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Recommend an offer only when the need, the limits and the promise line up; work out the range an offer fits from its own limits, and say no with a reason and somewhere to go.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will decide whether an offer fits a customer from their need, their limits and whether the promise can be kept, work out the range of orders an offer fits, count what a misfit sale costs, and write an honest no.
You can find out a customer's situation, listen to it properly and explore their objections. The conversation now reaches the recommendation, and it has to be honest, including when the honest answer is that the business is not the right choice.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Fit | Need, limits and promise all line up for this customer. |
| Need | What the customer is trying to get done. |
| Limits | The customer's date, size, place and budget, set against the business's. |
| Promise | What the business can keep in this case, every time. |
| Referral | Sending a customer to someone better placed to help. |
| Misfit sale | A sale made when the offer did not fit, paid for later. |
Every conversation so far has been gathering what this test needs. Does the offer meet the need? Do the customer's limits (date, size, place, budget) sit inside the business's? Can the promise be kept for this customer? A team of 12 wanting a hot lunch next Wednesday, half a mile away, passes all three for Neighborhood Kitchen. A wedding of 150 fails on limits: one oven, 60 people at most. A request to remove mold from behind bathroom tiles fails Bright Home Cleaning on need and promise: that is remediation work, not cleaning.
The range an offer fits can often be worked out from its own limits. The kitchen's shared lunch is 12 dollars a head with a 96-dollar minimum order, so the smallest team it fits is 96 ÷ 12 = 8 people; the van carries 5 trays of 4, so the largest is 20. The offer fits teams of 8 to 20, both ends included, and a team outside that range needs a different answer, not a stretched promise.
Another way: table
Three answers, and when each fits.
| Situation | The fitting answer |
|---|---|
| Need, limits and promise line up | Recommend the offer |
| Real need the business cannot meet | Say no, give the reason, refer |
| No real need to meet | A plain, polite no |
Another way: steps
Selling to a customer the offer does not fit feels like a win on the day. It is paid for later. Maya once sold decorative cups, not made for commercial dishwashers, to a busy café; within a month a dozen had broken, and replacing them at 9 dollars each plus 15 dollars of shipping cost her 123 dollars, more than she had made on the sale, and the café's trust.
The alternative is a no that helps. It gives the reason, in terms of the work: 'our oven cooks for sixty at most'. It gives the customer somewhere to go: 'the caterer on Mill Street does large events'. And it leaves the door open for a need the business can meet. Customers remember being told honestly that a business was not right for them, and they come back, and send others, for the things it is right for. Where the need touches health or safety, as with a trainer approached weeks after surgery, the referral is not only good business: it is the responsible answer.
Restate the confirmed situation. The summary from the conversation is the input: the need, the date, the size, the place, the budget.
Check the need. Is it what the offer does? Cleaning, not building work; repairs to gears, not e-bike batteries.
Check the limits. Does the date fall inside the lead time, the size inside the capacity, the place inside the area, the budget inside the range of prices?
Check the promise. Could the business keep its usual promise for this customer, every time, without heroics?
Work out the range where it helps. From the minimum order and the capacity, the smallest and largest orders that fit.
Answer. Recommend if all three pass. If the need is real but one check fails, say no, give the reason in terms of the work, and refer. If there is no real need, a short, polite no.
Check the answer. Read the recommendation back against each check: would the customer, told the reason, agree that it fits or does not? Does a no name somewhere to go? Does a yes rest on a promise the business has kept before, in a case like this one?
Checking all three, rather than just the need, is needed because each can fail on its own. A real need on an impossible date is still a misfit; so is a perfect date for work the business cannot do safely.
Working out the range from the offer's own limits is allowed because the limits were set from the business's real capacity, in the constraints lesson. The smallest order comes from the minimum, divided by the price a unit; the largest from what the van, the oven or the crew can handle. Both ends are included, because an order exactly at a limit still fits.
Referring is allowed, and wise, because the customer's need does not go away when the business says no. Pointing to someone who can meet it keeps the customer's trust and often earns a referral back.
A helpful no needs somewhere to send the customer, and it is easier to give when the list already exists. Keep a short list of trusted businesses for the requests that come up most often but fall outside the offer: a caterer for large events, a remediation firm for mold, an e-bike specialist, a night-cleaning service.
Call each one once before adding them, and ask what they do and do not take on, so the referral is accurate. Many will return the favor, sending the business customers whose needs fit it. Over time the list becomes a small network of businesses that send each other the right customers, which is one of the cheapest channels there is.
Review the list each season. If one kind of referral keeps coming up, it may be a sign of demand the business could one day meet itself, with the right equipment or training; that is a decision for the test lesson, made with numbers.
Sometimes a customer, told honestly that the offer does not fit, asks the business to do it anyway: 'I don't mind if it's not perfect.' It is tempting to agree. But the customer cannot fully see the risk the business sees, and when the job goes wrong, as the stretched job usually does, they will mind.
Hold the no kindly, and offer what the business can do instead: part of the job, a later date, a smaller order. Where health, safety or the law is involved, there is no room to bend at all. Agreeing to work the business is not permitted or equipped for can make it liable for any harm, whatever the customer said at the time.
Many requests fit partly. An office wants lunch for 30 when the van carries 20; a tenant wants a move-out clean and carpet shampooing when the business does not shampoo carpets; a café wants 60 cups by a date that allows only 40. The honest answer to a partial fit is to say exactly which part fits and which does not, and to offer the part that does.
Neighborhood Kitchen can offer two deliveries, or lunch for 20 with a suggestion for the rest. Bright Home Cleaning can do the clean and name a carpet specialist for the same day. Maya can send 40 cups by the date and the rest two weeks later, if the café can open with 40. In each case the customer decides with the full picture, and the business keeps every promise it makes.
What a partial fit must never become is a full yes with the gap hidden. Promising 60 cups and sending 40 with an apology turns a fair offer into a broken promise, and the customer remembers the broken promise, not the 40 cups that arrived. Say the gap out loud, in numbers, before the customer pays, and let them choose how they would like to fill it, if at all.
A small print shop in Columbus, Ohio, was asked by a nonprofit to print 5,000 full-color event programs in two days. The shop's press could do about 1,500 a day alongside its regular work, so the order would have meant either missing the date or pushing back every other customer's jobs. The owner was tempted: it was the biggest order of the month.
Instead she ran the three checks. The need was real and the shop could print programs, but the limits failed: 5,000 in two days was more than its capacity of about 3,000 in that time. The promise could not be kept without breaking promises to others.
She said so, gave the figures, and offered two options: 3,000 programs by the date, with the rest printed by a larger shop she knew, or the whole order from that shop alone. The nonprofit took the first. The event went well, the nonprofit has used the shop for every smaller job since, and the larger shop now sends the owner the short runs it does not want.
Many kinds of work in the United States require a state or local license, such as electrical and plumbing work, mold remediation in several states, and tree work near power lines. A business that takes on work needing a license without the license can face fines and be liable for any damage. Knowing where the business's limits are, and having a qualified referral ready, is part of recommending only a fit.
Every conversation should end in a sale. It should end in the answer that fits, and sometimes that is no.
Stretch the offer to fit the request. A stretched promise is a broken one waiting to happen.
A no is the end of the relationship. A helpful no is often the start of one.
Just say no. A no without a reason or somewhere to go leaves the customer stuck.
If the customer insists, it's their risk. The business carries the risk of work it is not equipped for.
Check the need.
$\text{a new e-bike battery fitted}$
Real: the bike does not work.
Check the limits.
$\text{no battery equipment or training}$
Outside what the shop can do.
Check the promise.
$\text{cannot be kept safely}$
So the offer does not fit.
Give the reason.
$\text{we're not equipped to do it safely}$
In terms of the work.
Refer and leave the door open.
$\text{the Canal Street specialist; brakes and gears here}$
Somewhere to go, and work that fits.
Note the price and minimum.
$12 \text{ a head; } 96 \text{ minimum}$
From the offer.
Find the smallest team.
$96 \div 12 = 8$
Minimum over price a head.
Note the van's capacity.
$5 \text{ trays of } 4$
The other limit.
Find the largest team.
$5 \times 4 = 20$
Trays times people a tray.
Write the range that fits.
$8 \le n \le 20$
Both ends included.
Answer a team of 30.
$\text{two deliveries, or a bigger caterer}$
Outside the range: a different answer.
Restate the situation.
$\text{mold behind the bathroom tiles}$
Confirmed with the homeowner.
Check the need.
$\text{remediation, not cleaning}$
Not what the offer does.
Check the promise.
$\text{cannot promise it won't return}$
The cause is behind the wall.
Weigh the cost of saying yes.
$\text{health risk; return visits; blame}$
A misfit sale.
Give the reason.
$\text{it needs the wall opened and treated}$
In terms of the work.
Refer from the list.
$\text{a qualified remediation firm}$
Someone who can.
Leave the door open.
$\text{we'll do the final clean afterwards}$
Work that does fit.
Find what fails: a clean at 11 pm tonight.
$\text{limits: daytime, booked a day ahead}$
Outside the business's hours.
Give the reason.
$\text{we only clean in the daytime, booked ahead}$
In terms of the work.
Offer an alternative and a referral.
Neighborhood Kitchen is asked about this: a wedding of 150 guests wants catering on a Saturday. Should the owner recommend the business's usual offer?
Complete the worked solution: Bright Home Cleaning charges $37$ dollars a room, with a minimum job of $148$ dollars. On a one-day job it sends $2$ cleaners, each able to do $5$ rooms in a day. Find the smallest and largest homes, in rooms, that a one-day clean fits, and how many home sizes that is.
Find the smallest home that fits.
$(\text{minimum job}) \div (\text{price a room}) =$ a
Below this, the job is under the minimum.
Find the largest home that fits.
$(\text{cleaners}) \times (\text{rooms each}) =$ u
Above this, one day is not enough.
Count the home sizes that fit.
$(\text{largest}) - (\text{smallest}) + \text{one} =$ n
Both ends are included.
Say what happens outside the range.
$\text{a different offer, or an honest no}$
Not a stretched promise.
Maya is asked about four orders. Match each to the fitting answer.
| Recommend her set | Refer to someone who can do it | Say no plainly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A café opening in two months wants 60 dishwasher-safe cups | |||
| A hotel wants 2,000 matching plates in three weeks | |||
| Someone wants oven-safe baking dishes | |||
| A reseller wants a discount on cups they have no use for yet |
Neighborhood Kitchen's reply to a request to cater a 150-guest wedding. Mark every sentence that belongs in an honest no.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Maya once sold a set of decorative cups, not made for commercial dishwashers, to a busy café. Within a month $12$ pieces broke, and she replaced them at a cost of $7$ dollars each, plus $15$ dollars of shipping. How many dollars did the misfit sale cost her? Fill in each figure on the sheet.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Cost of the replacements, dollars | |
| What the misfit sale cost, dollars |
A lawn-care company in Austin agreed to take down a large tree, work it had never done. The homeowner paid $440$ dollars. Halfway through, the company had to pay a professional tree service $548$ dollars to finish safely, and $156$ dollars to repair a fence the falling limbs had damaged. How many dollars did the company lose on the job?
Answer:
A personal trainer is approached by someone who had knee surgery $6$ weeks ago and wants to start running training. What is the fitting recommendation?
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Neighborhood Kitchen's shared lunch is $12$ dollars a head, with a minimum order of $108$ dollars. The van carries $5$ trays, each feeding $4$. For which team sizes $n$ is the shared lunch a fit?
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
You can tell when the honest recommendation is not your own offer, and say so in a way that helps. Tell someone why a stretched promise costs more than a lost sale. Next: following up without pestering.
17. Your turn: Bright Home Cleaning and a late-night party clean, step 3
$\text{nine tomorrow, or a night-cleaning firm}$
Somewhere to go.