Part of this push back is that we are considered to be "trades". That implies  dim witted, poorly educated, slovenly, and all of the other negatives associated with the lower classes. The customer compares this to their own high characteristics and resents paying anything much above minimum wage.

Client a lawyer by any chance?



"I can answer that question during business hours, and the fee is only $450.00 for the consult.".

:-)

"Oh, I'm a parent. This, THIS is a side job. It allows me to do my main job."

"No one one the company earns that rate, I wish we could. Our service rate covers hourly for drive time, time on site, benefits, tools, training and vehicle expense. I know it seems high, I would have the same question if I were you, but when my mechanic is billing $100 an hour and never leaving his shop, it makes me pretty assured my rates are fair for the service we provide."

I would guess a Union Electrician makes more in my State then 70% of people with Masters degrees. Better Healthcare, and better 401k too.

White Collar "professionals" with 100k in student debt making 75k a year with shit insurance, and mediocre retirement may want to get off their high horse.

Milwaukee Area Technical College has a welding program for people whose primary language isn't English and they may not have had much schooling. The cost is low and they're taught to read & write English, Math, how to weld, welding symbols, how to read welding plans and in the process, attain their GED. Graduates of this two year program are averaging $55K, starting pay plus benefits.

I have two questions- why is this only for people whose first language isn't English and where the eff was it 35 years ago?

The answers- because Americans apparently don't want to be welders and WRT the second question, because it wasn't needed at that time- schools had shop class and kids were interested. Now that afletes and entertainers make millions, being a laborer isn't so attractive. When people from the ghetto can become millionaires, why work?

"How much does your plumber charge you per hour?"

Had a customer ask me yesterday why I charge for labor to sell/install a Sonos amp.

A customer flatly refused to pay me for a visit to her house where I diagnosed the problem and came away knowing what was needed. This is a woman who had me hook up her 220V components using a 110/220 transformer when she moved here from Europe.

Her dad had already been a customer for ten years. He understood that things cost money. Somehow his daughter never got the message.

I wrote her a guilt-inducing email about the situation, asking her if she's only paid for the day's work when something new comes of it. She paid me "to keep the peace." That is, she never understood but didn't want to hear about it from her dad.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've seen the most amazing attitude among church people. I was warned before I ever proposed any work for a church that it was a good way to not get paid, but the lack of understanding the basics of business among some church people is absolutely stunning. They want to see the invoice for an amp I bought. I asked if anybody they buy from, be it retail store or restaurant, EVER shows them the invoices for the things they sell. Duh, it hadn't occurred to them. They think Staples is some giant thingie that has stuff for sale, but I'm a person who's trying to rip them off. There's very little attempt to understand. And these are very nice people I've known for several years!

more or less the same idea I would go with


as for the rest that say they would ask him why he is asking the question

I can understand intellectual curiosity but is there an answer he can give that will make you spell it out in any more details? If not why waste your time?

Ernie,

The only client I had to stop payment on a check, was a preacher's wife.

When I explained to her that she had committed a felony, and that I was all set to file charges, she relented. Told me she would write me a new check for the amount owed, but I told her not to, as I wanted the original amount, plus the bounced checl fees, delivered to me in CASH.

"Sorry maam, but I've found that you are not trustworthy."...

You ask to find out why he is asking. Maybe your employee said he gets paid $100.00/hr and he wants to find out if this is true. Maybe he wants to give your employee a giant tip if he is getting paid $20.00/hr. Maybe he feels that he is being unfairly billed. Maybe he wants to ask to employee about side work. Maybe he wants to give the employee an unrelated job. Maybe ???.

Part of our job as salespeople is to uncover questions and needs/objections that may be veiled. In this instance, there's no need to get into operating costs and the like until we find out why the client is curious.

Don't you know that all generalizations are false?

Church people know damn well how money works- if they didn't, their parish would be in debt and everyone there would be driving luxury cars an wearing expensive clothes. They're trying to get you to reduce the price or donate, out of some assumed reverence to the church, BECAUSE it's a church. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked for a discount saying "It's for the church, you understand", I would have retired already. The people who are on the committee for a system upgrade I'm looking into have said "...and the church doesn't have any money" several times, but being a Catholic church, that's a load- they're the single wealthiest organization on the planet.

Dickering is as old as mankind and in some cultures, the people are offended if a buyer doesn't ask for a better price.

I did some AV work for a bar- if you want to get stiffed, do more of that. I went to the bar where the former bar owner was working to collect some money (he lost the location because the owner sold the building- I'll call him 'FBO'). When I walked in, a liquor rep (Dave) was there with some other people he and the FBO know. I have known the rep for over 45 years and the FBO for over 35 years; as we all talked, the topic of the FBO's bill to the rep came up and as usual, FBO didn't have the money, but said he could pay a few bucks of the bill (the total was something like $145.48). He told the rep he could have it the next day- Dave said it was no problem and left it at that. One of their mutual friends then said "If you're not going to at least take the 48 cents, I won't be able to believe you're actually Jewish". I don't think I have seen Dave laugh so hard in the whole time we have known each other.

Delete, please