My best customer this year(good and bad)

dereksbicycles

dereksbicycles

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He has bought a lot of bike from me this year--especially some of those that are hard to sell. He took them off my hand. I'm grateful for that.

One of the negative thing is that he would tell me that he is interested in this or that bike. He may buy it within a week or 2. Sometimes he would tell me that he'll buy next week and drop it, but he does buy other bikes of mine in the same time frame.

I took pictures of a bike that I want gone for him this morning. He is interested. He may buy in a week or 2.

I want to tell him that is he is not going to buy it by this weekend, then it goes on craigslist. I don't want to be rude, but then again, he has bought a lot from me in the past. He is a nice guy. I would hate to tell someone that I am not going to hold it for them and potentially lose that customer. I'm sure he will understand if I put it on craigslist this weekend.
 
If you are losing sales on the bikes because he wants you to hold them, ask for a down payment to keep it. If you have someone who immediately wants to buy, call the guy and let him know.

If you don't have either of the above situations, don't mess with a good customer.
 
Thank you for your feedback. I have like 150 bikes that I'm trying to sell. The less bike that I have to put on craigslist, the better. I think that for this particular bike, I may wait a little bit for him. I've not put it on craigslist yet. I would most likely focus on other bikes that I should be putting on craigslist. THe ones that have no exposure yet, you know.
 
I think that is a good plan. Try to be nice to the guy, but if it gets out of hand put up some business rules to protect yourself. You should be friendly with the guy, but he is really a customer, not a friend.

Good luck with it...
 
it is your living so you got be bit tough....i so wanting electric bike you have them in states
 
Used to love riding bikes....especially my Beach Cruiser when I loved on the Beach.....Can't do that anymore tho' due to my balance issues...guessing I could get a 3-wheeler tho'.....
 
Very good advice, never mix personal and business. Always keep them separate then you will be fine.

VacationGuy234 said:
I think that is a good plan. Try to be nice to the guy, but if it gets out of hand put up some business rules to protect yourself. You should be friendly with the guy, but he is really a customer, not a friend.

Good luck with it...
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What is the rush in selling this particular bike to where you cannot hold it for him for a couple of weeks? You've got a lot of other bikes to sell, so I'm not sure if not putting this one on the web will keep you from anything. They guy buys a lot of bike from you, right? He seems to be a good source of income for you. Maybe he's saving up for it. Or maybe he's just stalling.

Either way, I'd wait and give him first dibs. You don't want to burn your bridges with him. Yes, put a time limit on it, but one that you can both agree to.
 
I agree with alot of people here - If you have -room for 150 bikes, then you can keep holding it a bit more. Afterall - he appears to be your biggest customer, but I am not sure whats he is doing with it. Have you asked? maybe you can work out a volume discount for him to increase the number of bikes to sell to him.

Just as in any business -- first come and first serve unless he has a down payment of some sort with you.
 
Thank you for your feedbacks. The bike in question is a 1951 Schwinn World men bike. I've figured that there is always a market for what I am trying to sell. I'll wait and see if he takes it off my hand soon enough. If I need to put it up for sale, I'm sure I'll get a buyer or 2.

The potential buyer has bought at least 1-2 bikes from me every week. Therefore, I don't want to risk losing him because of this. I'll be patient and see if he takes it off my hand.
 
radioman said:
I agree with alot of people here - If you have -room for 150 bikes, then you can keep holding it a bit more. Afterall - he appears to be your biggest customer, but I am not sure whats he is doing with it. Have you asked? maybe you can work out a volume discount for him to increase the number of bikes to sell to him.

Just as in any business -- first come and first serve unless he has a down payment of some sort with you.
Click to expand...

He plans to buy it and restore it.
 
Customer kind of forgot about the bike, but that is ok. I have sold others to him. The said bike that I was discussing here was sold within 24 hours from the time I posted it on craigslist.
 
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