Originally Posted by
Scott Shepherd
Interesting take on that Mike. I was told years ago to always ask for what their budget was. It took me several years before I felt comfortable doing it. Now I don't mind asking at all. It helps a lot. If someone calls and wants to talk about a project, we tell them we are capable of doing the work they want, and then it requires a lot of time to get all the quote worked out, materials, outside services, etc, and we're not on the same page up front, then we've just wasted a lot of time quoting something that we can't do. For instance, here's a real life example. Got a call about 2 years ago, customer in a panic, needed the glass that candles are in "Laser engraved". Their words, not mine. They needed them in 3 weeks. How many? 10,000. Got them to email me the design. They wanted samples done by the next day and were getting ready to get in the car and bring me samples to engrave. The design wrapped all the way around the entire glass, like vines. I called them back, told them a couple things, one, laser engraving is the wrong way to do 10,000 of them, and then I asked what their budget was. They said these went into Wal-Mart. I asked their budget and they said .60 cents each. Had I not asked that, I would have wasted the time of having them bring glasses in, me setting up the files, engraving them, and then telling them they were $8 each, only to have them leave in disgust and having wasted more of their time.
It stopped all of that up front in literally less than 15 minutes time, total.
I haven't quoted our customer anything on the job I posted, but what it did do was allow me to come up with a higher end option for them. One piece will be in the $12-13 range, and one will be in the $19.00 range. I'll present both and they can make up their own mind. Without knowing they had a $20 budget, I wouldn't have stayed late tonight and worked on a higher end sample for them. In the end, I didn't take advantage of them, I provided them options and they can make the call.