Do you know when you are the choice or just another bid?

I encountered a common situation for all sales people on Friday. A potential customer e-mails me frantic to see if I can meet some competitors bid and whether or not I could provide terms to them on the deal. In fact, he e-mailed the competitors bid, pricing and all on it. I had to laugh a little bit about this. When I pressured him to find out where his head was at on this, he said that he needed to have three bids for the Board, and that we were the third bid.

What does this mean for my business? This guy is a lousy client and never will be a good one. Any client/potential client that only focuses on pricing is not someone to work with. Having your eye on the pricing is always something to look at, but shouldn't be your only qualifier for work. So this is what I picked up from this entire situation:

FLAG #1 - This organization worked with a good competitor of mine to determine what the requirements were for their school. They then used the competitors hard work to send out to me. This organization completely discounted the value of the competitors work. BAD SIGN #1.

FLAG #2 - They need terms for the deal. This organization is a new school and needs help with the Financing side of it until their Federal Grant kicks in. Since I work with a lot of schools, I know that this is a fairly normal practice, but is a cause for concern. Again, are they using me for the terms and that is all?

FLAG #3 - They wanted three bids for the board and we are the last one. If we were the vendor of choice, we would have been the first bid. This has stink written all over it.

So, the salesman in me says that I should put in the time in writing the bid and hope that we can pick up the business. The Business Owner in me says that this smells like a dead, rotting skunk on the side of the road. Which side of me will win? Most likely, the business owner side.

I know that this organization is only using me for the bid, and is only looking at the pricing. So, I may end up getting the deal if I lower the price. However, they are not a partnered based organization. If I end up doing the work for them, which is a big "If", I would guess this is the only time that I will do work with them.

I kind of think it is funny that the potential client doesn't see this. My company is a partnered based company and looks for relationships for the long term, not on a transactional basis. This is obviously a transaction and nothing else. Last time I looked in the mirror, I was not selling Cell Phones but Business Services. Just my two cents on what not to look for in a client.