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What You Need to Know about People
Human Nature and What it Means to You.
By Susanna K.
Hutcheson
© 2002 Powerwriting.com
LLC
If you sell services, you have to sell them to people.
Services are not like products. They can’t be mass produced. They can’t be returned
or exchanged. Services are branded by the person doing the services while
products are branded by the products themselves.
sell a product, you don’t have to know a lot about people other than what
motivates them to buy and how much they’ll pay for your product. But when you
sell a service you need to understand much more about people. So let’s touch on
the basic but most important things you should know. This is a short lesson in
human nature and how it might affect your business.
A Service is less valuable
to a person once it’s delivered.
Don’t ask me why. But people who call you and urgently
need something put a real premium on it. It’s of the utmost importance they get
the service and they get it fast. It often looms on the horizon as the most
critical thing in their life at that particular moment in time.
According to noted negotiator and author, Roger Dawson, “The
value of a service always appears to go down quickly as soon as those services
have been performed. The value of any material object you buy may go up in
value over the years, but the value of services always appears to decline
rapidly after you have performed those services.”
example, I’ve had clients call me and want something written very quickly. Once
I delivered it, however, they didn’t use it for months! They only thought they
needed it quickly. Another consultant I know finds that clients want a service
as fast as possible but once they get it, they take their time paying for it.
One didn’t even pay at all. Why do these things happen? Simply put, they happen
because once a service is rendered, it loses its value in the client’s mind.
His mind is going on to the next thing. Thus, YOU lose value to the client.
What do you do about this sad state of affairs? For one
thing, you can charge your fee in advance. Most people who get clients from the
Internet discover quickly that this is the only way to do business. Another is
to always agree on your fee in advance. Once you’ve performed the
service and it’s value goes down in the eyes of the buyer, he’ll be unhappy.
Especially if you charge $300 and get the job done in five minutes! Not unlike
your friendly plumber, for example.
You
can also always hold back a portion of your solutions for the client. Always
hold a carrot that will cause him to need more of what you have to offer. Never
give your clients the entire solution to their problems if you want them to
continue doing business with you. Certainly GIVE THEM WHAT THEY PAY FOR! But
don’t give them more. Because once they have all the solutions, they
will be gone because your value to them has ended.
People Take Credit for Things They Didn’t Do
Or Why Queen Elizabeth is not just an extended Royal Family Member
Most people tend to use your ideas or the ideas of others
and make them their own. That’s okay. But you need to understand it. If you are
a consultant and you come up with a terrific idea and pass it on to your
client, he’ll perhaps seem grateful to you. But in his office or among his
pals, he’ll say it was his idea. Only if it’s a bad idea will he give you credit
for it.
To give you a better idea of what I mean about this
topic, let’s take Queen Elizabeth 11. Were it not for the fact that her uncle
gave up the throne to marry his beloved Wallace Simpson, Elizabeth would not be
queen but only an extended royal family member. Do you think, however, that
anyone in the family ever mentions that? Indeed not! In face, it's
reported that the late Prince of Wales' name is never to be mentioned
in The House of Windsor. You certainly will never
hear HRH mention it and I doubt she even dares “think” it or by now believes
it. She no doubt feels fully entitled to her title. The credit is hers now and
not her uncles’ if she ever even thinks of him.
Alas, it is human nature to feel entitled. We overlook by
choice and nature the fact that often we are where we are by the hand of fate
and fate only.
Solution
Sorry. There isn’t one. Just know that it’s true. Let him
take credit for the idea or her position in the company because they will
anyway. It doesn’t make him a bad person. Just normal. If you’re the sort of
person who craves applause, however, you’re in the wrong business. Because
people who sell services get very little applause. Money and performing our art
or craft or functions of our business is our reward.
I find that if I make my clients look good to themselves
and everyone else, I do a great service to them and to myself. Perhaps people
won’t know that it was me who made the difference. Certainly the client will
forget in an instant and no one else will have any idea. But I will know. And
when my client feels and looks good for his or her accomplishments than I look
good by extension.
Our job as service providers is not to get the credit but
to provide our clients with top-quality service. And the more we charge for our
service, the better we must make our client look and feel. I generally spend an
extra thirty minutes each week on thinking of ways to help my clients improve
their businesses. This is done on my time. Not theirs. But having said that, I
advise you to never give away your valuable services or advice. More on that in
a future article.
Martha Stewart started out by providing a catering
service in Westport, CN that positioned itself as making it appear that the
hostess (the one hiring Stewart) actually prepared the meal herself while in
fact it was Stewart and her crew. Stewart used the clients’ pots and pans, her
dishes and other items to prepare the meal. It was a major success! That was
what Stewart wanted. That was what her clients wanted. The client looked good
and competent and Martha became a billionaire!
Few People You
Help Along the Way Will Remember it As You Do.
Or How Soon
they Forget!
No one is truly self-made. Successful people are
successful because of a combination of luck and meeting the right people at the
right time in their lives. A few will readily admit to the fact they couldn’t
have made it on their own. But it’s much more dramatic and colorful and kinder
to the ego if one believes he or she made it on their own. It makes a better
story.
Don’t misunderstand me. A person must take advantage of
the opportunities that come their way. They should learn all other people can
teach them. But it’s really a rare person who will, in the final analysis, say
or even recall, that they were helped along the way. And sometimes helped to a
very large extent!
I believe I daily mentally thank the people who helped me
because were it not for them, I honestly don’t know where I’d be. I think of
the late Cecil C. Hoge Sr., millionaire advertising man, prolific author and
wonderful human being who “discovered” me and advised me --- having no vested
interest and no agenda other than seeing something in me as a copywriter and
businessperson that he liked and believed in and had a good deal of respect
for. Were it not for him I would not have the business I have today.
But I could tell you I did it all alone. On my own merit,
talent and skill. I won’t do that because after writing this article and
knowing what I know about human nature, it would be disingenuous and extremely
pretentious. And the truth is that the combination of the Internet becoming a
reality and evolving into a business tool, my meeting Cecil plus the wonderful
people who later became my clients and believed in me and my work --- people
who gave me a chance without really knowing me, are the only reason I’m where I
am today. Not to mention many other people. No one is so great that he or she
can do it alone!
Having said that, however, don’t be offended by people
who fail to acknowledge whatever part you play in their success. They may or
may not remember it. Once your service to them ends, they will probably forget
your part in it and blend it into their own history the way they want to
remember it. People have a basic need to think they accomplished their
successes without help.
Just understand that this is a fact of human nature. When
selling services to people, be quick to congratulate them on their wisdom and
success. My mother used to tell me when I went out on a date, “Make the boy
feel important. Let him talk about himself.” Well, I can’t say I followed her
advice or believed in her techniques. I did not! Nor do I now. But in business
. . . well it’s not bad advice. Just replace “boy” with “client”. Thanks
mother! After all, one learns much more from listening than in talking.
Don’t expect anything in return for any help you give people along the way.
Also, good deeds are often not remembered at all by those who receive them. The
same people for whom you do a big favor may turn on you just as quickly as
someone you hit in the face! So my solution is to be very selective in who you
do favors for and when you do them, do them for YOUR reasons --- not THEIRS.
Why? Because in the end, you’ll likely as not be the only one who
remembers the whole affair as it really happened.
But I find that in dealing with long-term clients it’s a
good idea to do them favors whether they thank you or not and no matter the
outcome. Because those are the people who pay your bills. The repeat customer
or long-term client is the most valuable relationship outside of your personal
life that you have. Do whatever you can to make yourself valuable to them.
No One Wants to
Admit They’re Wrong
Or, Hey the
whole thing is your fault --- not mine!
The last point of human nature I want to bring up is the
fact that we don’t like to ever admit to making a mistake or being wrong about
much of anything. Even something small is the other guys’ mistake. Have you
ever been in an office and listened to the chatter? You won’t go one hour
without something like this being said:
First Man: "I wrote this great report and turned it into
the boss and he told me it wasn’t as complete as he wanted. He said I didn’t
have all my facts right!"
Second Man: “Well I thought it looked pretty good.”
First Man: “So did I. So I told my secretary about it
because I charged her with getting the facts. If she would have gotten all the
facts right the boss wouldn’t have jumped down my throat. It’s totally her
fault! The stupid twit!”
In another room the secretary says to an associate, “My
damn boss gave me back the report and said I didn’t get the facts right. I
wrote the report just like he told me to and double-checked the facts. He is so
stupid! He got all his facts wrong and so he gave me the wrong set of facts and
figures.”
Or you call on the phone to complain about bad service
and the woman on the other end says how sorry she is but it’s not the companies
fault. It’s the fault of some other entity that may or may not exist. Or you
call a software company to complain about the software and are told that it’s
you or your computer but it certainly can not be the software. Or you call your
ISP or Web Host and tell them your site is down and they tell you it must be
your computer or browser because all their other sites are up just fine.
Another example of not wanting to take blame is the current condition of some
unfortunate stock market investors. The folks who got caught with Enron stock
when it went belly up blamed everyone they could and some are suing everyone
in sight. But the truth is, they should have diversified their holdings. They
should have looked at the numbers. They were bad investors. They alone are to
blame.
Yet another stock market example is the current analyst mess. Yes, the analysts
are not to be trusted. But investors should never have listened to them or
taken their word for the true value of a stock. If they lost during the Internet
bubble or on some other stock touted by Mary Meeker or Henry Blodget or someone else; if
they lost their money, it was their fault. We are in charge of our affairs. We
have access to information. If we lost in the stock market, we alone are to
blame. Not the analysts or anyone else. That's the bottom line.
But most people have to have someone else to blame. That's human nature. So
in doing business, remember that fact.
Every day in every home and office.
Blaming the other person. No one wants to accept blame for anything even when they
know they’re probably wrong as a chicken in a rabbit hutch. Sometimes as a
consultant and expert in your field, you’ll be called on to correct a client
who perhaps thinks he knows better than you what should be done. When this
happens there is a right way and a wrong way to handle it.
Solution
The Bill Gates way would be to say something like,
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! You’re a totally dumb ass for even
thinking it!” Well, I guess if you’re Bill Gates you can get away with such an
outburst. But most of us won’t win friends and influence people that way. And
we’re likely to lose business if we tried it. Even if what they say is
stupid, let us be tactful in how we handle the situation. We do have to correct
the client because it is our job to make sure the client does what is best for
him. That’s what he pays us for. If a client can’t or won’t listen to us and
take our advice, we don’t need or want that client.
Understanding
is Key to Good Business
The more we know and understand people, the better
equipped we’ll be to deal with them in a constructive and profitable manner.
You don’t have to be a psychologist to understand the basic makeup of the human
race. But a good business person is also a good sales person. And a good sales
person is a bit of a psychologist. We study people. And after a lifetime of
study we discover certain truths that just never really change to any large
degree.
Once you know these truths, you can make them work for
you instead of against you. And that’s just about as good as it gets!
Susanna K. Hutcheson is a professional advertising and direct mail copywriter. She was the first copywriter to utilize the Internet as a place to market this type of service. Susanna has clients all over the world. She writes everything from Web site content to direct mail and radio spots. Visit her Web site at http://www.powerwriting.com. Her email address is powerwriter@powerwriting.com.
Telephone: 316-665-7626.
© Copyright 2006 by Susanna K. Hutcheson and Power Communications LLC. Any
republication in any manner is prohibited without the consent of
Power Communications LLC or the author. We do give you limited permission to use
this article on your Web site or in your newsletter if you print it or
reproduce it exactly as it appears here including this entire notice. This article cannot be sold by you or published in a for-profit publication, a pay-per-view site or a site which sells memberships. It cannot be used by schools or in textbooks without our consent in writing. Rights to use this
article for a purpose other than the type of distribution for which it is intended may be purchased from us. Call us at 316-665-7626. You may, however, link directly (not by redirect) to this article.
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