The Truth About Screwing Up

June 7, 2008

*** The Only Way to Lose is to Be Afraid to Lose

*** What Do They Know Unless You Tell Them?

*** You Don’t Get Hired to Read Your Client’s Mind,
But You Can Get Fired for Not Doing It

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Dear Copywriter,

I’ve never really been lucky.

You know those people who always seem to win stuff? Those people who always seem to just have things work out really, really easily?

I’m sure you know those people.

Well, I’m not one of them.

And just in case YOU’RE not one of those people either, well… today’s issue is for you.

Today’s issue is about SCREWING UP… and moving forward anyway.

Here are 3 of my many screw ups. I’m telling you these to either give you a good chuckle or to help you steer clear of repeating them yourself.

The Only Way to Lose is to Be Afraid to Lose

Remember the last time you were negotiating with a new client and you were right at the point where you had to announce your fee?

What was the dominant thought going through your head?

If you’re anything like me, it was probably something like, “I don’t want to charge too much… I’m afraid I’ll lose the business altogether.”

Sound familiar?

After all, isn’t getting SOME business better than getting no business?

The answer isn’t Yes or No. Because it’s a trick question.

I can’t tell you HOW much $$ I’ve left on the table simply because I negotiated MYSELF out of those dollars.

I fought that little battle in my head and I lost. Time and time again.

“He won’t accept that… maybe I’ll just knock off a little bit.”

“What if she says NO?” “Won’t I look dumb then? I do need the money…” “Maybe the fee is a little high…”

Here’s what I’ve learned.

Negotiating is NOT a once and done, take it or leave it activity. If that’s what you think, then you’re selling yourself WAY too short.

No one will EVER ask you what YOU want. That’s your job. And that’s where the negotiations begin.

If you start developing this habit right away, your road to success will be a whole lot easier.

Don’t be afraid to lose the business. You can’t lose business you never had. And despite what your prospect says, you don’t HAVE the business until the check is in your account.

What Do They Know Unless You Tell Them?

I lost a pretty good client once because I was stupid.

You see, I always put a lot of focus on GETTING the client. And sometimes, I put less focus on keeping the client.

In this case, the client was NOT a marketing wizard. That’s why we were working together.

But this “screw up” is an example of how you can NEVER stop selling.

And I’m not talking about just trying to get to the next sale or the next project with the client.

What I’m talking about is that you can NEVER assume your client has any idea about the value you are actually delivering.

And in a business where you simply CAN’T guarantee results 100% of the time, making the value proposition clear is a must.

So you need to keep selling the value of what you’re doing the whole way through the project.

In my example, I was a one-man marketing machine for this guy. Stuff was FLYING out the door. Salesletters… CDs… Press releases.

You name it, I was doing it. It was FAST and GOOD.

His lead flow went from 1 or 2 per week to 5-10 PER DAY.

Only problem is, I didn’t make it clear to my client exactly how valuable all of this stuff was.

I made it look effortless. You know, “Don’t let them see you sweat… you’re a professional.”

Blah, blah, blah. That was a BIG mistake.

So we got to the end of our agreement and he didn’t think his money was well spent.

That was my fault. I stopped selling him on the value of what I was doing each and every step of the way.

He got a TON of value. It’s just that no one ever told him.

For me it was game over.

You Don’t Get Hired to Read Your Client’s Mind,
But You Can Get Fired for Not Doing It

You can never ask too many questions in this business.

One time, I didn’t do that and I got burned.

I was paid about $10,000 to write a health promotion.

It was one of those conversations where the client goes on a long winded explanation about what he wants the promo to be like.

He ends with something like, “You know what I mean…”

And me, the “eager to please” copywriter says, “Oh yes… I know what you mean.”

But as it turned out, “What he SAID he wanted wasn’t actually what he wanted in his HEAD.”

I never dug out the TRUTH. So I ended up writing the WRONG promotion.

Well, I did what he said, I just didn’t know that’s not what he meant.

Never be afraid to ask a LOT of questions.

It’ll keep you from making $10,000 mistakes like this one…


Posted by Jason | Filed Under Blog 

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