Mentor or Menace?
One of the first colleagues I met in the window treatment industry was a guy who generously shared advice, though not all of it was helpful. One questionable tip was giving a price on the business card. He recommended this abbreviated style when the customer had indicated that they would be getting several quotes. “Why waste time writing up the proposal when they’re not committing today anyway? You can finalize it when you close the sale.” He later chastised me for putting “too much detail” on an invoice. He believed that doing so deprived me of plausible deniability in the event a product came in that was not exactly what the customer believed they had ordered.
Need I mention that this fellow did not last very long in the business?
What You Don't Want!
As a customer who is collecting quotes for a custom window treatment project, you should be alert to red flags that you might encounter when interviewing salespeople. Perhaps a rep does not seem willing to answer questions in depth (or at all) or makes recommendations that don’t seem relevant to your needs. Maybe they are “pushing” this week’s special a little too hard.
This type of sales approach might result in the consultant handing you a business card with a price handwritten on the back. There will be no breakdown – no window count, no rooms named and no product descriptions. Your price will probably be a round number, something like $850 or $3500 depending on what you’ve discussed.
This approach is not due to negligence or inexperience. It is an intentional tactic designed to prevent you from making a meaningful “apples to apples” comparison with quotes from other vendors. “This way, they can’t shop you”, my old colleague would say. Furthermore, you will have no way of proving what you have been “quoted” if you decide to proceed with an order, giving the consultant considerable leeway to impose additional charges for options you had “not discussed” in your initial meeting.
Don’t settle for a number scrawled on a business card!
(Go ahead and be demanding!)
Insist on a firm, detailed quote broken down room by room, product by product and option by option, something a reputable professional should willingly provide. If the rep balks, show them the door! You can ask for this electronically but the window treatment industry is not necessarily the most hi-tech so be prepared for hard copy as well.