Give and you shall receive!

by Brendon on April 27, 2005

I was flipping through my book tonight as I was waiting for a call to come in. I came to a client story that I wrote about. I’ll repeat the story here and then tell you what happened after (what happened after is not mentioned in the book).
I’d pitched an add-on sale to one of our old clients for whom we had worked with on numerous web sites. The addition to the web site I was recommending wasn’t hugely expensive but was, in my view, enormously beneficial to the client.
But he said “No.”
As usual, I asked “Why not?”
The reason was that the site budget was at its limit and they simply couldn’t allocate anymore. Okay then. That’s easdy fixed.
I gave the client the add-on for free. Is it right? I have no idea, but I’ll try anything once! Here’s my reasoning.
Every single recommendation we make is based upon a rock-solid belief that it represents the best solution for a problem the client faces. We believe each recommendation we make will provide our client with a terrific benefit.
We cared
I told the client all that. I told him we very genuinely believed that he would benefit greatly from what we were recommending. We wouldn’t want him to miss out on the benefit just because he didn’t have the budget at the time.
Being in business isn’t about bleeding your clients for as much as you can. It’s about giving them the absolute best value that you can so they come back for more and more and more. With the full confidence that you’re a quality operator.
If you’re genuine, it shows. And clients will appreciate that you care.
=======================
Here’s the end to that story.
The client has supplied us with more work and more referrals to friends and associates than you can poke a big stick at. Was it all because of that one incident? Probably not. But I’m sure it helped.
Give your clients the best. You both deserve it.
Regards
Brendon

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