Client Wants Level Pay....

[kdw75]

We had a meeting with a client today, who is wanting to give us more of their work, but is proposing signing a contract for a discount. When asked about their expectations, they admitted that they had not signed a contract with a printer before, but had the idea of paying a monthly fee for printing services even though their work is busier some months and slower others.

Has anyone had any experience doing something like this? This sounds overly complicated for our billing and pricing vs a simply discounted rate.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Give them a percent discount and just skip the headache. You'll earn more points by not bending over backward even if they don't give you more business immediately.

 

[kdw75]

Give them a percent discount and just skip the headache. You'll earn more points by not bending over backward even if they don't give you more business immediately.

I appreciate the feedback. If I do a set discount for them, how do you handle the fact that the markup on a large job may only be around 10% where as on smaller jobs it may be 70%. Just rough numbers I threw out there. Do you just figure they will balance each other out in the end, or do you offer a discount of your profit rather than the job price?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

I appreciate the feedback. If I do a set discount for them, how do you handle the fact that the markup on a large job may only be around 10% where as on smaller jobs it may be 70%. Just rough numbers I threw out there. Do you just figure they will balance each other out in the end, or do you offer a discount of your profit rather than the job price?

Realistically we don't give anyone special discounts. You either do business with me and respect my price or you don't. There are of course exceptions to this rule but over 1,000 business transactions I might discount or lower my price about 5 or 10 times. I almost never get a client trying to haggle or squeeze a few more pennies out of me.

Edit: My quote success ratio is probably absurdly high as well. 75% +?

Edit edit: The latter part about balancing is something you have to do yourself. If a client is asking to get a serious discount you deserve serious answers. You can ask for previous invoices from their past printer and also ask the legitimate frequency of a certain order. You don't have to settle for answers that are from the seat of their pants either. Asking them hard questions solidifies your standing with them, but you can't make yourself hard to do business with. They are looking to switch for a reason, you may be in the driver's seat and not even know it.

 

[kdw75]

Realistically we don't give anyone special discounts. You either do business with me and respect my price or you don't. There are of course exceptions to this rule but over 1,000 business transactions I might discount or lower my price about 5 or 10 times. I almost never get a client trying to haggle or squeeze a few more pennies out of me.

Edit: My quote success ratio is probably absurdly high as well. 75% +?

Edit edit: The latter part about balancing is something you have to do yourself. If a client is asking to get a serious discount you deserve serious answers. You can ask for previous invoices from their past printer and also ask the legitimate frequency of a certain order. You don't have to settle for answers that are from the seat of their pants either. Asking them hard questions solidifies your standing with them, but you can't make yourself hard to do business with. They are looking to switch for a reason, you may be in the driver's seat and not even know it.

This client currently gives us offset work and is considering getting rid of their in-house digital press and having us do the shorter run digital work.

This is is the second client this year asking to sign a contract for printing and that is 2 more than have asked in the previous 10 years.