Eight to Twelve Hundred

Dear friend,

The riddle first, as ever. Your century today, and both firms answered the same enquiry within the hour.

Two firms reply before eleven,
Same question asked, same speed, same day.
One writes: I'll look and come straight back.
One writes the answer, rough but whole.
Both were prompt. Both meant it kindly.
Why did one enquirer go elsewhere?

Hold your answer. Story time.

The Story

Two firms in the same trade, and the work, all together now, was equally good. Each received the same enquiry on the same morning, from a woman who wanted to know what a thing would cost and when it could be done.

The first replied inside the hour, which is more than most manage and deserves credit. Thank you for your enquiry, he wrote. I will look into this and come back to you shortly.

He meant it. He did look into it, carefully, and came back on the Thursday with a proper answer, well set out and entirely correct.

But consider the woman on Monday morning, holding a reply that contained no information. She had asked two questions and received an acknowledgement, which is a message saying that a message has been received. And having been given nothing to think about, she did the sensible thing and carried on looking, since the matter was still open in her mind and would be until somebody closed it.

By Thursday she had a figure from somebody else, and a sense of how it would go, and the first firm's excellent reply arrived into a decision that was mostly made.

He never knew that. He had answered promptly and thoroughly and lost the work, and would have told you the market was competitive.

The second firm replied in the same hour and put something in the reply.

Jobs like this usually run between eight and twelve hundred, depending chiefly on two things, which are the access and whether the old one comes out whole. I can say for certain once I have seen it. I have a slot the week after next, and I can hold it until Friday while you decide.

None of that was a quotation and she did not take it for one. What it did was end her search: she now knew the rough size of the thing, what moved it, and that somebody could do it this month. There was no longer a question sitting open, so she stopped looking, which is the whole of what a first reply can do.

And the range protected him rather than exposing him. Having named the two things that move the price before he had seen the job, he could arrive at either end of it without anybody feeling misled.

The Lesson, Since You've Earned It

A prompt reply with no answer in it is not a reply. It is a receipt. Speed has been praised in this series more than once, and rightly, but speed alone does nothing if what arrives quickly contains nothing the customer can use. An acknowledgement leaves the question open, and an open question sends a person back out to keep looking, which is precisely what your reply was meant to stop.

So put something in the first message, always, even when you cannot be precise. A range, with the two things that move it. A rough timing. What happens next and when. The customer is not asking you to commit; she is asking whether this is the right sort of firm, in the right sort of money, available in the right sort of month, and every one of those can be answered honestly in three lines before you have seen anything.

The fear that stops people is the fear of being held to a figure, and it is answered by naming the conditions rather than by withholding the number. Between eight and twelve hundred, depending on access and whether the old one comes out whole, is not a hostage to fortune. It is an education, and the customer who receives it understands your trade slightly better than she did an hour ago, which is itself a reason to prefer you.

And note what the holding sentence does. A slot the week after next, held until Friday, gives her a reason to answer today rather than eventually, and it is true, which is the only sort of urgency this series has ever recommended.

Two cautions. Do not let the range be so wide that it says nothing, since eight hundred to five thousand is a refusal wearing a number. And when you do give a rough figure, keep to it or explain plainly why it has moved, since the letter on rot behind the boards applies to every figure you have ever said out loud, including the early ones.

Three questions, and look at what you actually sent last week:

1. What was in your first reply? Read it as a stranger. If it contains no number, no timing and no next step, you have sent a receipt and left the question open.
2. What are the two things that move your price? Name them. If you can say those in a sentence, you can give a range before seeing anything, and the range plus the conditions is more useful to a customer than a precise figure a week later.
3. What can you honestly hold? A date, a slot, a place in the book. Offer it with a day attached, and watch how many replies come back the same afternoon.

The Answer to the Riddle

Why did one enquirer go elsewhere?

Because a reply that says I will come back to you leaves a person exactly where they were, and a person exactly where they were carries on looking. Both firms answered within the hour and both meant well; one of them spent three days preparing an excellent answer to a question that had been settled by Wednesday. The other gave a range, two conditions and a date in three lines, and closed the matter before lunch. Promptness is not the virtue. Usefulness is, and the two are easily confused because they usually arrive together.

The verse:

Reply at once and say you'll look,
And she will look as well, and find.
Say eight to twelve, and what it turns on,
And she'll stop looking there and then.

Until next time. Go and rewrite your standard first reply so that it contains a range, the two things that move it, and a date you can hold.

P.S. The same applies to the reply you send when the answer is no or not yet. I cannot take this on until March is a useful message; I will let you know is not. People can work with a fact they dislike and can do nothing at all with a pending one, and they will think better of you for the first than for a fortnight of polite silence.

Also in the archive: The 9:47pm Enquiry, The Price Behind the Form and Set Aside at Nine in the Evening.