Ever made a special request

[shockym]

I have a client that is asking for a service which we do provide but he is more or less purchasing in bulk to get a good rate, now he tells me that he can not purchase all at one time but still wants that same rate. Doing something this like his risky of course as there is no way I can make him order X for the Y discount. Anyone else came across this type of thing before? Maybe not for hosting but another service you provide?

 

[AbbieRose]

This is a problem. A bulk discount should apply to only a bulk purchase-and that means the passing of currency in bulk, not in drips and drabs. I think that potentially this could bring you a lot of work, but potentially you could also get taken.

 

[Lesli]

I've done the discounted thing for a long-term client who was having problems making ends meet, and so wanted to go to monthly payments for a little while...but still receive the semi-annual discount. Five months later, they went back to the annual payment. They had been a client for three years, and had often paid early.

It isn't something that I would do for any client - a brand new client with no payment and service use history might not be given this option when they asked. I also don't know that I'd do it repeatedly, or without extenuating circumstances. Once, okay, that's a rough patch. Twice...well, it might depend on the length of time separating the two requests. If someone lived in an area that had been hit by a major natural disaster, and they were putting their home and business back to rights...that's something big and ugly and outside of their control, that's an extenuating circumstance.

I would also have a harder time justifying this kind of "discount" for goods (which would require handling, packing, and shipping) instead of services (intangibles).

 

[genesis]

If you provide Bulk discounts then you have to provide discounts of Bulk purchases.
and not stop and start kind of purchases.
But the decision is yours entirely,your the one in charge of
Your Business.
Best of Luck.

 

[wschuah]

As bulk means that customer need to buy a quantity of space in one time then can get the discount, if not that is not consider bulk buy..
So where can get the discount.:smash:

 

[chatterbox]

I really think it would depend on exactly what kind of service you are talking about. It also would depend on how reliable and longterm that customer has been for your company.

 

[RH01]

Or .... how desperate for the account you are.
I have done special requests depending on business needs

 

[shockym]

Not really desperate at all but this has been a long time design client. The main issue is that they want minor changes now and then but have no idea how many they want. When we designed their site we had quoted them on a back end system that would allow them to do all changes themselves or to have us do them in the future. They choose the latter, now they want the bulk of changes at a rate which is reasonable for all sides mind you, but I just have an odd feeling about it I guess.

 

[Lesli]

You could always try guesstimating a quarterly cost for minor upgrades (minor text changes, what have you) throughout the quarter. You'd want to clearly define:
* what is a minor upgrade (covered by this bulk payment) versus a major change (would be a separate charge)
* the maximum amount of minor changes per quarter - once they've hit this number of changes per quarter, they could either pay for additional changes on a per-change basis, or purchase another "block" of minor changes for that quarter
* if your client has a quarter where they pay for this block of changes and they only ask for two minor changes that quarter - will you roll over any of their payment to another quarter? (If they're asking to pay "in bulk", I would not allow this option. Either they pay in bulk to have you "on call", or they pay as they go for the changes they need made.

As long as you define things clearly enough - so that both you and your client know exactly what to expect - you should be good. Make sure that it's something you can live with, though. Don't get yourself into a situation where you've defined something for a client and you come to resent them for it.

I would not count creating new pages or graphics as a "minor change". Removing a paragraph (or changing the content of a data table or bullet list), adding a sentence, changing an email address or phone number...those are "minor changes". Adding a new page, replacing all content on an existing page, adding a large data table, creating a new graphic...those are right on the borderline. If the table was two columns and two rows, with a number or a few words in each, that's kind of minor. If it's a larger data table...that's significant work. (Essentially: if a task is going to take you longer than 30 minutes, including uploading files, it's not a minor change.)

 

[mfwl]

I have a client that is asking for a service which we do provide but he is more or less purchasing in bulk to get a good rate, now he tells me that he can not purchase all at one time but still wants that same rate. Doing something this like his risky of course as there is no way I can make him order X for the Y discount. Anyone else came across this type of thing before? Maybe not for hosting but another service you provide?

You just have to stand firm on this one!

The discount you offered was for bulk, you may have offered X% but you cannot offer that on a single order.

You could offer the lower Y% discount to keep the order but I would suspect that this client is someone that wants something for nothing and will probably abuse it... Cut your losses and seek another sale!

 

[jcarney1987]

I have people asking me that they will bring me so many customers for a free web hosting account. So I tell them that they pay for the accout to get it started then when the bring me customers I'll refund them back and if they keep bring them then I'll start paying them more.

 

[shockym]

Always in the back of my mind I am thinking that people want things for free, and I have gotten offers like that jcarney so I fully understand it all as well. Sometimes people tend to think I am too harsh but I still think I am living in the real world and those who trust everyone are living in some other reality but not mine.

Right now we are already waiting until 09 hits so we can redo the entire site (as they first wanted, but did not want the price for all the code hours), now we are still doing minor work but not nearly enough to justify coming up with a 1/4 budget just yet.

 

[mfwl]

Always in the back of my mind I am thinking that people want things for free, and I have gotten offers like that jcarney so I fully understand it all as well. Sometimes people tend to think I am too harsh but I still think I am living in the real world and those who trust everyone are living in some other reality but not mine.

Right now we are already waiting until 09 hits so we can redo the entire site (as they first wanted, but did not want the price for all the code hours), now we are still doing minor work but not nearly enough to justify coming up with a 1/4 budget just yet.

Remember you are running a business to make money at the end of the day, its alright lowering your commision to seal the deal but its better to reserve that special discount and wait for the upsale once you have already landed your client!

A client that is initially interested will stay with you longer and be more willing to spend extra than a client you have encouraged to buy your basic package only because you let it go for next to nothing!

 

[ryleejames]

You could tell your client that if he purchases in parts that he'll pay the full price and when he reaches the bulk amount, you'll discount that purchase for the amount needed to make up the price as if he purchased the bulk amount the first time.
This way, your covered no matter what. If he doesn't purchase the full amount, you won't be out the money.

 

[mfwl]

You could tell your client that if he purchases in parts that he'll pay the full price and when he reaches the bulk amount, you'll discount that purchase for the amount needed to make up the price as if he purchased the bulk amount the first time.
This way, your covered no matter what. If he doesn't purchase the full amount, you won't be out the money.

Now why didnt I think of that????

 

[shockym]

You could tell your client that if he purchases in parts that he'll pay the full price and when he reaches the bulk amount, you'll discount that purchase for the amount needed to make up the price as if he purchased the bulk amount the first time.
This way, your covered no matter what. If he doesn't purchase the full amount, you won't be out the money.

We were thinking along the lines of something like this and now the client is talking about doing some reselling (not of hosting, already does that) but of the design side of our company so that might be worth while to get started on. I like the way you think mate.