Sticky said:
Actually, I was sort of pleased when the customer tried to haggle. (Of course, I was even happier when they said, "That looks reasonable. When can you do it?") Classic sales literature tells you that "price objections" are just a Buying Signal. The "I'm just checking around" or "Let me check with my husband and I'll get back with you" customer is much more difficult to pin down.
With a serious and sincere request to lower the price on a residential job I would respond back, "No problem. Let's see if there is some part of the job that we can reduce or eliminate ..." With commercial it was much the same except that I was more inclined to negotiate on actual square footage, based of course on whether I could still make money given the production rate per hour on the job.
The most important thing is to not react emotionally and take the haggling personally. In some cultures this is entirely normal AND in this Great Recession it is becoming much more accepted in this country. (I've read numerous news articles recently on how a person should always ask for a discount, even in retail stores. So your customer may just be rezsponding to what they have been exposed to.)
You have already made the investment in getting this person to call you and possibly for you to meet with them. Why not explore how you can have a "meeting of the minds" instead of getting your feelings hurt?
Steve "Island Boy" Toburen
www.StrategiesForSuccess.com
PS To see how we handled price objections (and the "Let me check with my husband and I'll get back with you" customer) during the carpet cleaning pre-inspection just go here:
http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/sec ... al-reports
and then click the link for "Carpet Cleaning Inspections that Sell!" No charge, no spam, no snake oil but you do need to fill out a simple, one-time-only registration form. The information is worth it.