Customer wants money off the quote?

[daveatdave]

2 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Don't assume he either has other quotes or that yours is already the lowest.

 

All you know for sure is that he's asked for you to sharpen your pencil.  It's not uncommon nor perhaps should we consider it to be rude - he's just trying to save himself a fish & chip supper.  (would have been a steak dinner but Brexit, Covid and inflation have put paid to that 🤣)

 

If you're not bothered about the 50 squid, play him with some overt complimentary nonsense so that he thinks you're doing a 'special' just for him, or, even better, upsell him with something else that you can do that he may not have considered yet.

 

fish is as expensive as stake these days 

 

 

 

 

 

[5thelement]

This surely is the perfect opening for Retired Climber to give us his explanation of the psychological behaviour of this customer, and the correct method to approach any future dialogue for the benefit of the OP.

[daveatdave]

you could tell them with the increase in NI the price should go up but you are still willing to do the job at the  quoted price  

[Hodge]

If you can afford to drop the £50 and you want the job then drop it, make out you are doing him a favour. if you can't afford the £50 then walk away or just say sorry I can't drop £50, he may accept it anyway.  You could get future work from him and if you do always go in a bit higher than what you want for the job so when he tries to barter you can drop to what you want. 

[Patrick goulding]

Price is what it is if the taxman asks for £550 you can’t turn round and say it’s over my budget. Or a bill drops through the post. 👍 

[josharb87]

11 hours ago, gand said:

That's exactly what I was going to say. Every customer we have haggles on price when they are wanting to buy a machine. This is no different imo.

I’d say it is different, you’re selling a product, everyone knows there’s a mark up on a product (to cover future unpaid service problems or advice) we’re selling a service, which should be a calculated price giving just a small profit to run a healthy business

[trigger_andy]

Price is what it is if the taxman asks for £550 you can’t turn round and say it’s over my budget. Or a bill drops through the post. [emoji106] 

Never sold or bought a car then?

[Mark J]

13 hours ago, josharb87 said:

I recently dropped a similar sized quote by a similar amount, just agreed to let the customer do the final cleanup/rake/blow 

That's a good idea, there's a very real chance that they won't want to 'save' that £50 next time you work for them. Not many punters have backpack blowers.

[Mike Hill]

Alot of good points made on this thread.

 

Few people argue the price over here, they accept it of they dont.

 

I went out to quote a job on saturday an hours drive from town. I told the woman what the minimum price would be for any work that far out before I left. It was 3 days work with the Valta,25 spruce trees and she accepted on the day.

 

Today she texts and cancels or rather just wants a price for the 5 trees closest to the house. I the price I gave her was 50% of my original quote, she argues it should have been 20% since its 5 not 25 trees.

 

I told her reducing the number of trees dose not reduce the distance from town, it just means I drive the tractor for longer than I use it and the cost of that is higher than having it chipping.

 

She pulled the whole job.

 

Happy.

[Mick Dempsey]

I never understand why people get indignant when a client asks for a bit off.

Do it or don’t do it, no harm in asking.

Let’s be honest we pull most of our prices out of our arse anyway.