Your Price Is Too High

One of my all time favorite Sales stories:

Many years ago, I was a well-established vendor at a company west of Boston called Technomed. I handled the company’s business forms and computer paper but longed to get into the part of their business that was far more lucrative: Their software manuals.

It was about this time that digital printing was becoming a factor and I was anxious to turn their photocopied material into print-on-demand books.

I was in cahoots with their Technical Writer, Jill. She and I had been working together, running tests to see if we could print directly from their electronic files (for the record, she backed them up to Colorado drives, if that means anything to you). Everything was running smoothly and I convinced Joanne, the Buyer, not to order 15,000 manuals in three-ring binders but rather eight sets of quantities of 50 to 100 instead. We were under deadline, but I assured the client that we could meet there March 31 delivery date.

However, there was one hitch: I could not give Joanne a definitive price since I was unsure of the page count. Jill was still writing up to the last minute, taking full advantage of the shorter production time. Reluctantly, Joanne gave me a purchase order number but added, “I’ve just given you a blank check. Do not take advantage of me.”

Fortunately, the job went smoothly and we produced a beautiful product in what was then state-of-the-art, 300 dpi quality. On the morning of the 31st, I dropped the boxes off personally and they were able to meet their Q1 commitments.

Returning to my office, I worked up a price and faxed it to the client.

The next day, I headed into Boston for a weekly meeting with my mentor, Len Peterson. Midway through our conversation, my cell phone rang. It was Joanne. I was expecting kudos and thanks but what I got instead was, “I just got your price. It’s ridiculous and way too high. I'm not paying it.”