We have the same philosophy as all have mentioned above. Also, we do not break out our product or installation pricing by line item -- rather, it is a complete solution that we offer that includes design, furnishing and installation (as well as programming and all the other goodies that make things work).
Let me give you an example, we put a quote in for a large job against another 4 competitors. We lost the job because our quote was way too high. The customer said we obviously know what we are doing and have a wealth of knowledge, but he must go with the lower quote because of budget constraints (this was a commercial application). Being new, this discouraged us...we wanted the job! So, we had to rethink our strategy. However, we are again gaining confidence and moving what I think to be is the right direction. I long for the customer who values the skills and knowledge we have and sees the benefit.
I still question our pricing though. Would anyone be willing to share what they charge for installation, design, and programming per hour and what percentage they mark up product to. This will give me an idea of where I stand. I have so far used my company costs to price labor (adding a reasonable profit margin of course) and have used what I have been told industry standard is for product.
