Getting To No — Telling clients and co-workers to sod off without offending them. Part 3 of 4.
Part 3.
Working with clients.
In any business relationship someone is going to come along and ask you ‘Is that your best price?” My very good friend Sylvester is often asked this in his auto shop business. Remembering my advice about sowing the seeds of confusion, one should then immediately increase the price. An example is below.
Client: “$2,000? Is that your best price?”
You: “Let’s call it $2,150.”
Client: “But you just said it was $2000.”
You: “It went up.”
Client: “You can’t do that!”
You: “$2250”
Client: “What?”
You: “$2300.”
Client: “Stop! I’ll take it!”
You: “Do you want to buy this book about negotiation? It’s called ‘Getting To No.’”
I think you get the general idea. It’s surprising how well this actually works. You have to keep your nerve and be prepared to loose a client, but if you’re the only game in town it saves a lot of time.
Inevitably you’re going to have to call clients at times. A knowledge of good manners and etiquette will help you in this regard. For instance, knowing that calling a client after 9.00 pm at night is disrespectful and rude is essential. You should place your call at around 9.50 pm.
Due to the massive popularity of ‘Getting To No’, there’s a chance you’re going to be faced with someone who is familiar with this method and sends you directly to voice mail. When that happens you risk them calling you back at 11.30 pm. However, you can circumvent this quite easily by leaving a short message implying that you are just leaving the office and will be turning your phone off while paying a visit an ailing close relative at the hospice. Your phone should then be left off until mid morning the following day, or redirected to the company switchboard.
As a rule of thumb, when working with clients if they are very precise it’s wise to appear relaxed and vague. If they are very relaxed and vague about things like prices, it’s only polite to do every calculation to 4 decimal places. Especially currencies.
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