Frustrated by potential customer

It breaks my heart reading threads like this. I hate to think of master woodworkers wasting time and even worse discounting their products. If you have some time to read and want to turn this around go to your local library and borrow a copy of Robert Cialdini's " Influence : The psychology of persuasion". He holds dual appointments at Arizona State university as professor of marketing and professor of psychology. It's a book filled of stories to explain the theory that salesmen have been using for yonks.

I'm not saying become a salesman but understand some basics in getting people to quickly decide if they are happy to buy or move on. I have used what I learnt to beat salesmen at their game.

Best story for me was the shop owner who decided to discount items that weren't selling and gave the shop assistant the instruction to mark them down. Owner came back to find the shop assistant got it wrong and increased the prices on selected items. The result was a sell out.

Sometimes your buyers do not understand the value of the quality items they can buy. As far as your hourly rates go I doubt they reflect the years of learning and mastering you have had to spend before being able to built such items.

I just wish I was in OZ to buy some your furniture.:2tsup:

In a modern world you don't have to be in a place to buy from a place. I have an Etsy shop. Furniture homewares and really cool hand made by TimberDimensions Don't be shy.

I shall make a point of reading the reference.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Blackout

Best story for me was the shop owner who decided to discount items that weren't selling and gave the shop assistant the instruction to mark them down. Owner came back to find the shop assistant got it wrong and increased the prices on selected items. The result was a sell out.

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A friend of mine worked for "Ding Dong A..n Calling". When they had ends of lines, they would be marked UP by 25% or more. Always cleared out in record time!

Another book which I found very interesting is

"Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value"

which covers all sorts of pricing strategies, and how and why they work.

My wife used to sell hand-made cards at markets, and would get frustrated at the folks who wanted her cards for far less than mass-produced cards in the shops.

I finally got her to (arbitrarily) set 3 price ranges, rather than her "one price for all cards", including one price range which she thought was so expensive that no-one would bother to touch, and her overall sales increased markedly, because she now catered to "bargain hunters" who wanted the cheapest option, "value seekers" who didn't want to think of themselves as cheapskates, but who were too savvy to spend excessively, and a few customers who wanted to feel so rich they could afford the best.

The book's coverage of "anchoring" is also very enlightening!

I get a couple a year! just had one for stool tops wanted me to match Bali prices and wanted 100 top within 5 days, told him to ring Bali after the feed back from forum and talk with timber yard! and like others the list goes on and on!the one I laughed at was I can make it out of scrap then they said the needed 70 units made! thats a lot of scraps! it can be disheartening!