Hi All,
So we all have this guy/gal swing through our shops occasionally. You know them. Former sign industry employees, in between gigs. Graphic designers that know just enough to be dangerous (read: annoying). Sales guys from unrelated/dissimilar industries that believe that they can sell anything.
They beat us up on pricing. They pressure us on turn time. And never. I repeat NEVER provide the proper/accurate details, the first time. They often wait until a project is approved and 2/3 of the way into production to reveal important variables. You send an email with 5 questions and only question 3 and 5 get a response.
And when it all goes awry, its your fault. I've made many attempts to convince the check writers to avoid this type of client. But to no avail. It always bites us in the arse. And not yapper, nip at ankle, bite. More like tourniquet and requires stitches bite.
Here we are again today. Got a call from a middler that we made some signs for before. They say the signs don't fit for the application. I flippantly respond, "Didn't you do a site survey?" The silence was as thick and heavy as my holiday pound cake. I know they say who ever speaks last loses, but I could not resist. "You want me to have the guys send you a quote for the new signs?"
Don't get me wrong. There are 1 or 2 that just get it. Details on top of details. RFQs 2 months before project is due. Not Friday at 3:30 for a project due Saturday at 6:30a that they don't have the budget to cover rush fees for.
How you do you guys n gals deal with these types? Or are you them!??
How to do deal with it? Or do you bother at all? Some might say a job is a job. But I disagree. If a job causes frustration / undue stress on my team or is just pushing dollars, its not worth it. Better stated: it's not worth taking time away from the other good projects we have on deck. Or taking time away from the quotes we already need to get out.
What say you?
So we all have this guy/gal swing through our shops occasionally. You know them. Former sign industry employees, in between gigs. Graphic designers that know just enough to be dangerous (read: annoying). Sales guys from unrelated/dissimilar industries that believe that they can sell anything.
They beat us up on pricing. They pressure us on turn time. And never. I repeat NEVER provide the proper/accurate details, the first time. They often wait until a project is approved and 2/3 of the way into production to reveal important variables. You send an email with 5 questions and only question 3 and 5 get a response.
And when it all goes awry, its your fault. I've made many attempts to convince the check writers to avoid this type of client. But to no avail. It always bites us in the arse. And not yapper, nip at ankle, bite. More like tourniquet and requires stitches bite.
Here we are again today. Got a call from a middler that we made some signs for before. They say the signs don't fit for the application. I flippantly respond, "Didn't you do a site survey?" The silence was as thick and heavy as my holiday pound cake. I know they say who ever speaks last loses, but I could not resist. "You want me to have the guys send you a quote for the new signs?"
Don't get me wrong. There are 1 or 2 that just get it. Details on top of details. RFQs 2 months before project is due. Not Friday at 3:30 for a project due Saturday at 6:30a that they don't have the budget to cover rush fees for.
How you do you guys n gals deal with these types? Or are you them!??
How to do deal with it? Or do you bother at all? Some might say a job is a job. But I disagree. If a job causes frustration / undue stress on my team or is just pushing dollars, its not worth it. Better stated: it's not worth taking time away from the other good projects we have on deck. Or taking time away from the quotes we already need to get out.What say you?
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