Re: FN-FORUM: charging clients

date posted 28th January 2005 19:06

On 28 Jan 2005 19:53:20 -0000, Stewart Guyan [EMAIL REMOVED] wr=
ote:
>=20
> One trick I have used when asked to 'revisit my revised costing' is to ma=
ke the 2nd revised costing even higher. It's funny how the 1st one becomes =
acceptable.
>=20
I've done that. Learned it from a former boss of mine. Customer: "How
much is it?" Boss: "$1500". Customer: "OK. So what's my price -
$1400?" Boss: "$1600" Customer: "You're going up, aren't you supposed
to go down?" Boss: "I am - $1700". The point was that the item in
question cost the business about $1350 so there wasn't much room to
negotiate and =A31500 was already a good price.

Learning to be 'hard nosed' and turn away business that's just plain
unprofitable is a skill that takes years to build. Perhaps skill's not
the word? Confidence?

Oh - in the above example, the customer got the point and paid $1500 -
he turned to me and asked me for my price and I said $1500 - at which
point he sighed and pulled out the plastic. The 'play acting' by Ted
delivered the message - 'you want a better price than 1500, you'd
better go elsewhere because it's costing me money just having this
conversation.'
--=20
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