What words/phrases can I use negotiating with suppliers or tradies?

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, Drellingore said:

On the supply side I was given sagely advice to never drop my prices unless I got something in return

Discounting devalues.

We don't drop our prices, even at the height of 'influencers' after a free meal.

 

I vote with my feet, if something is not worth the money, I go elsewhere.

[saveasteading]

51 minutes ago, Drellingore said:

is there anything else I can do to make the job more attractive

 

52 minutes ago, Drellingore said:

Can you do other payment terms? 

 

Agreed, i think these principles transfer, but not until the last knockings of negotiation, as it is a few%

In business we got a lot off the little subbies to whom cash flow was critical...they were used to being treated badly and waiting a long time for payment.  Payment fortnightly and within 5 days could be worth 10% on the labour. You have to be very careful not to overpay though.

 

But on our personal Highland project it seemed almost a statement of principle that the contractors would wait for the money monthly, "like bigger businesses do".

 

Paying for the materials transfers risk from them to you and so has a high value. Needs thinking about. But the average small contractor doesn't have much buying power and perhaps you are better at shopping around. Watch out for overordering and waste.

 

1 hour ago, Drellingore said:

Are you going to be a PITA client? 

Some clients like to play at being big players. Never worked for me.

Neither do you want to seem naive. Just be yourself I say, and they will like you or not.

[Pocster]

4 hours ago, Drellingore said:

There are other motivations than money

🙄🙄🙄🙄👍👍👍😘

[Drellingore]

3 hours ago, pocster said:

🙄🙄🙄🙄👍👍👍😘

 

lol - I'm used to working with diva programmers.

 

A mate of mine, who worked for us quite a bit, charges £1,500/day. He knocks 25% off for charities and carbon-negative companies, and another 25% off if he gets to work with his favourite things. He'll reduce his rate by £100-200 a day if he doesn't have to use a Windows laptop.

So basically, if you're a god-awful crusty enterprise bank, you pay full rates, and if you're a hip startup you pay less.

[Pocster]

11 minutes ago, Drellingore said:

 

lol - I'm used to working with diva programmers.

 

A mate of mine, who worked for us quite a bit, charges £1,500/day. He knocks 25% off for charities and carbon-negative companies, and another 25% off if he gets to work with his favourite things. He'll reduce his rate by £100-200 a day if he doesn't have to use a Windows laptop.

So basically, if you're a god-awful crusty enterprise bank, you pay full rates, and if you're a hip startup you pay less.

I’m like that .

Genuinely a guy asked if I would build his stone wall after seeing mine and being impressed / distressed.

I said sure . For £1 an hour . Then I explained it would probably take me a million hours .

[SamSmith]

On 24/03/2023 at 17:54, Canski said:

Together with dodgy ecologists

This is the problem I’m having in your part of the world. Need to discharge some conditions and Ecologists are making(dreaming) up numbers!  
Any recommendations in Warwickshire?

[Canski]

1 hour ago, SamSmith said:

This is the problem I’m having in your part of the world. Need to discharge some conditions and Ecologists are making(dreaming) up numbers!  
Any recommendations in Warwickshire?

They are very good at that. I’m really sorry but I can’t recommend anyone. I can let you know who to avoid though. 

[SamSmith]

10 hours ago, Canski said:

They are very good at that. I’m really sorry but I can’t recommend anyone. I can let you know who to avoid though. 

No problem, I might just end up doing this part myself.  I’ll be managing my own build starting soon so will need all trades. I’m just north of Warwick so any recommendations gratefully received. Thanks

[gc100]

I think you need to realise that if you are doing a build of  say 250-400k you will be spending way way more than your average builder who does extensions etc ina given year so could be potentially one of the BMs top clients. Go open a few accounts at each of your local builder merchants. Have a discussion with each of the managers at the store and say you’ve got a build on in the region of  say 300k and are looking for competitive quotes and will be getting quotes from all the other BMs. For the the first few orders try and make them large and email them to the manager so he knows it’s you and see how they come back. We eventually found within a few months that one consistently started beating all the others and as your relationship builds you get better and better deals as you spend more and more money with them. You still need to keep them on their toes by getting quotes elsewhere and calling them out every now and then as they then realise you are keeping on eye on them and they don’t want to loose your custom. My builders who have been in the trade 30 years couldn’t believe the discounts I was getting.