Good Morning
I get these late Friday afternoon phone calls sometimes: Caller wants to mail out some postcards to a list they have. In most cases they have no idea what size or how many they want to send out; they are just price shopping. By asking a few questions I’m able to give them a price and that’s the last I hear from them.
But every so often I get someone who is really interested. I get what the want, the size and how many. I even get a name and email address. During that initial call I ask if they are mailing to what I call a cold list (people who have never been contacted before). If they are, then they need to contact these people not just once but multiple times. Studies show the more times they are contacted, the higher the response rate/more sales.
Then I send them a quote with the service we are providing for that investment. I also tell them although I am not a graphic artist or designer I can help them with some layout of their card. We also will clean their list (remove duplicates, mark bad addresses, find out who’s moved within the last 18 months and more).
Most of the time I never hear (no response to follow-up) from them. A few who do reply to the quote have told me that they can get the cards printed for less. I carefully explain the services we offer vs. what the online vendor does (none, other than just print the card) and that mailing services are extra with the customer responsible for the list condition.
At this point I get one of three responses: 1) I’ll think it over (almost always I never to hear from them again). 2) OK, I’ll use you. Or 3) Well, you’re still higher than them. This means that either they can not afford my services or in most cases they want me to cut my price. A few have even asked me to match the price. They start out saying that they really want to use my service, but if I want their business then I have to match the price.
At this point I’ve learned the hard way what to do next.
I again very nicely explain my position, price, why I can not match it and that if they still do not like my price that maybe they should go with the other company.
A few times I’ve had the people come back to me either with the cards printed by that company and asking me to do the mailing at a higher price (had to fix something with the cards so we could mail them). Or the cards turned out bad and we had to start over.
Moral of the story: you get what you pay for.
Till next time.
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