As I learned from my mom, "maybe, I'll think about it".
Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
31–40 of 83 posts
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 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 probably were happier with them than if they’d bought them at Payless.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#33Downside 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 it isn't really what you love to do or your expertise...
And that means that you would follow the author's advice and say "no" because you know in advance that it's not your area of expertise and not what you want to do, and most importantly you haven't stated any long-term benefits of making this short-term sacrifice.
Edit: emphasis
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#34See also Weinberg’s “Orange Juice Test” from “Secrets of Consulting”
https://lalgudi.medium.com/orange-juice-test-will-you-pass-i...
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#35Focus 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
While I agree the combo is death, billing hourly and consulting are two different things.
Consulting with value—based fees is a fantastic way to deliberately allocate our finite time .
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#36A decade+ later lots of people (potential customers, investors) also prefer not say “no”.
In my work with startup founders, I regularly say, “people say ‘no’ in a lot of ways, many are very subtle. But when they say ‘yes’ it’s clear and obvious.”
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#37Downside 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…
Yes. This is a very likely problem. When I evaluate quotes on the other side, I usually weed out the highest and the lowest ones. The highest one is usually some middleman re-contracting out the work adding on his profit. Or someone like you said, just trying to price out the job instead of refusing the job honestly.
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#38Earlier 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…
1000$ wine always tastes better than 100$ one
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#39say "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.
You can buy time with money (with some limitations).
Re: Never say no, but rarely say yes (2011)
#40Downside 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 otherwi…
> 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.
Well, did they get out of business ? No? Then by captialism the approach is great working strategy...