by
Gustavo Sosa, CEO, Sosa Ingenieria
Sometimes, the best you can do for your business is walking away from a project. In my years of experience, I have identified some red flags that tell me to be careful with a client. On the other side, having seen the mistakes made by clients, I can also see some red flags in a supplier. This article tries to give some advice to both users and suppliers of equipment.
When to walk away from a client:
They are asking for a turn-key quotation but won’t provide soil studies
There are so many ways this can go wrong. Nobody with half a brain would invest more than one million dollars and try to save five thousand on feasibility studies. The first thing he could be trying to achieve is getting the supplier to pay for it, in exchange for the not-very-serious promise to purchase, and then use the information to get bids from everyone else.
Maybe he is even expecting that you complete the project without doing the studies. Then, when the foundations fail, he will sue you and basically get you to pay for the project.
They are asking for detailed drawings and engineering information
This is called getting an engineering project for free and happens all the time. Most companies would happily pay fifty thousand dollars for a marketing research, but still will dodge paying for engineering. This is totally the responsibility of suppliers.
Like campers feeding the animals, they have taught their clients to misbehave. The problem is not doing the study for free, but the fact that the client is waiting for the first fool that will do it and then pass the information to all other suppliers trying to get the lowest bid.
My position with this is: if the project is simple and I can do it in less than two days, I will do it anyway; but if it is a complex problem requiring weeks of work, he has to either pay for the study or sign a commitment to purchase from me. If he won’t do either, I walk away.
Read more HERE.
Sometimes, the best you can do for your business is walking away from a project. In my years of experience, I have identified some red flags that tell me to be careful with a client. On the other side, having seen the mistakes made by clients, I can also see some red flags in a supplier. This article tries to give some advice to both users and suppliers of equipment.
When to walk away from a client:
They are asking for a turn-key quotation but won’t provide soil studies
There are so many ways this can go wrong. Nobody with half a brain would invest more than one million dollars and try to save five thousand on feasibility studies. The first thing he could be trying to achieve is getting the supplier to pay for it, in exchange for the not-very-serious promise to purchase, and then use the information to get bids from everyone else.
Maybe he is even expecting that you complete the project without doing the studies. Then, when the foundations fail, he will sue you and basically get you to pay for the project.
They are asking for detailed drawings and engineering information
This is called getting an engineering project for free and happens all the time. Most companies would happily pay fifty thousand dollars for a marketing research, but still will dodge paying for engineering. This is totally the responsibility of suppliers.
Like campers feeding the animals, they have taught their clients to misbehave. The problem is not doing the study for free, but the fact that the client is waiting for the first fool that will do it and then pass the information to all other suppliers trying to get the lowest bid.
My position with this is: if the project is simple and I can do it in less than two days, I will do it anyway; but if it is a complex problem requiring weeks of work, he has to either pay for the study or sign a commitment to purchase from me. If he won’t do either, I walk away.
Read more HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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