Is my response too aggressive to a potential customer?

[LS WUT]

I’ve never been in business for myself in the aspect of “owning a business”. However I do detailing on the side for friends, and co workers. Similar to a vast majority of things in life such as a restaurant. If you ask about a restaurant and someone you know who’s been there says “don’t bother, service sucks, and food isn’t worth the money”. I think often times we would pass on that business because it wasn’t recommended. I say owning a business and such of this nature word of mouth can make a break anything. I don’t mean to say that you’re not established, or anything like that. However that’s how I’d look at it. I’d just be polite and tell him with his budget, and requests you don’t feel it’s right for you as a business. End on a high note.

 

[tistan]

Definitely dick response. $500k of work? LOL. Come on bro. Do you plan to knock down and rebuild the entire house?

I do kitchens that cost $400k.

 

[jessie_sanders]

Word of mouth is free advertisement. Let him down in a manner that won't entice him to drag you through the mud. Let someone else give him a reality check and then he'll come back to you for being professional and not telling him to go have sex with himself.

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[tistan]

He’s probably not aware that construction costs have skyrocketed over the past few years.

I would tell him that the min. cost for his project will start with a 3. If he wants to commission you for the design work, you’d be happy to have a conversation.

You would have to have been living somewhere with no internet or news to not know that.

 

[Fastback]

Don't wrestle with a pig in the mud. you both will get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

 

[dan1982]

I do kitchens that cost $400k.

Can we see the kitchen? and we GOTTA see your damn car. Gotta be spectacular! You holdin out on us?

 

[Kevins89notch]

Just the concrete is going to eat up a lot of that $100k. Foundation guys here are few so they can name their price. The foundation for that 160lnft is in the $50k range. My flat work guy is $10 sqft too. That is another $16k. $66k before we even come out of the ground.

There's your reply. PC is up a bit with "With current prices on raw material, I don't see any way we can even attempt your plan on 100K. Foundation work alone would be in the 50K range. I predict other companies would inform you of the same, but I wish you the best on your home improvements."

aka: lol no way dude!

 

[HEMIHUNTER]

Change expertise to experience and send it.
Or “ Thanks for considering us but we are unable to take on additional projects at this time”


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[Tezz500]

My wife and I own a design build company. We get a lot of tire kickers, but sometimes they just rub you the wrong way. So we get an email from a potential client that attaches a laundry list of items. Says he already has the money financed for the job.

Convert the existing garage to new master suite
Build a new 1600 sqft garage
Attach that to the house with a new breezeway
Move laundry room to basement
Convert existing laundry to new bathroom
Extend brick on fireplace wall
Patio off new master suite complete with hot tub
Extend and rework landscaping
Fence property
New carpet and maybe flooring
Countertop and backsplash
Finish out basement

We ask what the budget is, and he tells us $100-150k.

Our response
In order to price anything we would need plans. We can either prepare those for you or you can work with another designer/architect.
Plans like this for the master suite, the new garage and laundry would run an estimated 3-5k.
If the 100-150k are supposed to cover the new garage and laundry as well, we wouldn't be able to achieve that.
Let us know if you'd like to talk about the design and plans further!

His response

I am very surprised that you don't think 150k would get all that done. I must be missing something because it just doesn't seem like there are huge costs in this. I am willing to discuss more but I would like to be able to have some very open discussions on the costs and try to get this done for closer to the 100k mark. That is a lot of money and should be able to accomplish quite a bit. We are not looking for 10k bathroom cabinets or anything like that. And we are willing to adjust the plans if needed to save cost. We do want to do it nice but are not looking for extravagance. It might help if you saw the existing house and walked through the garage space maybe. What would you say a typical basement finish costs per square foot?

How I want to respond

Thanks for your concern, but there is really no need to have a "very open discussion" on the cost. We can still provide you with plans. You can then take those plans, and get a homeowners permit for the work. You can then use your expertise in construction and construction budgeting to extract the most value from your $100k budget.


My wife says this is too aggressive? I think it is a fairly polite go **** yourself. This is literally $350-500k worth of work and this ass clown wants me to defend my assessment because he only has $100k to spend. I'm sick of being nice to dumb asses.

I don’t think it’s too aggressive. It’s a little assertive. But I think that’s warranted with how he approached you.

 

[Tezz500]

I see where you are coming from but my only professional input is that there is never any upside in being an asshole. Be short, sweet and unemotional. "Thanks, but no thanks."

You never know what could happen. Maybe this job is not for him but he can come back down the line with something that is a fit or maybe he refers you to someone that is less of a dick than he is.

This.


I am glad I don’t have to deal with customer service style issues very often.

However, In any line of work I’ve found that doing your best to remove emotion from the equation is 99.99% of the time the smartest option.

 

[BlckBox04]

not at all, **** that asshole. I wouldn't have even taken the time to respond that much the second time. I get people trying to tell me how to run my company all the time also. you know what you need and if they don't get it, move on.

 

[robvas]

It's like that at the end of the year for me. People have $10k left in their budget and think they can buy something that costs $60k. A friend or someone they know at the university built something for that price but it's not even in the same class (computer equipment)

 

[Klaus]

not at all, **** that asshole. I wouldn't have even taken the time to respond that much the second time. I get people trying to tell me how to run my company all the time also. you know what you need and if they don't get it, move on.

I see the point, but emptying his pockets is the greatest reward. Be long term greedy.

There have been many instances in my own experience where it would have been satisfying to tell someone to **** off, only to have them come back YEARS later with something that worked.

Practice "**** off akido" i.e. tell him to **** off in a way that he thanks you for it.

 

[BlckBox04]

I see the point, but emptying his pockets is the greatest reward. Be long term greedy.

There have been many instances in my own experience where it would have been satisfying to tell someone to **** off, only to have them come back YEARS later with something that worked.

Practice "**** off akido" i.e. tell him to **** off in a way that he thanks you for it.

I wouldn't come across as an asshole to them directly, but I've learned that if someone starts off with that type of attitude the entire book of business is a nightmare. Sometimes the hassle just isn't worth the money.

I usually kill people with kindness and it's definitely gotten me ahead of some of my competitors at times.

 

[tistan]

I see the point, but emptying his pockets is the greatest reward. Be long term greedy.

There have been many instances in my own experience where it would have been satisfying to tell someone to **** off, only to have them come back YEARS later with something that worked.

Practice "**** off akido" i.e. tell him to **** off in a way that he thanks you for it.

Difference between what I do and what most people do is that I have to work daily with clients for 5-6 months. If anything seems off about a potential client, I'm not taking the job period.

I just did a master bath for couple, who seemed super nice, she was a major in the Air Force, her husband retired and was a government contractor. Seemed as normal as they come in the beginning. I'm pretty sure she might have been bipolar. She changed her mind a lot, but then one day I walk in and she is balling in tears. She thinks the master vanity is too long. It was 9' long, but the room was huge for a master, I think it was like 20x18. I talk her down and tell her for the size of the space it is the correct proportion. Then she wanted white marble tile for the bath floor. She didn't like that there was color variations that we warned her about before we ordered it. She didn't like that the sealer darkened it like we warned her. After everything was finished she was super happy and asked when we had time to do the kitchen. Kind of sucks because the husband was actually pretty cool and easy going, but we have no interest in doing any more work for her.

 

[dan1982]

not at all, **** that asshole. I wouldn't have even taken the time to respond that much the second time. I get people trying to tell me how to run my company all the time also. you know what you need and if they don't get it, move on.

Did u ever do a 500K money mayweather style kitchen? askin for a friend.

 

[03cobra#694]

Sometimes you just don't want the job due to the customer, as you'll live with that type forever. I've seen a couple of the builders we work with just fire the customer before they even start. You can tell that type before you even start.

 

[BlckBox04]

Did u ever do a 500K money mayweather style kitchen? askin for a friend.

Pretty sure OP was describing someone who wanted a 500K "money mayweather" kitchen but could only afford the kiddie playset they sold in Toys R Us in the 90s

how about you? you ever own your own business? asking for a friend.

 

[93Cobra#2771]

A bit too aggressive, IMO. Stick to the facts and keep it short and sweet. "In our experience, costs per sf for what you are suggesting run $X-XXX per sf. Unfortunately, we will be unable to meet your budget but would be happy to prepare plans for the project.

 

[13COBRA]

Like others have said. I'd just stick to the facts. No reason to come across as confrontational.