Monday, October 10, 2005

This stuff works when you're a customer too!!!

I just set up an UFC (Up Front Contract) with a vendor. This stuff is cool. We need some windows in my son's room and I have heard horror stories of the vendors who come in to your house and won't leave until they get an order. I determined before I made the call that I was not going to play by those rules. So when I made the call (after getting a reference - who says!), I asked some very targeted questions which helped layout the ground rules. I even told him why by utilizing the "horror story of my neighbor" to lay the ground work of what I did not want to happened.

In then end I have an appointment with a set time, I have established with the vendor what my decision making process is and that I have a budget. I also told him what I will not accept in the process based on my "biggest fear" and then we created an up front contract and what the call will look like. Now when the appointed time comes there should be no mystification, after all we all want the same thing (in different ways). I want a warm room with new windows and he wants to sell me windows. Now let's see what happens. To be continued . . .