Monday, April 16, 2007

Dealing with the ‘I have no money’ client

What is it with customers that come to ask for advice and then mention that they have ‘no money’?

Do you ‘buy’ that line? And should you?

I have had clients - an airline, bank, and multinational pharmaceutical company – who have all at one time or another told me: ‘I can’t afford it.’ ‘I don’t have any money.’

In one situation, the marketing manager of a bank called me in specifically to give a detailed brief about their marketing problem only to finish with ‘but the problem is we don’t have any budget’ - and this was after she had shown me several thousand dollars worth of branded clothing, bags and sports equipment which they planned to give away to their target audience! The cheek of it especially as this was the head office of the bank with whom we had our house mortgage at the time.

My response (not out loud) was: ‘So why, if you’ve got no money, are you telling me your problems?’ Needless to say I wasn’t at all sympathetic, and they did eventually find a budget.

Other times I’ve been given cause to think: ‘What? Your shares are trading for US $75 on the New York Stock Exchange, the company made $3 billion profit last year, and you’re telling me you’ve got no money?’

My advice: Keep your objectivity and don’t buy the client’s sob story. If it’s really important to them they’ll find the budget from somewhere. They wouldn't be wasting their time talking to you if they didn't have a problem they thought you could help them solve.

©2006 Jane Francis is the author of Price Yourself Right: A guide to charging what you are worth (ISBN: 0-595-38601-6) available at Barnes and Noble (USA), WH Smith (UK) or online at amazon.com