How to "not" present a proposal to a small business owner

Good evening everyone! I wanted to share an experience I had today, and hopefully give some insight to business owners in a similar situation or those who might run into this. And since I deal a lot with IT consulting in Vancouver, I figured it might be a good read I was introduced to a new potential client through a contact in one of my networking groups, and scheduled a meeting the following day. The initial meeting went very well; the client knew exactly what they wanted, and it was a very detailed list which is somewhat of a rarity since most of the clients I deal with have no idea of whats involved in such a major upgrade. So I left the site, and spent a day or two preparing a very involved and detailed quote that covered every part of the customer request and sent it off feeling very good about it. We all know that sometimes Monday’s are a little tough to get going; I was in that exact same mindset when I checked out my email and found out that my proposal had gotten rejected. And it didn’t get turned down because I had missed anything from the original meeting, it got denied because the client had no idea how much the real cost of a major migration would be, especially with so many different variables. I learned a big lesson from this experience; if you are in a meeting with a new client, and they request something that is potentially very expensive, don’t “broadside” them with an expensive list. It will scare them off and could ruin any further business opportunities. Instead, spend time with them during the initial meeting chatting about their business, what is important to them, how they got where they are etc. Really get to know them , which will help you determine what they really need. Also, when putting the quote together, run an initial draft by them to ensure its what they are looking for, and feed it to them in small “manageable” chunks as well. It will help them achieve their objective, remain within their budget (which is the business owners main overall objective) and keep you involved and working for longer than the original opportunity might have lasted. These are just my insights, and I really hope that it can help someone in a similar situation. When providing IT consulting services in Vancouver, or any sort of computer support services , always be aware of the clients bottom-line and truly understand their needs and conce
s before recommending a solution. All the best, Mat Critical Support Now 604-825-8946 criticalsupportnow.com