Well, HotLine ... sad to say, I haven't his all the bases ... yet. That's why I thought the original post was so relevant.
Les (LK) touched on it ... the old "do right by me, and I can get you plenty of work down the road" line. We had a discussion here about that line once ..... after much searching, we found ONE guy who had ONE additional job come from someone who said that.
I've noticed that the line is always used without your asking for it, at an inappropriate time in the conversation. When it happens, I try to cut them off ... making that promise is almost like placing a curse on the relationship!
I try to mitigate the harm, by insisting that we'll see what happens, that I don't expect -or even want- any promises; let's take things one job at a time. Oddly enough, this response seems to be well received. I'm too new into having my own business to tell if it helps any.
At any rate, hearing "the promise" seems to be a sure guarantee that the relationship will be troubled, and that you'll never, ever see the guy again. When you hear it, you need to ADD 30% to your fee, if you still can! If nothing else, "the promise" ought to wave a big red flag in front of your eyes.
Now ... maybe someone else will talk about that "time pressure" that the OP ran into ....
