[273547] in TECHWR-L
Re: Dealing with price resistance?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Morton)
Thu Oct 12 10:10:44 2017
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From: Chris Morton <salt.morton@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2017 10:10:03 -0400
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I'm interested in the tech and would like to be able to leverage my work
with Blue Supply for other projects. I'm also tenacious (read: stubborn). I
likely need to talk with a psychologist about this character flaw, but I
want them to fail with Woodrow and have them come begging to please, please
take on our work.
I get on with the guys, but Jeannie is in the dark. And why a marketing
head is in charge of user manuals says a lot, I know.
But if I were to send a "Have a nice life" reply, how would I phrase it so
as to remain in a dignified position?
Chris Morton
(click logo ▼ for details)
<http://www.the-efa.org/memberinfo/chris-morton-10670/>
♦ Substantive Editing ♦ Technical Writing ♦ Proofreading
♦ B2B/B2C ♦ Marketing Expertise ♦ Mentoring
On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 9:57 AM, Wright, Lynne <Lynne.Wright@kronos.com>
wrote:
> Why would you want to pursue a client who has already demonstrated that
> they're going to expect you to meet impossible deadlines under unreasonable
> conditions, and not want to pay you what you're worth?
>
> You can't convince clients like that that cheaper = poorer quality, since
> they can't tell the difference between mediocre and effective writing.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne.wright=kronos.com@lists.techwr-l.com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+lynne.wright=kronos.com@lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf Of
> Chris Morton
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2017 9:35 AM
> To: techwr-l@lists.techwr-l.com
> Subject: BIZ: Dealing with price resistance?
>
> *** LONG QUERY AHEAD ***
>
> *SCENARIO*: Jeannie is the marketing director of Blue Supply, a smallish,
> high-tech industrial supplier in the hinterland. Through a LinkedIn
> ProFinder feeler placed almost a year ago by her digital marketing guy,
> I've been courting Blue on and off ever since.
>
> To date, Blue has OEMed widgets from others, stuffed them in their own
> boxes, and sold the latter to global industrial concerns. Blue only ever
> shipped the destructions, er, user manuals furnished by its OEMs.
>
> Now Blue has developed its own widget. Jeannie—never having entered this
> realm before (and not knowing much about project management and realistic
> timelines)—began looking for a freelancer to magically whip up a ~50 page
> technical user manual over a two-week period.
>
> Yours truly has done this many times over and has the chops—along with a
> rock-solid portfolio and written recommendations singing my praises. Its
> apparent that Jeannie only looked at the sample manuals I provided, never
> bothering with the recommendations nor taking a few moments to look at my
> extended LinkedIn profile that tells the whole story.
>
> Jeannie kept me hanging for several weeks—time I could have used to create
> her manual, which will ultimately form the basis, it appears, of others to
> come. Anyone who knows InDesign knows that it's critical to set up the
> first go-round (that will become a template) correctly. This is all Greek
> to Jeannie.
>
> She wanted me to give her an estimate as to the number of hours I thought
> it would take me to complete her project. I told her a reasonable number of
> hours, perhaps less, but that it's near impossible to estimate never having
> seen the widget (nor having any notion of Blue's culture, expectations,
> etc.). Much also depended on the ready availability of subject matter
> experts to assist my when I got stuck documenting the widget's
> hypergymballic mode when exposed to sulfur-induced cryptonium at 2000
> degrees.
>
> Although I offered to meet in person or speak by phone, Jeannie has always
> kept me at arms length, only communicating via email. I've only had the
> opportunity to speak by phone with AJ, the project manager; it sounded like
> he was firmly in favor of me.
>
> Although I kept trying to get the engagement commitment, Jeannie put me
> off for yet another week. Attempting to meet her absurd deadline now meant
> working exclusively on her assignment around 24 x 7, putting off all of my
> regular clients, not sleeping, nor having any downtime to do anything else.
> All the while, Jeannie doesn't know what Jeannie doesn't know, and her
> initial whack at a newly-designed user manual incorporating Blue's branding
> is already set to miss the mark.
>
> Finally Jeannie sent me the inevitable email late yesterday:
>
> *Thank you so much for your interest in working with us and for your
> patience as we reviewed candidates. We have decided to go with another
> writer for this particular project due to timeline and budget. It was nice
> connecting with you and I am happy to keep you in mind for future projects
> if that is of interest to you.*
>
>
> *Thank you,*
>
>
> Because of her hemming and hawing, coupled with my multi-year sales
> experience, I'd seen it coming. I wasn't surprised—just really POed to have
> spent so much time courting her and the company only to be treated like
> this. I know full well that Blue Supply isn't going to be well represented
> by the "other writer" (likely a chainsaw repairman) who agreed to both the
> ridiculous deadline and gave her some absurd cost estimate.
>
> To add to my head-spinning, after sending me this kiss-off note, she
> finally accepted my invitation to connect on LinkedIn and also viewed my
> profile!
>
> *QUERY*: If I even elect to pursue Blue Supply, how would you go about
> standing firm with your hourly rate and, more importantly, politely and
> professionally convey the notion that, "When you finally realize you've set
> the project up for failure and also determine that the person you hired
> doesn't know Jack (if she ever wakes up to that), you'll know where to find
> me."
>
> Are there any good books you can think of that address this issue in a
> similar context? That is, Jeannie can have any two of the following: Cheap,
> Fast, Good. And to quote a friend:
>
> "She can have it fast and good, but it won't be cheap, and that's what
> you're willing to promise. If she insists on cheap and fast, you're not the
> right fit because you won't do anything that doesn't include good. Or she
> can have it cheap (relatively) and good, but there's no way in hell she's
> getting it before Thanksgiving, from you or anyone else."
>
>
> Apparently Mr. All-Too-Eager Woodrow the Woodsman has promised Jeannie all
> three.
>
> Chris Morton
> (click logo ▼ for details)
>
> <http://t.sidekickopen68.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nM
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> 10670%2F&si=6020636811198464&pi=954606cb-5d5b-417c-e784-84b410461031>
> ♦ Substantive Editing ♦ Technical Writing ♦ Proofreading
> ♦ B2B/B2C ♦ Marketing Expertise ♦ Mentoring
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