Should You Be Reasonable?
I like to think of myself as a pretty reasonable guy, especially in regards to my work.
I’ve heard many horror stories of people who work with writers that think they’re the next Hemingway; sometimes the writers have advanced degrees in English or Literature, sometimes they’re journalists. Whatever their background, I hear stories of them getting angry when a customer requests a change, defending the integrity of their work as if it were a personal affront to them.
I’ve never really understood that. I suppose if I was writing a novel where I had carefully crafted each word to evoke a certain scene, and an editor hacked it up I might be mad, but I don’t know. When I write, I’m basically trying to sell a product (or client, or service, or….). If a client has input on some changes, I’m more than happy to listen – after all, who knows their product better than they do? That’s not to say that I don’t carefully select words and work hard to develop goals for the piece, but if someone has a better idea or a way to improve my work, I’m all ears. In the end, it’s all about getting someone to take action. Sometimes I push back, if I think my ideas are better of course, but there is always room for improvement. I don’t believe that I have a monopoly on great ideas.
Still, in some businesses, I wonder if being unreasonable can’t be an advantage. Certainly, there is a mystique to the snobby artist that CAN lend a certain air of excellence to her image. By now, we’ve all heard the story of the “Soup Nazi” from NYC (and Seinfeld), who evicts people from his restaurant if you criticize him. And my surgeon had better be pretty confident about his skills. If I suggest that he change the procedure for a cancer surgery, I hope he sticks to tried and true methods rather than poking around in his patients’ stomach.
What about a mortgage broker or Realtor? A car salesman? A lawyer? You?
Are there times when you should be a little less flexible with your customers? When? And how would you decide when to hold your ground?
Just a few things to think about.
Ryan, one area which sticks out for me as a place to be “unreasonable”, if you will, is pricing. Consumers and businesses both can tend to challenge pricing structures, offers, and quotations, seeking the “best deal”. I have found that a pricing strategy that begins with reasonability in mind, but that also ensures profitability, leaves little psychoogical room for negotiation. I believe that some of the “value credibility” (just coined it, use it if you like) can erode once we open the door for price negotiation, possibly setting a precedent which can be difficult to undo. To sum, set a price, be consistent, and sell your value. It may seem unreasonable to the negotiating client, but you’d be doing that client a disservice by discounting your way out of business.
This is an excellent point Dan. The pricing ‘race to the bottom’ is something that I have seen many industries, not just businesses, engage in. Salespeople especially seem to try to build clientele based on the lowest price, without realizing that those clients will just move on to the next lowest price when it shows up. As you said, discounting your way out of business is a huge disservice to everybody. Price fairly for the value you and your product offer. Let the other guys give away their business.
Ryan,
I like this post. I, for one, prefer to work with people who ask a lot of questions and are just as available and open to answering all my questions. Simply put, this is the value I demand from professionals I work with and believe that it is a large part of ‘being reasonable’… likewise, this is the value proposition that I attempt to leave my clients with.
Regarding the comment Dan left, and I like Dan’s coined phrase, “value credibility”, if you demonstrate the value by showing an enthusiastic interest and reasonable professional ethic, there’s little room for discounts.
TANGENT: GREAT EXAMPLE: Mobility/cellular service providers and cable TV providers who offer “half price for 6 months” to ‘switch’ providers. It would make a helluva a lot more sense to offer the 6-10 year loyal subscribers with a free month for every 5 friends they refer, wouldn’t it? Just a thought…
Anyway, I could type about this for pages…
D
D
Hi Darren,
Your point about offering extra value to loyal subscribers instead of giving incentives for new clients is a valuable one. There is a book by Joseph Jaffe called ‘Flip The Funnel’ that is about this very topic. I haven’t had the opportunity to read it yet, but it is on my list.
Thanks for your comments.