Salting for a friend/customer

[tiedeman]

Well, I know this one guy that owns a commercial store in the city. *I would say that he is a friend, but not necessarily a "good or great" friend. *I decided to approach him about salting his parking lot, approx 15,000sq ft, and he said give him a bid. *

The last guy charged him $100, and he thought that was way too much and I figured that I could do it at $85. *Would only cost me about $9.00 in salt each time. *I am still making a lot of money with it.

So I called him back with the information. *I could tell that he wasn't working at the store, almost like he was at a bar. *Well, his total business like attitude went out the window. *He was rude, mouthy, etc. *Just not something that I would want to do business with. *Compared to when he is working he has a more professional attitude, but this time there was nothing there.

After I got off the phone with him, I thought it over and decided that I want to pull the bid. *I just don't want to do work for someone so unprofessional

What are your thoughts? *Would you do the same thing?

[tiedeman]

I ended up pulling the bid. He was speechless. Nothing but silence. I didn't tell him the reason that I pulled the bid was because of his attitude, I just told him that I didn't think that it would fit into my schedule.

Sure I maybe just lost some money, but he also lost saving $15 each time.

[Steve]

The one thing that I thought of was maybe he was having a bad day and was sitting at a bar drinking or something like that. But maybe even then you can feel out the situation and decide if this is going to be bad news.

[tiedeman]

Sometime my wife says that I judge people too quickly. But to me first impressions are a major thing. When I am dealing business with someone, I expect:
1. Their full attention
2. A quick response from them, or a timeline of where I will hear a yes/no answer
3. Business attitude
4. Turn off the cell phone or don't answer it (there is a story behind this)
5. A Thank You and/or You're welcome

[Steve]

Well the beautiful thing about it is that it's your business and you can be you. You can do your thing. You can experiment to see what works and what doesn't.

If ever in the future you want to change things, you can or you can keep things the same.