So here I am after a garage sale with a bunch of stuff I still don’t need. Sure, I sold quite a bit of it, but for some reason no one stopped by and told me they wanted everything. So I need to get rid of it. The stuff is on the verge of being too good to just trash. Plus, I would like to think that usefulness for people trumps adding to the landfill.
So I put some of these items on the local sell your junk site. I get an email inquiring if I still have the item. The ad is up, so in my mind the item is still available. Otherwise I would have to reply no to this inquiry. And that would make me an idiot. I am not an idiot. So I reply yes and where they can come and pick this $10 item up.
The reply back was something on the order of, “Can you diagnose my problem over email to find out if your item solves my problems?” To which I reply something like, “For $10 my thing will likely fix your problem.”
The dialogue takes a turn downhill at this point.
“Can you ship it?”
“Sure. For $10.”
“Can you ship it some other way?”
“Sure. For $10.”
“That’s $20 total. Seems high.”
“You can pick it up and it is yours for $10.”
“Will you take $15?”
“How about the next email you send me says either, Yes, I’ll take it shipped for $20. or No, my mom says I can’t.”
“Because you chose to run the mouth , you can kiss this deal goodbye.”
“After more than 10 emails, the deal was never going to happen. Wouldn’t you agree? Learn to commit, my good man. You’ll go places.”
That reply, of course, was met with a stunning array of questionable literacy and misplaced anger.
So I took a video of the thing being destroyed and emailed a link. Because of that video I added 10 more clients and counting. That netted over $6000 and counting.
You may be asking, what exactly is the moral of this story? Well we have a few important things to keep in mind:
- Bending on price is typically a bad idea. You attract vermin like this at low price points.
- Too much dialogue is a waste of time. If some type of commitment is not reached after a few emails/minutes/etc, your time is being wasted. Someone just needs a friend.
- Business should be fun.
- Be nice. Until it is time not to be nice.
- Make money.
James is a Business Coach and Mentor for Draw In Customers. He has smashed only a few things to get customers. If you would like to achieve your goal, regardless of how many times you have not smashed through your previous goals, James is available. Simply email him at james@drawincustomers.com.
[maxcollection name=” New Collection”]
