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Paul Burri: Three Lessons Confirmed
A guy rang my doorbell this morning. When he left 10 minutes later, he had confirmed three lessons I learned during my business career. You’ll have to read my entire column to learn what those lessons were.
The man who rang my doorbell was a tree trimmer who said he was passing by and noticed that the large Chinese elm in our front yard needed trimming, and that he could do the job for $750. I asked him exactly what he proposed to do, and he “arm-waved” at this branch and that, keeping up a running dialogue all the time.
(“Arm-waving” is a technical term we used when I worked for the Walt Disney Co. It means, “I’m not exactly sure what I want, but maybe you could make this a little larger, paint this a different color, move that a little bit to the right, cut that down so it looks better, and make this area a little more colorful. And by the way, what will that cost?”)
When the man got through with his sales pitch, I asked him to give me a written estimate. He was quite willing to do that, and he wrote “$750” on the back of a business card and handed it to me. I said, “Thank you, but I’d like a quote that tells me exactly what you intend to do — as well as the price.”
He said, “I tell you what. I’m a little slow right now. How about if I do the job for $625?” (Hmm, just by hesitating I saved $125.)
I said, “OK. Please give me a written estimate of exactly what you propose to do along with the price of $625.”
He started to write the new proposal (again on the back of a business card), and then he said, “I don’t want to do this (prepare a proposal) unless you tell me that I can do the job right now.”
I said, “I’m sorry. I can’t guarantee that I will give you a go-ahead without giving it some thought.” (I am thinking that I will get at least one other quote before I commit to having the work done.)
He said, “OK. I’ll stop by next week and talk to your wife.” (Remember, a minute ago it was “now or never,” and now he will come back next week to talk to my wife.)
“OK,” I said, “but I will tell her that I will not OK the job without a written proposal as I just asked you.”
Then he left, and he was not happy with me.
The three lessons from long experience?
» 1. If you have to decide right now, your answer should be an automatic no. (You may even find that a week later, the price is even lower than before.)
» 2. Don’t do business with someone who has a hundred excuses why he can’t put it in writing.
» 3. Go with your gut feeling about people you’re dealing with. It may seem that you are paying more with a reputable business, but in the long run it will cost you less.
Sequel: About two weeks later, the same guy was back, cheerful as ever, offering to do that same job for $550!
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business, but he is a small-business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. The opinions and comments in this column are his alone and do not represent the opinions or policies of any outside organization. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 07.19.10 @ 01:43 PM
Sounds like a “shade tree” operator!
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