Last month, two prospects offered to pay me for stuff they didn’t need.
I talked them both out of it.
Am I crazy?
Let’s see.
What you ordered, not what you wanted
Have you ever demanded a particular restaurant meal?
The waiter advised against it, but you pushed on regardless.
Only when the dish arrived did you realise you should’ve listened.
Careful what you wish for
It’s like this with some of my prospects and clients.
They come to me with a fixed idea of what they need.
They really really want it, and they’re prepared to pay.
And even though I can do it, I feel duty bound to advise against it.
This is happening more often with press releases and print ads in newspapers and magazines.
There was a time when one of these was all you needed to achieve your goal.
Now, with media fragmenting into a thousand channels and newspapers in decline, they just don’t have the same clout.
The problem is, clients who’ve tasted success with ‘old’ media in the (often distant) past don’t realise the world has changed. A lot.
So I have to word them up.
Duty bound
I try to be an ethical chap.
I believe The Great Wheel rewards those who do the right thing. Eventually.
But my approach isn’t all just hearts and flowers.
Regardless of my prior achievements, I’m judged on the performance of my latest piece of writing.
So, if I write a magnificent yet inappropriate communication that fails, I look as bad as my client.
If, however, I save a misguided client from folly, they may just remember my kindness and trust me with future work they do actually need.
That’s the theory, anyway.
Stay tuned
In a coming post, I plan to do a case study of a prospect for whom the old ways just don’t work anymore.
This business has kindly agreed for us to examine and debate a tricky situation that’s really cramping their style.
They’ll learn a lot and we’ll probably learn even more.
Knock yourself out
But before I table this story, I’d like to get a feel for where you stand on unnecessary client purchases.
To this end:
- Do your customers ever ask for stuff you know they don’t need?
- If so, do you:
- Refuse point blank to supply them.
- Try to talk them out of it, but let them win if they’re adamant.
- Take their money and run.
- Something else (describe).
I know one thing for sure:
I need you more than you need me.
So let’s talk
turkey!
Paul Hassing | Founder & Senior Writer – The Feisty Empire
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Author
Anna @ Copybreak
August 25, 2011 at 10:15 am
Good on you Paul
I had a similar discussion with a client just recently. I didn’t feel much would be achieved by what they wanted me to write and I went to great length to explain my reasoning and to offer alternate avenues. I did concede I would still write it if they were absolutely adamant, but it would make me feel like I was stealing from them.
In the end, they decided not to go ahead with the project and within 2 days, had achieved what they needed without spending considerable money on something that clearly hadn’t been necessary.
OK, so I talked myself out of some easy money, but I’m comfortable knowing I gave my client the best advice and they will trust my judgement in future (and will be far more likely to use my services again, because they know I genuinely have their best interests at heart).
I really look forward to reading the next instalment of your story, Paul, to find out what your experience has been and how your client’s have responded.
Author
Paul Hassing
August 25, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Thanks heaps, Anna, for sharing your story. I’m glad you feel the same way and I greatly look forward to tabling a cracker of a case study for your perusal and comment. Best regards, P.
Author
Carol Jones
August 25, 2011 at 10:27 am
PAUL,
Greetings from rural Australia.
Everyone is different and will have a different answer to your question, Paul.
This is mine.
My experience in sales started at the age of 13. When I lied about my age (I had to be 14) to get my first job. Working Saturday’s in a department store in small town America to compensate for the 50 cents a week allowance my Dad gave me. My Saturday job paid $4.62/day. A fortune for a young girl then. Yes, way back in the last century.
I quickly learned that the more I helped a customer make the right buying decision (I absolutely did not know what that meant then), the more frequently they waited their turn for me to serve them.
I became a Saturday sales star.
Much to the consternation of the full time employees who had a different philosophy. Which was to give the customer what they wanted and get them out of the store ASAP.
In business as in life, there’s a truism. The only baggage you truly carry with you from place to place is your reputation. And to me, a reputation as a caring person with a big heart is more important than $$$$$.
Yes, I’ve flatly refused to take orders from people who I didn’t think would be served well by purchasing what I have to offer.
For two reasons.
One altruistic. It’s not something that’s within my comfort zone.
The other is because I guard my reputation with the same zealousness as a tiger protects her cubs and I don’t want negative feedback online or offline about me.
I’ve also refused to take orders from people who I thought were rude and obnoxious. I simply don’t want to have to deal with them and don’t want to count them amongst my treasured customers.
I have two questions I ask myself when making a decision to refuse service.
First. I’m so proud of the fact that I willingly walk over broken glass to make a customer happy, that I ask: – can I do this for this person?
Two. At the end of my Thank You notes to customers, I say. . .
‘Delivering happiness in every parcel’. Again I ask: – can I fulfil this commitment to this person?
I’m not wealthy. But I have a very successful business and am chuffed when I read online in forums that people love dealing with me and my business. And I treasure the love letters I receive by email and snail mail.
It’s not everyone’s choice about how to do business. To many, money is everything. And is the only reason to be in business. It’s just not my priority.
As always, Paul, a fabulous post! Can’t wait to read the comments from others.
Best wishes and take care,
Carol
Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
http://www.InterfaceAustralia.com
Ironing Diva’s stories are at http://bit.ly/TheIroningDiva
Author
Paul Hassing
August 25, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Dear Carol, sorry for taking so long to respond; I’ve been in the field today. Once again, you’ve blown me out of the water with a fascinating and thoughtful comment. In fact, ‘comment’ doesn’t really cut it. I think I’ll use ‘treatise’.
I love hearing your back stories. Each gives me further insight into why your business is doing so well. We MUST extract a guest post from you one of these days. I’ve no doubt it’ll be a ripper. Best regards and thanks again!
Author
Tash
August 25, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Hey Paul, I love hearing that other people treat clients with respect and share their expertise – even if that sharing means you don’t actually do the work! I’ve had similar experiences with media releases where clients have heard a media release is THE thing a business needs but thy have no story to tell the media about – I give them a brief lesson in media releases and usually end up not writing one for them. To be honest, not many of those people have come back to me for other work but I just don’t feel I can write something that I know won’t help them.
A similar issue is including content the client wants but I disagree with – if a client insists on putting a message a certain way, I show alternatives, explain why their way is less than ideal and accept their choice as it is their business and I have done the right thing in telling them.
As a consumer, I have never been talked out of something by the sales person… maybe I just ask for the correct things or I have never asked a Carol, Anne or Paul for work!
Author
Paul Hassing
August 25, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Hi, Tash! I’m very grateful to hear your kindred MR views. As a sole trader, I never know for sure if MY world is THE world.
I like your take on messages too. At the end of the day, it is the client’s loot.
Yet it’s so sad when you craft a piece lovingly and perfectly and it comes back bloody from a last-second “director’s stab” (no longer fit to add to your brag book / show reel).
Oh, well. Mustn’t grumble. Many thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Author
Tash
August 26, 2011 at 9:53 am
It is sad to see your lovely work all bloody and torn – and I sure as roses don’t use those ones as portfolio pieces! The worst was when I researched appropriate terms to use nationally (as each state is slightly different) but my client continued to keep using state based terms for a national campaign…
Eh, what can you do!
Author
Paul Hassing
August 26, 2011 at 9:56 am
I hear you, Tash!
Author
philip owens
August 25, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Another interesting post, and looking forward to the case study!
I have a few intersting thoughts about this that have NOTHING to do with ethics (although this is important if you want to sleep at night!!).
Have you ever suffered ‘buyer’s remorse’? This is your brain reminding you of the lesson that you have just learned about the buying process you just engaged in. To protect your ‘self concept’ view of yourself, your brain releases a lot of defensive transmitters and hormones and makes you feel ‘BAD’ for having been tricked. Buyers remorse kicks in when our view of own ‘competence’ is threatened over the cruddy purchase. If you sell a client something they dont need – and they get ‘Buyers Remorse’, they will develop very negative views toward you to protect their view of themselves, and will not come back and buy from you again.
Of course, they will be happy to tell their friends about their bad experiences! For ‘single shot’ sales, this is a low risk strategy as the deal is done, but expect no repeat business.
Author
Paul Hassing
August 29, 2011 at 7:15 am
Great to hear from you, Phil and sorry you had to wait so long. Sounds like there was a perfect storm in our back end last week.
Buyer’s remorse? Let me tell you about buyer’s remorse. I once waited until my parents were in Europe. I then exchanged my entire childhood savings ($9,200) for a 1967 Pontiac Parisienne.
On the way home, it overheated and I discovered that the cooling system included garden fittings. It then began excreting four types of fluid.
A year later, having spent hundreds more trying to get it fixed, I was lucky to off load it for $2,300.
It was the most catastrophic error of my youth. My own stupid fault entirely.
That said, my contact with middle-aged Maltese men in Melton is now much reduced.
Author
philip owens
August 25, 2011 at 10:00 pm
The second thought I had on this topic was about how you have this conversation with your esteemed client:
version 1 “You Idiot, I know better than you and this will make us both look bad”; or
version 2 ” There may be other options for you, what do you think would be an even better solution than this?”
If you TELL the client (even in a round about way) that they are stupid in giving you business (even if it is in their best interest!), then at a deep level, you can trigger their self-concept defense of their competence, and you may never see them again.
If you allow them to discover an even better option than what you are offering, your offer still looks ‘good’, they feel good about the outcome, and they may remember you fondly next time they need something like what you offer.
In the end? It is not only helping them make the best decision, it is also important HOW you do it.
Author
Paul Hassing
August 29, 2011 at 7:18 am
More great thoughts, Phil! My prospect has approved the draft case study. If Emma gives it the green light, We’ll be able to see what you think of my approach tomorrow.
I tend to err on the brutally frank side. Fingers crossed some of Fonnie’s diplomacy skills have osmosed through my indifferentially permeable brain during our 17 years together.
Author
Tash
August 29, 2011 at 5:21 pm
That’s a good point Phil – not many people enjoy being lectured or feeling silly. Leading people to decisions usually works better than telling ‘the answer’.
Author
Paul Hassing
August 26, 2011 at 9:31 am
A sign of the times?
http://www.theage.com.au/business/fairfax-profit-slips-plans-trade-me-float-20110826-1jd24.html
What interests me is whether we’re talking short, medium or long-term times.
Author
Daniel | Propaganda House
August 26, 2011 at 9:56 am
Howdy Paul – it’s really interesting hearing your perspective on this; and kind of frustrating. Why? Mainly due to the amount of time I have to spend trying to convince clients to stop wasting bulk $ on the traditional campaigns they’ve been running for centuries with no proof of ROI (press releases, print ads etc) – over to that new fangled social media thingy, which consequently is very accountable if run properly.
Seems like tradition trumps common sense way too often.
Cheers
Dan
Author
Paul Hassing
August 26, 2011 at 10:04 am
Hiya, Dan! I feel your pain. The ROI thing is hilarious. Having achieved an ROI of bugger all for old-style media campaigns, one of my Twitter students demanded a same-year, iron-clad ROI of 500% on his social media investment. We parted not long after …
Author
Paul Hassing
August 26, 2011 at 10:04 am
PS. I’m hearing VERY good things about your social media course. Jolly nice work!
Author
Daniel | Propaganda House
August 26, 2011 at 11:56 am
that is quite amusing – anyone who can guarantee an iron-clad ROI of 500% on anything would be driving around in a gold-clad merc.
Glad to hear it’s all positive regarding the course (plug: http://sm4babies.eventbrite.com/) – was a real pleasure having Andrea and Arax in there, looking forward to seeing a lot more of Banjar on the SM scene
Author
Paul Hassing
August 26, 2011 at 12:04 pm
You got that right! Thanks for the link. I encourage all our readers to promote their youbeaut initiatives here. It’s important to get something back for such ace comments.
Author
Paul Hassing
August 30, 2011 at 6:53 am
Just spotted this retweeted articl from @DebraTemplar
http://www.adpulp.com/impluse-buying-is-not-smart-shopping-thus-driving-customers-to-buy-on-impulse-is-poor-marketing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Adpulp+%28AdPulp.com+-+Daily+juice+from+the+Ad+Biz%29
Author
Dionne White
September 23, 2011 at 9:51 am
I have been in sales most of my working life, including retail, tourism, human resources and pharmaceutical sales. I have always operated from a platform that you should know your product inside out AND your competitors and be able to sell that to the customer if it is more appropriate in a given situation. It has gotten be into hot water with management more times than I care to remember, but the day that one of my doctors told a rookie that they listened to me more than any other rep on my given area because I could provide a balanced review of product was a stand out.
If I cannot be regarded as an expert in my field and look someone in the eye and tell them what I know to be true, is the day I walk away from sales.
I now have my own small retail business, probably the worst time in 70 years to choose to do so, but I still talk people out of a product when I think they probably don’t need it or have chosen something they will become bored with too quickly.
It is not completely altruistic, if someone has buyers remorse or a bad experience with a product they resent the person who sold it to them. Statistics from the US are if someone has a bad experience they will tell 25 people, if they have a good one they will tell 4. It is unlikely that those figures will be vastly different here. I plan to be here for the long haul and a quick sales hit that isn’t right will always have consequences.
What I don’t understand from your above comments is why this can only be done by making people feel stupid, either inadvertantly or otherwise. Maybe I must be the stupid one … revelation after all these years. No wonder I was always in trouble …..
Author
Paul Hassing
September 23, 2011 at 4:17 pm
What a brilliant comment, Dionne! You sound like the kind of person I’d invite to a dinner party (if I were into that sort of thing).
Your experience is as interesting as your ethics. I get the strong sense that you have much wisdom to share. I hope we’re lucky enough to hear from you again soon!