There’s always one. It’s the customer you didn’t really want but you thought charging more would weed them out. Some call it the PITA tax. You knew something was off twenty minutes in and you didn’t cut it off. Then they said yes.
These jobs are rarely your most profitable and the aggravation is never worth the PITA tax. You end up putting in more time than you built into the job in the way of returning for issues, the phone calls, the demands for free work, etc. Your team is now disenchanted. You’re in a position to speak poorly about customers, which is never a good look.
The fix is never to overcharge and hope for a no. That calls your integrity into question and leaves you with the possibility or probability of this customer saying yes. If you’re in a position where you need this job to stay afloat, do what you need to do, but address the sales or marketing needs head on so you don’t end up here again.
This week, think about that customer you decided to take on. Calculate the profit on that job. Identify why you really said yes to this customer. Write down all the reasons you should have said no. Establish one next best step. Is it evaluating sales? Is it developing your script for how you turn away a customer without damaging your reputation?