Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 e…
> You think they’re happier to pay more than to pay less? People are not rational consumers. See the Palessi story from a few years ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/payless-sold-discount-shoes... Tl;dr: Payless Shoes, a discount shoe retailer, opened a fake high-end store under the Palessi name and got fashion influencers to gush about how great the shoes were. People who actually bought such Palessi shoes proba…
Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
41–50 of 83 posts
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#42Downside 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…
You can just tell them that.
"That is not the type of jobs we usually do, and if we did we'd have to use a lot of time to build competency in the problem and that would've costed you a lot. You'd be better off trying X or Y contractor, that's closer to their wheelhouse"
And as a bonus you'd still be considered for future work that's not that rather than being filed under "those are those super expensive guys we can't afford"
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#43Downside 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?
Or subcontract, which created one of most dystopian term in corporate, "body lending"
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You think they’re happier to pay more than to pay less? People are not rational consumers. See the Palessi story from a few years ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/payless-sold-discount-shoes... Tl;dr: Payless Shoes, a discount shoe retailer, opened a fake high-end store under the Palessi name and got fashion influencers to gush about how great the shoes were. People who actually bought such Palessi shoes proba…
And https://www.odditycentral.com/news/2-70-supermarket-wine-win...
Hah. Love it!
> winners that they could buy 1,000 gold stickers to display on their wine labels for just €60.
That's not a bad price at all for gold stickers intended for wine bottles. €0.06/sticker. I assumed they'd be able to get a good bit higher price.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 e…
> You think they’re happier to pay more than to pay less? People are not rational consumers. See the Palessi story from a few years ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/payless-sold-discount-shoes... Tl;dr: Payless Shoes, a discount shoe retailer, opened a fake high-end store under the Palessi name and got fashion influencers to gush about how great the shoes were. People who actually bought such Palessi shoes proba…
Years ago, a luxury car company (I believe it was Mercedes) did a study measuring demand with the same car across a relatively wide range of prices. Contrary to economic models that assume rational actors, there was a point where lowering price further made demand go down. People apparently assumed the higher price tag on a car made it more attractive as a consumer.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#46This is good advice that has also stood me well over the years.
If you are doing custom development you can also use this at a finer level of granularity: charge a lot for parts of the project you’d rather not do (even possibly pay a bonus for the poor person on the team who draws the short straw and has to do that part, and maintain it) and charge less for the parts the customer might be on the fence about but you know will either make them happy (though they don’t realize it yet) and/or help you get future business elsewhere.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#47For personal relations I will maintain that it's always better to be clear and give a straight yes or no. Nobody likes being left hanging in uncertainty, and nobody likes people who always do that to them - people who cannot even provide a "maybe" - when asked even simple questions.
Yeah it’s definitely bad advice to try on your partner, or even your boss /colleagues
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#48Downside 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…
Commit to doing a good job, or at least a job that meets what you promise to the customer.
Back when I did support and custom dev, our minimum price was $100K/year (back when $100K was a lot of money). Most of those contracts were fabulously profitable. But once in a while a bug would be reported that took five or even ten person-months to fix, scrambling all our other plans in the process. So what: we didn’t charge extra and didn’t complain to the customer. Led to crazy levels of customer loyalty.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#49For personal relations I will maintain that it's always better to be clear and give a straight yes or no. Nobody likes being left hanging in uncertainty, and nobody likes people who always do that to them - people who cannot even provide a "maybe" - when asked even simple questions.
In that case you ought to be reframing the problem, answering a different question that you are comfortable giving a definite yes or no too.
For example,
Them: “Will you do x thing for me by year end?”
You: “Are you actually trying to solve y problem? What if I refer you to Z person by end of day? Or start by bringing you some research around X by end of month?”
Tbh the same applies to business not just personal
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#50This is good advice that has also stood me well over the years. If you are doing custom development you can also use this at a finer level of granularity: charge a lot for parts of the project you’d rather not do (even possibly pay a bonus for the poor person on the team who draws the short straw and has to do that part, and maintain it) and charge less for the parts the customer might be on the fence about but you k…
To expand a little: look over the horizon. Imagine you are thinking of expanding into the banking market at some point down the road.
Customer A says, “hey, would you add a feature to your emoji generator to interface with the ACH system?” Stupid request, maintenance nightmare. But you might get paid to have one person get some exposure to the horror show that is banking APIs. Exposure that might later help you think a bit better when it’s time to start thinking about that market. Of course charge a LOT because it’s new and charge a LOT for the maintenance contract. Maybe it helps you estimate engineering and marketing budget, or maybe it helps you decide on a different expansion path.
The converse is true too. Customer B wants hospital integration so they can add cute emojis to messages like “hey, you’ve only got four months to live. Have a nice day!” You’re not stupid so you know you never want to get anywhere near the tarpit of medical software. So you can confidently say “no” (phrasing it, “we don’t believe we could honestly provide the necessary level of support you’d require and don’t want to let you down blah blah blah”).