A client asks you for a quote but it’s not in your wheelhouse. In fact, if you do provide a price it will likely be an embarrassment and possibly/probably infringe on future opportunities. Do you quote the job? Do you tell the customer the truth and wait for the next chance?
The third option: Change the rules. Come up with an idea that, even if they don’t go with it, speaks to your difference as a vendor.
You are one of five salespeople bidding on a job. The client hands over the specs and says, “The best price will win.” Do you sharpen the pencil, shedding all profit?” Do you go in with “normal” pricing figuring, “If I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t”?
The third option: Change the rules. Provide pricing for what they want and then a different option as an alternative.
Part of your thought process when you are problem-solving needs to be, Am I thinking too small? If doing it their way doesn’t work, what does?
We are conditioned to be rule-followers from the moment we step into traditional schooling. Later in life, we are asked to be creative and go against the norm. This is a foreign concept for most of us. Ignoring the instructions and winging it. Coloring outside the lines. This is all heresy.
Change the rules or break them entirely. Otherwise, be the lowest price or the best-looking lemming going off the cliff.
