So he just put the phone down on me .... How not to get a sale

[spencergate]

I know everyone is desperate for business right now , but really ...

We need new soffits, facias & guttering.
I didn't have any idea how much it would cost, really, could be anything between 500 and 10,000 as far as I was concerned.

So when the company who put in new windows for us a couple of years ago rang up touting for business, we arranged for a guy to come and give us a quote....

So he appeared on Monday (bank holiday). Measured, told us list price would be £7500 (sharp breath in).
Then said he was authorised to give us discount, and he would go straight in at 40%, so price dropped to £4100.

We said we would look for other quotes too, and then would make a decision. We also said that we couldn't go ahead straight away (we are trying to bring in orders ourselves, don't want to commit to spending till we get those in).
Salesman said he understood, left us the quote & details.

On Tuesday, their commercial director rang me. Asked me what their lowest quote had been (shouldn't he know ?). I told him, he said he'd call back.

He called at 7 last night. I asked my other half to ask him to call me during office hours today.

He's just rung. Once again asked me what their lowest quote had been. Then said would we choose them to do the job if he quoted £2495 (big drop that, from 7.5K).

So I said yes, but can't give him the order right this minute. I was about to explain why, and tell him I'd ring back as soon as I could when he just said (very sharply), "right, then you'll just have to go thru our sales office at normal price" and put down the phone.

I recognise he may have had a difficult day ..... but ?????

I don't even think we have messed them about one bit ...

[silvermusic]

I'm no expert on building and obviously it depends on the house to some degree, but even on the 40% off price it seems high to me, the last price he gave you sounds about right. Can't say I'd be inclined to trust someone who drops the price twice and by such large amounts. There seems to be a lot of this type of selling for things like roofs, windows, facias & guttering, etc.

[The Panda]

This sort of thing goes on in all types of direct sales.
In my business too.
I can not abide companies that give one price then start to drop it in order to get the job. They should give a fair price for a fair quality in the first place.
That is the way I work. It is always a fair price for a good quality product. Sadly, customers fall for the same trick that has happened with you and I loose out. Customer ends up paying a little bit less than I charge but ends up with sub standard goods.
I will not cheapen my standards by going down this route and I don’t expect other companies to do it either. The first sign of it and I disregard them straight away. If they can do them at a price less than they first quoted then why did they not give that price from the start?
People are gullible and some would have taken that first price.
For what its worth, I had my fascias and gutters done 3 years ago. Its not a big house and cost me £1,000.
Do not deal again with this company.

[KM-Tiger]

Phone him back and offer £1250.

[Subbynet]

Sounds expensive to me.... Its only a bit of plastic screwed in place!

I had the whole lot done for half of your quoted price...

[dingbat]

That was obviously a ploy to have you ringing him up and begging for the fantastic discount price.

Proper companies will come, measure up and leave or post a quote later without any pressure. Nor will they start offering ridiculous discounts.

[mobyme]

So I said yes, but can't give him the order right this minute. I was about to explain why, and tell him I'd ring back as soon as I could when he just said (very sharply), "right, then you'll just have to go thru our sales office at normal price" and put down the phone.

I recognise he may have had a difficult day ..... but ?????

I don't even think we have messed them about one bit ...

The offer may have been absolutely genuine; based on filling a vacant fitting slot or trying to keep sub-contractors on board. Once there was no possibility of this happening; the incentive for them to give you a discount had gone.
Try walking into Harrods when they are having their sale and saying to the shop assistant "I want that incredible bargain, but I can't pay for it till next week" and see what sort of response you get.
Don't worry too much though, if they think there is half a chance of making a sale; they will be back.

[dynamic08]

to all the people saying mine was half the price etc. How is that of any benefit to anybody will out knowing how many metres etc.

That company was not anglian by any chance was it?

[MH1]

The mistake the guy made was not confirming with you you would place an order if he gave you his best price, he messed up. He simply gave you a deal and you refused because of your circumstances.

Very common practice in direct sales, he should have found out why you could not go ahead and provided a possible soloution, most importantly only offer the deal if you could go ahead.

Nothing wrong in this practice at all, almost every shop has it's offer's to encourage a decision, direct sales is no different, but personally I would never have quoted a full list price and then reduce by 40% in one hit, the salesman loses all credibility on the spot. Any drops need to be justified and believeable.

[maxine]

What some companies dont seem to realise is that this sort of behaviour turns off as many people as it get's to convert. I did some lost prospect analysis for a double glazing firm about a year ago and showed the MD of that company the customer feedback where they had received quotes but not chosen to go ahead with them and it was surprising the amount of people who were actually prepared to spend more than what was quoted but weren't in a position or who weren't willing to make an instant decision. Some were waiting for loans or mortgage increase decisions to come through, some were waiting for money to be paid out for endowment maturities and the company would have got the work at a higher price if only they were prepared to work with the customer as MH1 says and provide a possible solution :)

Madness

[mobyme]

I could show you some equally convincing prospect analysis which indicates that 32% of "pitch & misses" have still not bought two years after the event.
The problem is it doesn't really prove anything other than, some people respond to a call to action while others prefer to deliberate.
What it does prove is that unless sales people are extremely well trained they will make the wrong call as often as not.
The real secret of course is that customers have to be shown how to buy in a manner that suits their circumstances. Simplez.

[estwig]

The offer may have been absolutely genuine; based on filling a vacant fitting slot or trying to keep sub-contractors on board. Once there was no possibility of this happening; the incentive for them to give you a discount had gone.
Try walking into Harrods when they are having their sale and saying to the shop assistant "I want that incredible bargain, but I can't pay for it till next week" and see what sort of response you get.
Don't worry too much though, if they think there is half a chance of making a sale; they will be back.


What planet are you on??? Filling slots for subbies my bottom, subbies are 'ten for a penny' down the market.

Harrods???? Ha, ha, ha, not a good analogy!!!!


Run away from this company, far, far, away, so far, the time zone is at least 26 hours different!!!

:)

[mobyme]

What planet are you on??? Filling slots for subbies my bottom, subbies are 'ten for a penny' down the market.

Harrods???? Ha, ha, ha, not a good analogy!!!!


Run away from this company, far, far, away, so far, the time zone is at least 26 hours different!!!

:)

I know of several Home Improvement companies that are trying desperately to hang on to their subbies even to the extent of cutting prices to "break-even".
I don't think the South East (Which is where I believe you are based) is feeling the effects of the slow down in quite the same way as say the North West where very long established family firms have gone to the wall.
I think those that remain think the only way they are going to survive is if they are in a position to respond if things pick up.
I'm not saying I agree with it but I know that it's going on.
Personally I would never drop my price unless the customer had already agreed to go ahead if I did and even then if I gave anybody more than !0%, I would feel stupid anyway.

What's wrong with the Harrods analogy? Are you saying that you never ever give prices based on a certain set of circumstances? Would you stick to those prices if circumstances changed? I doubt it! You would be the first builder I've ever met that would; if you would. Jesus, in my experience trying to get a builder to stick to the price on Monday that he gave you on Friday is a challenge all of it's own, even if you've got it in writing. :D

[Subbynet]

to all the people saying mine was half the price etc. How is that of any benefit to anybody will out knowing how many metres etc.


Called an average! I'd say the average house is a 3 bed semi... Give or take a couple of rooms and you're only talking a few meters of plastic - its purchased in 5 meter long strips..

This is just UPVC - its not expensive stuff... Its just marked up like hell by installers..

[thebigIAM]

I think you got it right, the guy was probably having a bad day.

An interesting question would be, if you were the sales person, how would you retrieve that situation?

I didn't exactly flounce off, but left abruptly when I was trying to sell something once and the customer rightly pointed out a fault in the product. Five minutes down the road and having cooled off, I phoned her, apologised, and said: "I know we can do better than this, and I'd like to have the chance to prove it to you."

Not only did we manage to retrieve the original sale, we also got repeat business.

Maybe there's an element not just of thinking about things from a business point of view, but simply remembering there is another human being at the other end of the phone (or transaction).

[Iwillmakeit]

I used to do this job offering all these services on commission basis. I found that we used to over price individuals who wanted a discount we gave it to them and those he did not say a word went ahead with the infalted prices.

[Eleanor]

If I were in the same position as the OP it would have rattled my cage enough for me to ring them back and have a go-human or not. And quite frankly (I know I don't know how big your house it) the original price was far too over-inflated. The fact of the matter is, sales people go in at stupidly high because most of the time they expect to be haggled with.

I agree with what someone on here has already mentioned. Have fair prices for fair work and you'll get the work in because you'll have a good reputation.

The d***h*** on the end of the line should have listened to your reasons and come up with a solution, not be nasty with you!

[james Minion]

The 40% thing is such a credibility destroyer. In my experience people just want a fair price and good service not 'fantastic offers'. All these closing techniques strike me as pretty weird. Any Saleperson worth their salt should not even need to 'close' deals most of the time as they have provided such a compelling pitch built around sound questioning techniques. I would not trust this company.

[Jon0_FZ6]

I hate pushy sales like that. don't thinking discounting is a bad thing but people forcing you to decide on the spot are set off alarm bells in my mind. Sounds like he should leave the sales to his team.

I've recently had some carpentry work done. would highly recommend you try www.mybuilder.com (http://www.mybuilder.com) for any tradesmen related job you need doing. Great way to get a really good price and one of those 'wish I'd thouht of that first' web ideas,..

[KateCB]

We had a similar experience with a ktchen company - started at £21,000, discount for being a 'showcase installation' brought it down to £14,700 - manager called and reduced it to £12,000 if we signed the order NOW....said we were waiting for payment to hit our bnk from an insurance policy within the next week so could not sign NOW....manager said, fine, well, the price just went back to £21,000 and put the phone down on us!

They called again 3 months later...by which time we had had the kitchen done for a mere £7500 by a local company!

[maxine]

We had a similar experience with a ktchen company - started at £21,000, discount for being a 'showcase installation' brought it down to £14,700 - manager called and reduced it to £12,000 if we signed the order NOW....said we were waiting for payment to hit our bnk from an insurance policy within the next week so could not sign NOW....manager said, fine, well, the price just went back to £21,000 and put the phone down on us!

They called again 3 months later...by which time we had had the kitchen done for a mere £7500 by a local company!

I really don't get this kind of approach at all - where it is all a sh1t or bust attitude rather than nuturing for the sake of a week or so :) Out of interest would you have gone with them if they had handled you properly rather than look around for someone cheaper? Or would you have looked around anyway?

[lockie]

I thought that high price then drop it after a chat with the manager approach died out in the eighties. I quite often get large orders after a month or so of giving the quote.Happened yesterday,gave the quote back in febuary and now they want to go ahead.
Some people just dont have the money at the time and others need time to think about it.

[gouldie0]

I always think "Do i smell a rat?" when the price drops like that straight away, i mean that's ridiculous and then to take the offer away expecting you then to go back to him for the orginal price quoted.

Your better off without them, i always respect businesses that offer the customer a price that reflects the true value of the services / products there providing.

I don't think you'll be passing them on as a recomendation to anyone else now will you?

[spencergate]

We had a similar experience with a ktchen company - started at £21,000, discount for being a 'showcase installation' brought it down to £14,700 - manager called and reduced it to £12,000 if we signed the order NOW....said we were waiting for payment to hit our bnk from an insurance policy within the next week so could not sign NOW....manager said, fine, well, the price just went back to £21,000 and put the phone down on us!

They called again 3 months later...by which time we had had the kitchen done for a mere £7500 by a local company!


That is interesting Kate, as I have just signed a contract for a company to start the work specified. They have looked round, measured and quoted us £1150 !!!! (would have been £850, but he has pointed out some rot he can see which is likely to need revisionary work first)

It's for the same work, same spec. This company are just finishing a house up the road, invited me to go and have a look at the job they are just completing. Their manager came to my door having seen our soffits etc are in a state. He also wants a quick decision, based on the fact that if we decide straight away, his guys can leave their gear here for an immediate start, saving them time, effort & diesel, and they know they have another job for next week.

I feel that price is fair (I've asked around some people with houses about the same size, to see what they have paid). I'm also in a position to commit that amount without worrying too much about my incoming orders.

So, a good result, I feel.

I don't suppose I can name the company that has given this grief, can I!!

[gouldie0]

.

I don't suppose I can name the company that has given this grief, can I!!


Go on, spill the beans :D