Calling in favours
Thursday, May 7, 2009 21:24People are all the same. They all want to feel good and most of us feel good if other people express their satisfaction towards us. You know where this leads, right? Most of us end up making empty promises and inflate our public image with talismans like Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, MBA degree, polished white teeth or six-pack abdomen. I agree, Lamborghini is cool, almost as cool as Porsche 911 GT3. Now most of you might think that Lamborghini is way cooler than Porsche, but that’s just how it goes. We all trust our own interpretation of our talismans, but people that we try to impress with our collection still make their own mind about it.
PROMISES
Sometimes it is not enough to go to beach just to be happy. Those days you must change your point of view, take a look at the world up side down.
Promises - empty promises in fact - is the thing that I really wanted to write about. Let’s say you meet a familiar person on street and exchange some words. It is 100% certain that when you depart, you do it by exchanging some meaningless promises like “let’s call”, “let’s get together one of these days” or “see you soon”.
BUSINESS PROMISES
No harm done there, right? It’s only small talk and doesn’t mean anything. But wait! The step from small talk phrases to innocent business promises is inevitable. “I’ll call you if there are any changes.”, slips out from your lips with ease naturally you have no intention to hold that promise. The reason is that from your point of view it is just elegant and trustworthy way of saying goodbye. However, the client will hold you responsible for making an exact promise - you’re screwed.
THE SOLUTION
As far as I can see the solution to these shaky life practises is to take them more literally and more importantly set concrete time for your actions. “I’ll do those dishes today.” is better than “I’ll do those dishes.“, but worse than “I’ll do those dishes now!”
It is easy to resort “It’ll come any day now!” instead of “It’ll take over three weeks to get it delivered.” Sales is hard, but if you do the hard thing for yourself it is most likely the easy thing for your client. Therefore, say what you mean even if it diminishes your aura in the eyes of your client or prospect, because in the long run you’ll give much better customer experience.
Melody says:
May 9th, 2009 at 5:09 am
You think the person in the photo landed on their feet? lol…
I’m more guilty of the casual promises, because I always foresee what kind of response I should have for statements regarding time in business. I pretty much keep my word in business, but then again I’ll let you know if that ever changes
You’re posts are always intriguing though, I can only wonder how you conduct yourself during a sales call..
Melody’s last blog post..Congrats to my fellow AzoogleAds winners!
Jake Stone says:
May 9th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Check the hair, it’s a back flip that she is doing, so I’d say she passed the landing with flying colors. What’s interesting to me is that this is what they did before internet - poor them having such a great physical condition, sunlight, fresh air and crystal clear sea.
Tell you a secret.
I wrote this post so that the title and text are bit off sync. The real solution is to take these light promises on their face value, and call in those favors. Call back and tell that you would now like to cash in the promise, which was made for you. You’ll see that works like a charm, because people who make those promises want to please more than they want to get away with it.
This area in Finland is known for stubbornly keeping what was promised. We make pretty darn good business partners. However there are those sociopaths that just disregard every rule and way of conduct, but since they generally act the same manner in every situation they are easy to screen out. Really difficult ones are those who make calculated promises and fake promises.
Good to know that you keep your business promises, it should be easy for us to do business together.
Now that I’m almost solely in B2B my approach is very open. I tell what I got, and ask what they need. Then I try to find out if there is a way to do business that is beneficial to us both. If not I recommend the best possible alternative for them that I know of. I’d say that this way I close somewhat less immediate sales, but gain good long-term partners, which are very easy to manage. I prefer high profitability over high volume… naturally it would be good to have both but rarely that is possible.
What comes to my negotiating conduct… Hmmm… I’d say that in general I talk as little as possible and remain as calm as possible, bit like with wild animals. If you are a hunter then you know what I mean.
Actually this could be a good ebook - wild beast marketing.
Melody says:
May 9th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
And I’m so sure that that ebook will be pure genius..You could have a ferocious looking beast on the cover with either slash marks or a cover that looks like a huge bite has been taken right out of it.. lol..(jump on that cover idea before I do..
)
Hey, I wish you could tell my old partner the beauty of quality vs. quantity in business–some people are just too stubborn until they wake up and realize what mess they’ve created.
hmm..perhaps I should take up hunting…
Melody’s last blog post..Why you guys rock!
Jake Stone says:
May 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I’m sure that ebook will never be. My first is still in pieces and bits on my hard drive. I just can’t seem to get it together. You see, it feels too much like work - hard work. Some salespeople cool their burning sales engines by throwing pints of ice cold Fosters down their throats - can’t blame them I used to do it too - but I’m resorting into free form writing. It’s been lots of fun, plus I get to know people without money being the sole motivational mover and shaker. This is refreshing.
The summer is upon us and soon I’ll do much more canoing, which means lot less posting, so enjoy… well, can’t really say that… I’ll just stop.