Engineer for the money. Better be thinking of grinding a new trade
Anigma of Bria
Master Droid Engineer
Master Artisian
Master Merchant
Helping Bounty Hunter's keep down the Jedi population since 10/10/03
Crustyfur
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:27 pm
#16
TheRealTK421 wrote:
My advice: Worry less about how other DEs run their business and worry more about how you run YOURS. The reason I'm sure that I've been successful over time is not just about providing quality product. It's about service. How you provide that is up to you but I know that I have clients on my list that bought from me on my first run up the MDE path...and they are STILL buying droids from me. I'm sure that I price higher than some or many. I honestly don't care about that. It's all about service. The 'service' that most people know I provide when they come to me comes in the form of knowledge and experience.
What a great piece of advice. When i started out I spent so much time worrying about other DE's prices and how it would affect me. The best thing to do is forget about them. Concentrate on your business and dont worry that others prices are different.
As TheRealTK421 says most people want the service rather than the price. Man if I had a credit for everytime someone said to me "Your the only DE who I could get hold of, the others never responded to me". Well I have those other DE's to thank for the great little (growing) Droid shop I have now. It's a good feeling when someone says "so and so told me to contact you about a droid". You will soon forget about what the competition is charging.
One thing I do occassionally is check the Bazaar for DE bargains..... I will say no more 
Jenden
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:31 pm
#17
Crustyfur wrote:One thing I do occassionally is check the Bazaar for DE bargains..... I will say no more
Hehe, more than just DE bargains on the bazaar... I've gotten auctions of 30k+ resources for 3k, I got a +7 DE experimentation tape for 3k, other random skilltapes with high resale values, high quality ship parts, some of the rarer loot parts, etc...
RasalTheWise
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:43 pm
#18
Being a DE for more than a year, the majority of my business has been established by being a SOLID droid engineer. Constantly have stock on your vendor, take special orders, and have a good rep. Notice price is not a factor in my equation.
I tend to be pricey compared to other DEs on the server (makes me wonder), but 95% of people shopping for droid parts don't care about price. They just want their product and they don't want to shop around. And friendly service almost always beats out price concerns.
/shrug
I tend to be pricey compared to other DEs on the server (makes me wonder), but 95% of people shopping for droid parts don't care about price. They just want their product and they don't want to shop around. And friendly service almost always beats out price concerns.
/shrug
Crustyfur
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:44 pm
#19
dont forget Crates of 25 Unprogrammed Droid Command Modules for 5k...
Jenden wrote:
Crustyfur wrote:
One thing I do occassionally is check the Bazaar for DE bargains..... I will say no more
Hehe, more than just DE bargains on the bazaar... I've gotten auctions of 30k+ resources for 3k, I got a +7 DE experimentation tape for 3k, other random skilltapes with high resale values, high quality ship parts, some of the rarer loot parts, etc...
1StarNinja
Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:47 pm
#20
RasalTheWise wrote:
Ultimate Droid Engineering Clothing!
/drool
Sorry for the temp hijack but I just had to say that.
AudioOrgana
Tue Jan 18, 2005 8:17 pm
#21
Although it's always a good idea to know what other DE's are selling, so you have some idea of the market on your server, you shouldn't worry about what they are charging when pricing your droids. There are a half-dozen vendors within a 1000m radius of my shop that sell similar products for 1/5 the price of mine yet I still sell almost more than I can keep up with. You simply need to make a name for yourself in some specialized way - you handcraft droids with complex module combinations, or you use high-quality materials to make the highest rated combat droids in the area. Even just being always stocked with your specialty can be enough. Trying to be a jack-of-all-trades is the biggest downfall of most DE's - unless they specialize in only hand-made droids. If you want to do volume, and charge a premium, make yourself the best at something - and try to complement other DE's, instead of competing with them.
I too wish DE's would learn to value themselves and our products more, but in the end there are so few DE's at the moment that there really is room for everyone.
AO
I too wish DE's would learn to value themselves and our products more, but in the end there are so few DE's at the moment that there really is room for everyone.
AO
Page 2 of 2