It is just after 5 p.m. and it has been a long, long Monday…a tough way to start out the week. As you pass the fax machine, you hear the familiar low-pitched whine of an incoming fax. At the same time your phone rings so you decide to quicken your pace enough to catch the call, the fax will be there when you are done with the call.

Minutes later, one of your sales reps comes rushing into the office with what turns out to be "the fax". As circumstances would have it, it is from one of the prospective accounts your sales rep had been trying to break into for the last two months. The sales rep has had little success in getting any returned phone calls from the buyer, plenty of voice mail but no direct contact. Based on a quick review of the RFQ it appears that the project described looks like a good fit and will be bring a healthy price tag. You can feel the excitement beginning to mount!

But now the inevitable questions arise. What kind of price is it going to take? Who initiated the project? What will the competition be doing? Who is the competition? Who will be building the files? Who did the job last year? Is the delivery deadline really the drop dead date?

After calling the contact, you find out that they had received your last correspondence and company brochure and thought they might test the water a bit. The purchasing agent answers the obligatory mechanical questions about the job but little else that will help you effectively position yourself against the competition. So, you request a meeting and are granted the opportunity to meet early the next day but the quote was still to be due that afternoon. This meeting proves fruitful as you learn who the competitors are BUT no you cannot meet with the department head, for whom the work is being done.

So what next? If you quote the job too high you risk being identified as pricey or worse you may never get another chance to bid on work again. You may be giving the printer(s) with the inside track in this account competitive information. Or worse yet you may bid the job competitively, get the work and find it to be one of those nightmare jobs in production.

Regardless of your price if you submit a quote you have placed yourself at a disadvantage because you have "Let the negotiations begin" long before the selling was over. The only thing you have proven to your prospect is that you can turn around a quote quickly. What you have failed to do is to communicate or create any value in the eyes of the customer that can support your price and provide any differentiation between you and your competition.

Maybe it is time to ask yourself if your goal is to develop a long-term profitable customer or to win the right to print a job. If it is the former then it is time to get back to selling, if it is the latter then I suppose you have nothing to lose but "a" job. Finally, I ask you to consider this question for just a moment, how many jobs have you felt you had to lower your price on in order to win that job? If the answer is more than a few, then it is time you ask your rep to critically examine why they are allowing the negotiations to begin before the selling is done.