A Credibility Issue?
Seth Godin lists Two Reasons Why People Say No To Your Good Idea.
We frequently come across both, but also a third:
3. Because we are based in Somerset UK not Guandong.
A good example happened a couple of years back. I was talking to a buyer trying to interest him in one of our products.
"I buy that sort of thing in China" He said.
"OK" I said, "how much do you pay?" (Figuring if you don't ask...)
"X" He told me.
"I could sell to you at the same price" I said "and I'll give you a weekly delivery which will reduce your stocks and credit terms that will improve your cash flow."
....
(Long Silent No.)
It took me a while to work this out but I figure that if he had walked in to his boss and said "Hey I have just got a great deal from a little company in Somerset" his boss would probably react by saying "You fool the price will be lower in Guandong". If he walks in and says "I just got a great deal from a company in Guandong." his boss says. Good work have a cigar.
Even if the price is the same.
2 comments:
Clive,
parallels would be if you look for funding:
"You're not in the Valley!"
"You're not [insert flavour of the month]!"
Basically we have to live with people who do not think for themselves - "nobody got fired for buying IBM shares" attitudes.
So how to go about it? Obviously it's about security, take the path well traveled, that is the most important for many (most?). You cannot threaten, not go around them, not underbid either.
Suspect the only path would be the indirect method and using peer pressure.
If you planted a seed, unrelated to the "sale" as such that Somerset is the coolest thing on earth, best product at best prices etc.
Say you got the story into the media the non-thinker reads - the newspaper - "Somerset beats Guandong on price" is newsworthy. Boss reads, boss tells story over lunch, underling brings Somerset supplier to the table, boss dispenses cigars :)
Sig, This is certainly the plan we have been trying. I'll be posting about how the press buzz we created around Sarah Smith has fed through after 2 years of persistence into distribution in some pretty major retailers. This has included a bit of being different, a bit of dogged persistence and a bit of what I call "holding a cicling pattern":
If you keep going round the circuit as personnel change you get another opening and another and another... if there comes a day when the FT has written about UK companies making a come back vs China, or whatever is relevant for the market in question (we play in several) we'll be there circling ready to go in for the kill.
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