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A vendor told me to overestimate my quotes, I thought he was nuts
Last spring I was bidding on a contract for a small accounting firm in Austin and I kept losing to these lowball competitors. My old mentor from a previous job, a guy named Dave who runs a payroll processing outfit, told me to add 20% on top of what I thought the job was worth. I figured he was just trying to make me feel better about losing, but I tried it on a data cleanup project for a law firm. I quoted $4,200 instead of my usual $3,500 and they accepted without even haggling. Turns out those lowball clients were the ones who nickel and dimed me on every change request anyway. Dave's point was that the serious buyers want someone who looks confident, not desperate, and they end up being way easier to work with. Has anyone else tested this approach, or do you think it just works in certain industries?
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the_miles13d ago
Ever tried raising your price after they already said yes?
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brooke_taylor4411d ago
Wait, has nobody actually tried that before?
My buddy runs a small handyman biz and he once quoted a lady $200 to fix her fence. She said yes right away, no haggling at all. He panicked thinking he left money on the table, so he called her back and said materials went up, now it's $250. She got super annoyed and almost cancelled the whole thing.
He ended up doing the job for the original price just to save face, and swore he'd never do that again. It's such a gamble, like yeah you might make an extra $50 but you could lose the whole gig and your reputation over it. Plus word spreads fast in a small town, so now everyone knows he's the guy who tries to bump prices after the deal.
Honestly, I get the instinct, but it feels shady unless you're super upfront about it being a soft quote that could change.
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