This goes out to people who either run a full time business or sell things on the side. Im curious on how you handle situations where you just have to much work coming in to be able to get it done in a timely fashion? If their willing, do you have customers wait longer for their products, or do you tell the customers about others you trust that might be able to get the job done sooner.
I want to plan for all situations and would like to set up a network of trustworthy businesses (idealy in Wisconsin) that I can reach out to and see if they can take the work.
When i ran my security company there was a website for this exact thing, where people listed there agency details and capabilities. Is there something similar for cnc companies?
If not and your interested, could you send me a direct message with business name and contact info (phone numbers/websites) and I’ll add you to my list.
For me (side business) I tell them if I have a lot of jobs before them and a realistic timeline for their order. I tried keeping a couple products on hand but everything seemed to be more custom and I was stuck with the products just waiting for someone to take them off my hands. If they are interested still they will wait if not they move on. I passed some work off a couple times and in doing so lost repeat customers as well as the other person didnt have the attention to detail so the customer was upset with me for recommending them and lost the customer there too. Just my experience hope it works out better whichever way you go!
As people we like to please people. However referring customers to someone else makes them someone else’s customer and may never come back to you. People are creatures of habits and once they buy something they tend to buy the same thing over and over. Same with a vendor. Once they work well with a vendor they tend to go back and back.
Just be honest if you are too busy and let them find a competitor unless it is someone like a liked brother inlaw. Never send them to the competition. They will find the competition if they want something bad enough. Be your own salesman not your competitors.