You’re Wrong and You Are An Idiot

Recently I got an email from a would-be supplier. He was annoyed that I’d chosen to use another company instead of his and went on to list all the reasons why it was the wrong decision.

I just saw someone on Twitter tell a couple of very happy KashFlow Accounting Software customers (who were tweeting how much they liked it) that KashFlow is “very basic and not very useful” and that they should instead use the product they promote/favour.

In both of those situations, what the sender of the email/tweet is saying to the person they want to sell to boils down to “You’re wrong, you made the wrong choice, you’re an idiot”.

Not the best way to get a new customer or build a relationship.

Instead, tell the person they made a great decision. It’s better to suggest they made the right choice at the time but might want to see what else is out there now that time has passed/their requirements have changed/the market has developed.

You’re much more likely to get a positive response.

http://www.mattchedit.com/Blog.aspx Matt Chatterley

Well said – frankly you’ll gain nothing by telling a (lost) prospect that they’ve made a bad decision because of X – all you can hope to achieve is alienating them and making yourself look childish, even if your motives are “good at heart”.

Leave things on a good note – even thank them for considering you as a supplier – and do what you can to keep the door open so that if your competitor drops the ball, you know you’ll be the one who gets asked to catch it!
James Murphy

“very basic and not very useful”

?

In terms of tracking my sales and purchases and keeping my bank account straight it does everything I need – in fact rather more than I need so definitely some considerable distance past “very basic”.

It does my VAT return more or less at the press of a button – so staggeringly useful (that’s almost enough to cover the cost on its own so far as I’m concerned!)

Apart from those two minor details I have no problem with the suggestion… oh wait…
James Murphy

Further to the above – and in response to the point of the post, its actually worse than that since people tend to be defensive of their choices (even if they are wrong) and so being that direct is liable to be an almost instant fail and will generate antipathy toward both poster and the “promoted” product.

And this assumes that you’ve got your facts right (about the relative merits of the products) in the first place (-:
http://www.cyber-cottage.co.uk Ian

as stated it dies everything you need and more such as repeat billing, We used to use sage and that complicated and far more Than anyone ever needs, and that was an accountants description of sage.
As to telling customers they have made a wrong decision, This seems to be a tactic often used by inexperienced sales people.
http://www.ssldonkey.co.uk Adam

Looks like I’m going to be the only one to party disagree.

A supplier who you choose not to use shouldn’t bother doing what they did. A 3rd party saying someone shouldn’t have made a certain choice, I would argue is different depending on how and what they say and whether or not it was invited.

I certainly wouldn’t tweet someone who had purchased an SSL certificate from a competitor saying they shouldn’t have done but then if someone asked for accounting recommendations I would make my own recommendation.

Depending on the tweeter (ie if known to me) I would give my two penneth about their choices if I think there was an alternative they’ve looked at but they would be opinions. I don’t think that is wrong. I do disagree with what this particular tweeter said about KashFlow although KashFlow isn’t my choice of software or what I would recommend.
Cara

Ok, I am the offending party with the offending comment!! One problem though, I have been talking about KashFlow but thinking about Quickbooks. I am very sorry!

Apparently, thanks to 31st January deadlines, my head is up my arse due to sleep deprivation. I was giving my completely objective opinion on a program that I rate. However, I meant to compare it to Quickbooks in this comment. Not KashFlow. Ground please swallow me up!! Living on 5hrs sleep a night & then ranting on twitter is never a good idea.

My preferred program is very similar to KashFlow. Its internet hosted, efficient and fit for a 21st century business. However, I had nothing to gain regardless of what I was comparing my preferred program against. I reiterate Adam’s post above, I was not trying to achieve new business!! I was just entering into a public conversation as a third party. I do not use twitter to get new clients. I use it to engage with local businesses like myself, who are passionate about what they do.

I have however, been a total tube and was obviously half asleep when I read the tweet and responded. Sorry Duane!
http://www.KashFlow.co.uk Duane Jackson

Hi Cara,

Thanks for clarifying.

No apology necessary. I wasn’t meaning to have a dig at you personally. It was more an observation on the way most people in general seem to approach these situations in what seems like the wrong way to me.

I bet you’re glad January is over – now go get some sleep!
- belfastbiker
  
  NOW HUG IT OUT!

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You’re Wrong and You Are An Idiot

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