Why is it people assume that in order to secure your business that you want to see every trick in their bag and be covered in lots of “word vomit”? Do they feel that the more they throw at your the less objections you will have? Is it that they are so in awe of themselves that everyone else must be too?
Why do I bring this scenario up to you? Because my husband experienced it not too long ago while educating himself on a new purchase for the company he works for. Rather than making an easy, knee-jerk decision he decided to educate himself on the options available to his company. Unfortunately, he did not anticipate how much time this would require of him. You see, he did not factor in the mandatory time requirement from those vendors he was researching. They made it perfectly clear that they wanted ALL of his time. The irony was that he was asked how much time he had for his visit. His response? “15 minutes.” However, it must have fallen on deaf ears as absolutely no consideration was given to the value of his time as to what happened next.
Regardless of his time constraint, it was apparent that he was about to take a front row seat at the “Dog and Pony Show.” The show consisted of department tours, meeting various managers, and a thorough demo of the product in question by at least 5 different people. When it was over my husband’s feelings fluctuated between frustration and anger. Frustrated because no one listened to his response on how much time he had available, and anger because no one bothered to respect the time he had.
So what is the moral of this story? In my opinion, there are several:
- Less is sometimes more.
- Listen and remember.
- Respect people’s time – time is money after all.
- Don’t assume that others care as much as you do.
I cannot say what decision my husband will make regarding this purchase, but I can say that he has shared this story with me and now I am sharing it with you. Bottom line? Negative experiences will travel to others, and many times much faster than the positive ones.
Keep it simple.