Friday, February 24, 2006

Still playing Hardball

The window people called me this week, they wanted to send the marketing director to "Make me an offer that I would be very pleased with". This guy wasted less of my time, I'll give him credit for that. He started talking, I told him I wanted a quote for only the 6 bedroom windows. (Omitting the 2 really big windows and the 3 other windows.) The quote ended up being roughly half the amount we were quoted last week. (I expected it to be better than it was...)

The guy wrote a number down, then took 10% off. Then he took 7.5% off. Then he took 8% off. (I was doing the math in my head by then...) Then he took 9% off. I my head I figured it was about 30%. (not 35.5% as you might expect by adding the percentages. It was really ((total)x(.9)x(.925)x(.92)x(.91)) Maybe I should have said up front that I was a math major in college. The guy last week told us we were getting a 30% discount. I told the guy no, he asked if he could go call him manager to see if there was a better deal. (How long do those sales classes say to sit out in your car twiddling your thumbs? I didn't waste my time, I ate a sandwich.) He came back in, (without knocking) and made an offer that was another 10% off that total. (7% off the origonal total.) I still didn't think it was an offer I couldn't refuse, and didn't really want to finance it, so we shouwed him on his way. (Him: "Really? What about 90 days same as cash?" Me: "That would still be financing it." Him: "But you wouldn't have to pay anything for 6 weeks." Me (In my head) sometimes 6 weeks feels like 90 days, is he just giving the wrong interval, or is there a trick to the financing? (Not in head): "No thanks."

Anyway, we might get some other companies to just give us a bid...

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