Telephone no quotes and shoe size orders

[Rodne Gold]

We often get guys come in and ask for quotes on 100's or 1000's of items and then they say "Ok , i'll take 10 now"
When you tell em that 10 will cost 5x the price of 100 , they invariably winge and moan and promise they will be ordering the 100.
We tell em this: "when you place the balance of the huge order , we will credit you the difference between the 10 price and the 100 price"

There is no argument against that , if they pay and never place the big order , you get a fair price. If they pay and place the balance , you all get a fair price , if they walk out in a huff , they were bulldusting you in the first place and thats a bad start to any business relationship........

[Barbara Buhse]

Rodne, you're so right. I am immediately suspicious of anyone whose first question is about quantity (maybe thats because I'm a New Yorker!)

I don't often have people asking me to quote quantities like that, but the same goes for the "sample" charge them and take it off the bill later. Most people don't realize ALL THE WORK IS IN THE SAMPLE. by the time its done, 90% of my work has been done.

We have a dear customer who always wants to see the finished photo on wood before he decides to order the plaque (one at a time). He just doesn't understand how much work I'm doing, especially since the photos are of 100 year old subjects and there are no quality photos around. My advantage is that anything I am able to create for thim from the horrible photo (many times just a page in a book) is 100 times better than whoever they used to use. So now he is going to have us re-do every one he has hanging already. (Its kind of like a hall of history gallery).

[Stephen Beckham]

Rodne - great tip - I've always wondered how I could stop the phantom orders or at least cover my costs...

[Scott Shepherd]

Great point Rodney. I spent many years in a machine shop and I'd love to have $1 for every time we were told the story "We'll be ordering these by the 100's, 1000's, or 10,000's" and the order always came in for a handful. We changed our quoting practice and if they asked for 100,1000,10000, we always quoted 1,5,10,100,1000,10000. Then the ball was back in their court, not stuck in ours, or us left trying to explain the situation once again.

Good tip, thanks for bringing it up.

[Phyllis Meyer]

Hey guys, it took us over a year to figure out the "I need a quote on: 100-250-500..." We have learned the hard way! These folks know that we would love a job like that and they think they have us vulnerable...not any more!

We always quote a 1 piece, and 2-5, 5-10 so they know up front that if they want 10 or less they will pay X amount of dollars!

Have a great day everyone!
Phyllis

[George D Gabert]

I used to use a per piece charge plus a setup charge per order. If the customer was good I would give a % discount for some dollar order value. This allowed him to decide in what quantities he wanted to place his orders.

He knew why I was charging for small lot sizes and did not have to justify unit pricing differentional.

[Phyllis Meyer]

I forgot to mention...I don't quote on the phone! If you quote one thing, they usually show up with something completely different from what they talked about on the phone. Again, learned by experience.

That's what this is all about, making mistakes, learning from them, and then adjusting to what works for your business.

Sincerely,
Phyllis

[Bill Cunningham]

Sometimes you literally have to pry the information out of the customer.. I just did a 'rough' quote on 1800 pieces.. I'ts rough, because the size,material, and engraved information was sparce.. These are bowl type glass objects, to be etched with the customers logo, and a line of text.. First question .. How big are the pieces.. I got a .doc file emailed to me that consisted of a line that said 11 inches, a circle, that was marked 93mm (big difference) When I questioned this I was told the actual size was 4 1/8" .. So, I gave him a rough quote, and told him it was based on what I knew.. It was round, it was glass, and there were 1800 pcs. rough quote= $2.50 to 3.75 ea, is entirely based on the receipt of 'useable' artwork and testing of a sample.. He then sent me artwork, and told me he has sent out a sample via ups.. We'll just have to wait and see what arrives... But any quote he receives, will be clearly marked that it's based on a minimum quantity of 1800 pcs..

[Don Necaise]

I am lasering a picture on alder wood using photograv 2.1. I am using cherry as my material selection and can not get the results that I see on the forum. I am using a 30 watt xenetech laser engaver and wondering if someone can give me some advice on what settings to try.


Don

[Don Necaise]

oops i meant to post a new thread. SORRY