How to Put Smug Customers in Their Place — Politely

I remember starting my first business, having to deal with marketing, accounting, TAXES.

Honestly it's ridiculous, running a business is like being head chef of a promising restaurant but one part of the kitchen is always on fire.

However, there was one fire no one could prepare me for, and that was client interactions.

I mean we've all heard it before, about how a raging Karen will come in screaming and squawking, asking for a refund.

But there are no words to describe how bad it can actually get.

The people you'll see while running a business will change your perspective on the world.

I remember when I first got into business, I was a naïve,15 year old going from person to person pitching my marketing services.

One person however decided to take my pitch as an opportunity to unload all of his life's problems. I don't know if him and his wife were going through something, but brother, this guy was not having a good day.

The Fateful Phone Call

Just a little context before I get into this guy's mental breakdown:

I was offering a marketing service, where I would get business owners more clients and they'd pay me to do so.

Me and this guy had been chatting for a little while and agreed to get on a call to discuss working together.

So I gather all my notes, mentally prepare myself and hop on a call with this guy.

I enter with the standard niceties of greeting him, asking how his day's going etc. I've never been a fan of small talk so I was keeping it to a minimum.

But I kid you not, 3 seconds into the phone call he interrupts me...

"Alright, Alright, Alrightttttt!!!

Let's get into it, what's the cost. How much is it going to cost me"

Now, I hadn't even explained what I was going to do for him yet, or why it was useful.

So for his sake, I politely mentioned how I didn't know the specifics of what he wants done and I could give a much more accurate price after a minute or two of conversation.

He entertained this idea for a second, but at this point the dragon inside of him had already been awoken, because after another 30 seconds of talking he interrupted me again.

"Excuse me, excuse meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Can we get onto the price now!!??"

Sensing the urgency in his voice, I thought it better to go with it, than fight against him, so I calmly and simply went over the price.

"We primarily work off of commission, however there is a start up fee of £400"

This sent him into a craze.

"How dare you charge a start up fee, I thought it would be completely free this is misleading I can't believe it. My whole life has been a lie, oh my daysssssssssssss"

I tried to reason with him, but he was past the point of all rational thought.

It was like dealing with a kid having a temper tantrum, I explained to him how I never gave the impression it was completely free and warned him about costs earlier.

And like a child, that's angry and doesn't know why, he just kept on going, spouting nonsense. Giving personal attacks and remarks for 20 minutes straight.

Long story short, I told this fine gentlemen to have a nice day, ended the phone and decided to not work for commission anymore.

If you've seen some of my other content, or worked in business for a while, you'll know why working for free is almost never worth it.

Anyways, the lesson to be learnt here is, there are some people who are so emotionally volatile no matter how nicely you lay it out, they're not going to buy.

And when you meet these people, the best and only thing you should do is kindly and politely tell them to do one.

However, it's important to know what to do when you're customer is less of a douchebag, because you can STILL sell to them!

So, you're client is only 50% douchebag. What should you do now?

The best way to demonstrate is with an example.

A few years later with more experience under my belt, I started working with a food delivery company.

In our sales call, they also had their own little quirks.

I remember speaking to the owner who, somewhat like the last guy, was quite full of himself and he thought his business was the most special and unique thing on planet earth.

After I had began to break down what I was going to do for him and how it would get him more clients, he interrupted me.

"Have you ever worked with a food company before?"

Now this is a reasonable question, he's right to be concerned that his business is different to others, so marketing might also be different for his business too.

Now luckily for me, I actually DID have experience working with a food company before, so I replied with "Yes, I actually have."

This however wasn't good enough for him as he responded with,

"Ohhhh okay and have you ever worked with a FROZEN food company before?"

Now luckily, again my answer was yes, I had worked with a frozen food company before.

"Okay, that's nice, buttttttt have you ever worked with a frozen food company... that sells peas!!!

Because you know, a frozen pea company is COMPLETELY different than a company that sells chicken."

Now I could clearly sense the direction this conversation was going, and I decided to stop it there before it got any more ridiculous.

In a situation like this, it can be incredibly difficult, you want to tell the client that they're wrong and the strategy for marketing frozen peas is nearly identical to marketing frozen broccoli.

However, it's not normally good to directly tell people "Hey you're wrong" especially if you want that person to pay you.

At the same time, you can't fully enable the customer either, because if you do, they'll leave the call and look for someone who understands their 'unique' business.

So what do you do?

The Secret - How To Make The Customer Always FEEL Right

The thing I did, which landed me the sale was the "yes and" trick.

Now you've probably heard of this in every sales or public speaking class.

"Don't say but, instead say yes anddddd"

The problem with this is it rarely ever works and in conversation sounds stifled and weird.

Here's how I subtly changed it and had great success:

This client was worried about their business being different and marketing not working for them.

So I came back and said, "Yes you're right, selling peas is different than selling other food, that's why I've come up with a unique strategy for you".

I then led them through a presentation, going over how buying frozen food is a considered purchase, so we need this type of marketing.

In actuality, the presentation was nearly identical to every other presentation I've given.

But to them, it felt special.

The trick is to agree with the customer, but lead them into what you were going to do anyway.

Let's say you've want to go on a sales call with someone and they say,

"I can't, I've got no time."

Agree with them.

"Yes and that's actually the reason we do these calls, instead of going back and forth over email for 2 weeks, we can give you all the information you'd need to know in 10 minutes."

It's about making them feel heard but still putting them on the right path.

It helped me close so many more deals and have a lot less awkward conversations.

If you'd like any help optimising your marketing or sales process please get in contact with me here.

Also, if you'd like to check out another article of mine here's my personal favourite that goes over "the secret to closing more deals with less work."

https://www.taitmarketing.co.uk/post/here-s-the-secret-technique-to-closing-more-deals-with-less-work

Otherwise, bye for now.

Ryan