General Consultant Discussion

Am I the only one running into this lengthy ""lead to close"" times where a customer nibbles at ""what would it cost for xxxxx"" and they want a really informal quote. Typically an upgrade. Then they disappear. Only to reappear 6 to 9 months later asking more questions about something that you've long forgotten about.

Sadly, no. After the expiration date, my price goes up a minimum of $500.

Yes, we do, but if not a current customer, it is often for ROR change with support, and the problem with their current ROR hasn't yet hit critical. In some other cases, they are trying to get a feel for pricing on the change they want; I generally don't get far on that until I can have a discussion about the underlying business pressures. So, they go away because they don't want to do that yet ... then sometimes come back. Like Mark, we do put expirations on the quote.

I concur - I've always had expiration dates on quotes and really like @MarkKotyla idea of a surcharge after the quotes expired. I think I'll use that idea Mark!

@JerryNorman I find the support inquiries from non-customers a little easier because I have a standard agreement so there's really nothing for me to remember. I've always included expiration dates but the customer's seem to ignore it. Actually it's now more often their IT department driving most proposals, questions. PS - I have learned through experience that the casual ""we are moving servers will you be available"" should always be met with ""It would cost $ x for me to assist or $ Y * 2 if you call me in at any point after (aka - it's not a support call).

@MoiraGoggin You go girl! Just word it in a way that doesn't make it seem like a penalty. I just did this on a quote I issued in May... stating that my original quote was low to take advantage of the slower summer months. Q4 work, when everyone else wants their system implemented by 1/1, is a different price.

Definitely on board with that - in almost all cases I use ""valid for work begun and completed between xx/xx/xx and yy/yy/yy"". People still ignore it but you have a safety net. I have had many more than one customer try to take a March quote and ask if we could convert over the New Years Holiday on a weekend....

Another excuse is that new product updates have been released that require you to re-examine the quote for the latest version.

We separate the ""upgrade"" from its softer elements. When we quote an ""upgrade"" we have the 3 levels. The base is really just the technical upgrade, with customer handling the workstation upgrades after we walk their IT through 2. The next two levels deal with the training and orientation that can go along with the upgrade. We'll try to bake into it other changes, such as BI, PLO, etc., and make sure the business manager (not just IT) sees those possibilities. We just finished our new Knowledge Transfer Agreement, which includes an annual upgrade at the top level, and defines the price for the upgrade at the lower ones, too. (We specifically limit the upgrade to just the software and database upgrade on the existing server.)

Lee, there's no shortage of excuses. I abandoned the bare bones upgrade, where the customer does the workstations. Too many unbillable support calls afterwards, due to botched w/s install.

I'm with Mark - I also abandoned bare bones as well as price in two to three change requests into my fixed pricing. I could go to the customer with a very low price but I know that there are going to be changes and in most cases asking for a change request (or three) makes sense academically but doesn't work well in practice when you're seated at the customers desk and presented with several additional non-covered issues. I've just learned that for me it's better to anticipate and price in a few changes. I don't tell the customer that the changes are priced in so I always have an escape hatch for the customer who say's after an upgrade is done ""what about Billy Bob's 800 custom Crystal reports he keeps on his desktop in a local folder - are those converted? "" .....

We dumped SPS and now charge a 3% processing fee on all credit card payments.

If you dumped SPS what are you using now @GaryFeldman?

My main bank made us an offer which will save us approximately $3k in fees annually. Most of our credit card billing is recurring hosting or a periodic purchase. So as of now we are not integrated, but automated.