3 ms·
Interesting article but the title is a little misleading. Before I clicked, I thought they were talking about doing work for cigarette or oil companies. I work
by slantyyz 16y ago
Interesting article but the title is a little misleading.
Before I clicked, I thought they were talking about doing work for cigarette or oil companies. I worked at a company that was pitching services to a cigarette company, and --nobody-- involved felt good about doing the pitch.
But back to the point, one of the speakers at the Business of Software series once said "When someone tells you the work you do is easy, they probably have no idea what they're talking about". Being in services, I think there's at least one person at every client who thinks that everything I do is overpriced and easy.
You can't blame clients for wanting to get the 'most for the least' from their vendors. Interesting that they know they're not capable of doing it themselves to hire a vendor. Yet after that decision, they don't seem to know enough to not disrespect the work you do.
- brudgers 16y agoI agree. High client expectations are hardly evil. Without a patron, everyone competes on fast, good, and cheap. It drives efficiency and innovation, e.g. Google. The responses to clients with unrealistic goals is the same as to those with practical ones -- find out the "why?" and provide a detailed proposal with realistic terms. If your proposal is rejected,being indignant is counterproductive. It's just business.
- slantyyz 16y agoActually I would argue the market winners tend to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum. The best (arguably the most expensive) and the cheapest generally have the easiest time. Everyone in the middle is fighting for the rest of the market, which, as the Jersey Shore boys put it, is full of grenades.