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Salesperson from large company trying to steal clients?

Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I just got pretty snippy with a salesperson from a larger commercial printer about 30 miles away (35 employees). I am a one-person shop. She was first asking if I ever needed any large format printing done or high volume. I said sometimes and asked if they do wholesale pricing. She said no - then why are you here I thought? Then I asked if they do coroplast printing because that is something I don't do in-house with high volume. She had no pricing to give me or any details, "it's all custom pricing". Then she said she was just talking to another company in town about graphics. Then she looked around and said, "Oh, so you are the one who does all the school banners?" Then I said, "Yes, can I ask why you are here? You are from a large company that has national accounts, are you being sent to the small communities to steal our business? I'm confused why you are here." She then got defensive and stated that she lives here and her kids go to school here, etc. Then she asked how much I'm paying for large banners. I said I don't know. She said well, I don't know how much anyone else charges or what you pay when you order online. I said I don't know either until I do the invoice (which was obviously a lie).

I cannot believe that a company with national accounts has sent a sales-person to a small town to get pidly little one-off jobs. The only thing I can think of is she's trying to start her own business and wants to get pricing from the rest of us and see what business she can grab. These are the customers they work with...WHY ON EARTH would they need to go after the local heating guys business or 100 banners of high school kids?

I will never use them going forward. I smell a rat or is it just Monday and I'm crabby? LOL
 

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Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Work dropping off? Sometimes companies will take the gravy customers from the rep after a certain amount of time in order to keep them hungry enough to wake up in the morning. They could have split sales territories and this person got stuck with the backwoods (no offense) where it is really difficult and they really have to shake the trees to get any business. They could just be plain stupid too, there's no shortage of that out there.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Do you have any way to verify that she actually lives in your town? That was probably a lie too. You should have gotten her business card... before throwing her out on her ear.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
On another note, the picture you attached should go in the copyright use threads next time it comes up. There are a lot of grayish areas in copyright/trademark law but using other companies logos in your sales literature is not one of those gray areas.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Boudica said:
Do you have any way to verify that she actually lives in your town? That was probably a lie too. You should have gotten her business card... before throwing her out on her ear.
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I did get her business card and I tried stalking her on FB but she's not on there or she blocked me.

I think I'm mostly mad becuase I work with a lot of small businesses that do the same thing I do and we don't go after each others clients. If it naturally happens - then so be it. But if I were to send them a print job, it seems like they would contact that customer directly and try to steal them. That's not cool in my book.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Stacey K said:
I did get her business card and I tried stalking her on FB but she's not on there or she blocked me.

I think I'm mostly mad becuase I work with a lot of small businesses that do the same thing I do and we don't go after each others clients. If it naturally happens - then so be it. But if I were to send them a print job, it seems like they would contact that customer directly and try to steal them. That's not cool in my book.
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You can always play dirty too. Butter her up and throw her a few bucks for any jobs or referrals that turn into jobs she sends your way. When I was in equipment sales, I got a ton of business by being friendly with the competitors. If they didn't have something they would send them my way or buy from me and resell it. I still do that today. My few local competitors will call me and vice versa if one of their good customers calls asking for a price. Usually your "friends" will avoid screwing you over or targeting your customers.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
You probably smelled a rat. I often wonder if my competition has sent over mystery shoppers to check out my shop or gotten a quote to price check something. I've had a small handful of walk-ins that just seemed weird, like something was up.

I'm in a small town too and we aren't immune to business challenges like this. It's always in the back of my mind that a national brand/franchise might be poised to start up in my area, which would probably be the end of my business or at least reduce sales a lot.
 
Bradley Signs

Bradley Signs

Bradley Signs
Stacey K said:
I just got pretty snippy with a salesperson from a larger commercial printer about 30 miles away (35 employees). I am a one-person shop. She was first asking if I ever needed any large format printing done or high volume. I said sometimes and asked if they do wholesale pricing. She said no - then why are you here I thought? Then I asked if they do coroplast printing because that is something I don't do in-house with high volume. She had no pricing to give me or any details, "it's all custom pricing". Then she said she was just talking to another company in town about graphics. Then she looked around and said, "Oh, so you are the one who does all the school banners?" Then I said, "Yes, can I ask why you are here? You are from a large company that has national accounts, are you being sent to the small communities to steal our business? I'm confused why you are here." She then got defensive and stated that she lives here and her kids go to school here, etc. Then she asked how much I'm paying for large banners. I said I don't know. She said well, I don't know how much anyone else charges or what you pay when you order online. I said I don't know either until I do the invoice (which was obviously a lie).

I cannot believe that a company with national accounts has sent a sales-person to a small town to get pidly little one-off jobs. The only thing I can think of is she's trying to start her own business and wants to get pricing from the rest of us and see what business she can grab. These are the customers they work with...WHY ON EARTH would they need to go after the local heating guys business or 100 banners of high school kids?

I will never use them going forward. I smell a rat or is it just Monday and I'm crabby? LOL
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Kick her to the curb...
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
Wonder if she's a new hire, doesn't cost anything to add a commission only employee, and she doesn't sound like she knows anything about the business or wouldn't be wasting time talking to you about school banners.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Just about any business out there from sign shops, to grocery stores, to department stores to restaurants have either a person or a whole crew, whose job is to do nothing but go in competitors stores and shop/price compare. Some are just sneakier than other.

Once, I was on a job and the guy who we were doing work for, asked if he could borrow me for a while, and let my crew keep working. We drove about 3 blocks away to a competitor's store and we just walked around looking at things. Then, I saw him taking pictures from his hip and that's when it dawned on me, we were spying on this other store. He told me they have 2 and 3 people at a time walking around competitor's store and they have about 25 people who do this day in and day out. They will buy things, just to blend in.

You can tell when someone is like that in your place. If they seem to know the jargon pretty good and know what they're talking about and know terms most people don't know, that's a good possible giveaway.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I think she is the new owner. It looks like her dad owned the company and her husband and her took it over recently. So, I imagine she wants to drum up business in the town where she lives. She should really work on her sales skills because they are not very good. I will not be using them nor will I recommend them for large jobs that I have to pass on - which happens more often than you might think!

Gino - my sister used to work for a grocery chain and all she did all day was go to stores and price check. They all did it and they knew who all these people were so they were always friendly to each other. She had some kind of hand-held scanner that told her what to price check. It was a very boring job.
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
victor bogdanov said:
Should've told her really high pricing so when she goes to steak customers she beats your high price but is over the actual price you charge
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This, plus tell her your lead times are often pushing 2 weeks for a banner, that way you can gang up 20 banners at a time. Totally worth making the first guy wait 2 weeks...
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
You should never be afraid of your competition. You should not feel fear, if you have a good talent you will beat them every time. Do not buy shit from them because they will start telling people in your area that you buy from them. You should have taken that BudLite you have under the counter and crushed it on her forehead. I always liked a good challenge but just be prepared for a nasty fight. She probably voted for Biden.
 
Aardvark Printing

Aardvark Printing

New Member
Johnny Best said:
You should never be afraid of your competition. You should not feel fear, if you have a good talent you will beat them every time. Do not buy shit from them because they will start telling people in your area that you buy from them. You should have taken that BudLite you have under the counter and crushed it on her forehead. I always liked a good challenge but just be prepared for a nasty fight. She probably voted for Biden.
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Agreed. Customers are like girl friends. If you're taking care of business and you lose them then they weren't going be there for long anyway.
 
DL Signs

DL Signs

Never go against the family
I think whoever took this company over is in over their heads if they're actively doing this. We do national accounts (some on their sell sheet), local stuff is secondary work, it comes to us, we don't go seeking it. Bet the reason her husband got her father's business instead of her is because she has zero business skills. If she thinks taking small jobs away from little one person operations will cover the overhead and payroll for that many, she's proving how little she knows about how this works. Probably just wants to act like a big shot for the locals. Or maybe hubby sent her out to do this as "busy work" so she'll get out of his hair :big laugh:
 
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