DEMO — fictional range. Local brief only, NOT SENT. No personal data is collected or transmitted.
BUYING
What a quotation needs in order to be a quotation.
Most garden enquiries stall because the buyer has a look and no usage. This is the list worth completing before the first message.
- The use
- How far it is carried, or how often it is emptied
- The full weight
- Not the capacity, because the full weight is what is lifted
- Where it is stored
- Because a product in the sun ages differently from one in a shed
- The material
- And whether the moulding is ultraviolet stabilised
- The finish
- And whether it is a film or in the material
- The quantity and the split
- Because tooling is divided by the run
- The consumables
- Filters and gaskets, and whether they are replaceable
- The inspection
- What is checked, and whether joints are checked wet
Why the full weight comes before the capacity.
Because the capacity is a number on a shelf and the full weight is what the customer lifts. Specifying by capacity produces a product that measures well and is uncomfortable in use.
The most useful sentence in an enquiry.
"These are carried full about twenty metres and stored outside." It tells the supplier which two properties matter, and it is the sentence most enquiries leave out.
Why written beats verbal.
The expensive conversations in a programme are the ones about what was agreed. A brief that exists only in a meeting leaves every disputed detail open.