One of the first customers I got was a start up, but a very well funded one. They had sold out their previous very successful business some years before and were now starting again. I assume they have a reasonable pile of cash behind them. I was contacted to do some work by a young employee and helpfully steered her in the right direction and gave her a quote. Once she had to get approval she had to come back to me and ask for a discount. I was just starting and keen to sign up solvent customers so happily conceded one to be sure of getting the business.
Since then I have given her lots of free advice when she has asked for it. She has just placed a small order, and I am now asking to go back to the list price. This time I am not going to back down so there is a good chance I will lose the customer. This is a risk I am prepared to take - this is not a particularly profitable customer and so I can afford to let them go.
It would be tempting though to feel resentful. I was very helpful to them when they were starting up, and and have continued to be. On a human level I could easily slip into a feeling that they at the very least owe it to me to pay the same price that other customers pay given that they have probably had a more valuable and certainly a more time consuming one.
But I don't feel that way. I understand very well that companies are not set up to cater for sentiment. The approval process for paying for services is no doubt deliberately contrived to prevent vendors like me engaging in emotional manipulation, even when justified. I am realistic enough to realise this. If they can solve their problems cheaper elsewhere, that is what they are going to do. That is the way the world is.
Postscript - they have come back with a bigger job than they originally said and are not querying the price. I find this very pleasing.
Photo credit: MyTudut via photopin cc
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