Good Work Ain’t Cheap, Cheap Work Ain’t Good

“Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today,
But if you ask for a rise it’s no surprise that they’re giving none away.”
– Pink Floyd

 

As a follow-up to our most recent post about walking away from a prospect who asked us to forego our fees for the better part of the next two years, here’s a priceless exchange posted by a good friend and colleague of ours in New York on his Facebook page:

Conversation with a new business prospect that I had written off a few weeks ago:

 Prospect: We really want to work with your firm, but we’ll need your fees to be more in line with what our other agencies are proposing.
Me: Why aren’t you using one of your other agencies?
Prospect: They don’t have experience with litigation.
Me: If I didn’t know what I was doing, I’d charge a lot less, too.

Looking forward to seeing how this movie plays out for them. Please pass the Jujubes.

We include this here not as much to say the prospect was wrong to seek the most value for his or her dollar, but rather to highlight that in our business as in pretty much every other business, you get you what you pay for. That doesn’t mean anyone should pay extra for something they don’t need; that’s wasteful and rarely a good idea for either party. It does mean, however, that if you want or need a certain level of quality in a product or service, it’s important to recognize that upfront and understand the implications.

And for gosh sakes, don’t ask someone for something and then not pay them. That’s a really Wimpy thing to do…