Tip to get more business

Just learned a lesson this morning that I thought I would pass on. It shows that, by asking the right question, you can sometimes gain business you may otherwise have lost. A client asked me for a price to design an item that was to be reproduced in very small numbers - only 15 of the items were to be produced and they were then to be given away by our client as a point of sale dispenser. I submitted our price which was based on the time needed to design and produce finished artwork for the item. It was quite a tricky job because two dispensers had to be fixed onto the item and the information would need to be designed around the dispensers having first marked positions for them. There was a lot of information to go on including diagrams which would need to be originated and clear text instructions.

The client said our price was too high. I assumed at first that he would go to another supplier, which would have been a shame as we have a longstanding relationship and one never wants to open the door to a competitor. I therefore asked whether I could provide a cost to produce and supply the items as well as to design them. Our favourite trade supplier gave us a cost to do this which I then gave to the client. This brought the unit cost down to an affordable sum and allowed us to handle the whole project for our client, preventing any quality issues that might arise should he have had two suppliers to deal with. It has also saved him money when he orders a repeat batch as our manufacturing cost was much lower than the one he had been quoted. It's always worth thinking about the bigger picture and if someone says you are too expensive, think about what they are actually buying, rather than just the part you normally take care of.