“That price is ridiculous,” Luigi said after Mario gave him the proposal.
For $9,500 Mario’s team would do a quick rehab of Luigi’s rental property.
“What do you think is a reasonable price for that job?” Mario asked.
“Well Mario, $5,500 is already a high price.”
“Hey Luigi, you will save lots of money if YOU do it yourself.”
“Yes, but I don't know how.”
“That’s alright,” Mario said. “Pay me $3,500 and I'll teach you how to do it. Besides me saving you money, you'll learn and this will benefit you in your future projects.”
“Sounds good! Let’s do it!” Luigi said.
“Great!” Mario turned around and told Luigi, “Come here, follow me! To get started, you’re going to need all these tools.” Mario showed him everything he needed.
“But I don't have any of those tools.”
“No problem, I’ll show you where to buy them,” Mario said.
“I can't buy all of those tools for one job, Mario!”
“OK,” said Mario, “I’ll rent you all my tools for an additional $800.”
“Sounds fair, thank you,” Luigi said.
“Great Luigi! So I’ll meet you here on Monday to guide you while you do the job.”
“Monday?” Luigi paused. “I can’t do this on Monday. I work Monday through Friday. I’m only available on the weekends.”
“You know I don’t work weekends,” Mario said. “If you want to learn from me you need to take a few days off work. The project will take around 5 days, so take the whole week off.”
“I can’t miss a whole week of work!” Luigi exclaimed.
“Well, you should consider at least one extra day. When you do a job by yourself, you must consider unproductive hours,” said Mario.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You will need extra time planning the project, ordering materials, running errands, cleaning up the site, and disposing the waste, amongst other things. All these will be in addition to the construction time.”
Luigi stood there staring at Mario.
“Ohh, by the way,” Mario said, “Be ready with a truck before 6:00 am to pick up the materials and take them to the construction site.”
“Before 6 AM? With a pickup truck?” Luigi asked.
“This is just a suggestion Luigi, it’s really up to you. But remember, you will be paying the workers by the hour. Having them sitting around doing nothing waiting for the materials to arrive is not a good idea.”
“That will cost a fortune!” Luigi answered.
“Plus,” Mario continued, “remember, this is a rental property. Every day you have it vacant is costing you money.”
“Ohh yes, I don’t want to take this too long,” Luigi said.
“Okay Luigi, I’ll see you Monday,” Mario said as have him a strong handshake.
“No! Wait Mario!”
Mario stood there patiently.
“I now understand how much goes into this job, your $9,500 price sounds very reasonable. Please take care of the project,” Luigi said as he wrote Mario the check.
Now, to answer your question, what’s your best sales advice you can give?
Remember that people don’t buy products and services, they buy the value of the product or service that you’re offering them.
If you want to start a side-business, you must understand this!
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