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Did you read the article? It's not about toxic positivity, it's about how to craft "no" and "yes" such that they're not absolute and can still make both sides happy. Has nothing to do with feelings.
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Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
21–30 of 83 posts
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#22Downside of this approach: Often you are quoting a super high price because you don't want the work and maybe it isn't really what you love to do or your expertise. But the buyer assumes you have a super high price because you're the best and can charge what you're worth. End result: The buyer is unhappy with your work, because you priced as if you were a world leading expert and actually you are learning on the job…
When I look for contractors I ask around my network first.
In recent years I’ve been getting more recommendations for who to avoid than who to hire. There are a lot of contractors and small agencies out there who have gotten good at selling the contract but not so good at delivering satisfactory work.
Often the negative recommendations are from a situation like you described where they pitched a high price or otherwise played games to charge more and more, then delivered a bare-bones result that barely worked or struggled to deliver anything at all. The gap between the expectations of a high-priced contractor and the reality of a disappointing work product leaves a bad taste.
I think a lot of these contractors operate with the mindset that customers will always be available and none of them will talk to each other or seek reference checks, but this approach suffers as the person’s reputation permeates their local industry. There are a few contractors in one niche I worked in where nearly everyone knows to avoid them, or at least to put strict oversight and micromanaging in place on their work and billing. At this point their primary audience is new startups where they can milk them for overpriced work until they catch on.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#23Downside of this approach: Often you are quoting a super high price because you don't want the work and maybe it isn't really what you love to do or your expertise. But the buyer assumes you have a super high price because you're the best and can charge what you're worth. End result: The buyer is unhappy with your work, because you priced as if you were a world leading expert and actually you are learning on the job…
Maybe. In my experience, a more common case is that the buyer has no way to evaluate value other than quoted price and so they're actually _much happier_ with a huge price than they would be with a smaller price for the same work.
You think they’re happier to pay more than to pay less? I’m having a hard time believing that hypothetical.
Regardless, companies that don’t know how to evaluate the value of quoted work will eventually figure out the value later. A client that that is initially happy with a price will likely become retroactively disappointed when they deal with another contractor in the future who has more realistic pricing.
In my experience contracting, I’ve encountered a lot of “You paid how much for this!?” situations when dealing with work from prior contractors. Once they realize how bad and/or overpriced the work of a prior contractor was, that person’s reputation is done. Ironically, the contractor will often try to use them as references for other clients because they were initially happy.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read the article? It's not about toxic positivity, it's about how to craft "no" and "yes" such that they're not absolute and can still make both sides happy. Has nothing to do with feelings.
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I really, truly don't believe you read the article.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#25The title is catchy!
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#26Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
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Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#28Focus means saying no to almost everything
The hourly rate example is a clear tell. If you're selling your time by the hour you're already doing the wrong work. Consulting = death, and I mean that literally. The months of our career are finite and we should allocate them carefully
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#29say "yes" for things you aren't into doing but just make sure you ask for super high amounts of money, so that you're happy if they accept your offer. nice theory for "getting more money is good" but doesn't work for "I have no time". If people could package up "more time" for me in some kind of interdimensional container, I'd be all set.
Yep. I'm almost certainly not going to cancel personal plans especially for something that's "just business." However, if I don't have any urgent plans and you want me to do some well-scoped short-term job for you or even hop on a plane for a consulting day, I'll probably do it for a fairly generous hourly rate/per diem. But I won't be a bargain unless it's something I really want to do or could lead to some sort of follow-on business.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#30Downside of this approach: Often you are quoting a super high price because you don't want the work and maybe it isn't really what you love to do or your expertise. But the buyer assumes you have a super high price because you're the best and can charge what you're worth. End result: The buyer is unhappy with your work, because you priced as if you were a world leading expert and actually you are learning on the job…
Isn't that how the big name consultants work? Price it out like you're getting experts from a famous firm and then send in a green team to do the work?
It's also how Saul Goodman works