Thanks for the diagnosis. I think I’ll have an aspirin …
Having worked all my adult life in advertising, I don’t know if an equivalent of the following conversation ever actually happens in other sectors …
Patient: Doctor, doctor, I have a sore throat
Doctor (after examination): Yes, you do. But also, you have a cancer. And diabetes. And you lead an unhealthy lifestyle.
Patient: thank you doctor. Can I now have some cough pastilles?
Translated to our business:
Prospect: could you please give us a new graphical design for our website?
We: yes, we could. But first of all, the structure of your website is incongruent, confusing and user-unfriendly. Moreover, there is no consumer insight whatsoever in your communication, and you’re actively not answering the most basic questions people ask when buying your product. How about we work on that first?
Prospect: No, thank you. We’ll go with the other agency that just proposed a new and very cool graphical design for our website.
And so we lost the pitch. Should we be sorry?
No, you shouldn’t.
Maybe, you could be sorry you didn’t notice the gap between his expectations and your approach. Maybe.
“It’s often not the best solution that wins the market, but the best marketed.”
I think that their soar throat is something that should have been handled first. This was the thing that was bothering the patient the most at the moment.
After the pain in his throat had passed, they would have realized that they visited a good doctor and be more receptive to the full diagnosis.
So…
Patient: Doctor, I have a soar throat.
Doctor: Yes, you are right. There’s a nasty infection there. Here you go. Take this 2 times a day and come back after 1 week. Than we can discuss some of the other test results, that you should definitely know about.
Sorry people, but that’s the way it goes. When will you grow up?
Don’t overestimate yourselves neither the business you’re in. Work. Be happy. Have a life.
@roamo: with “growing up” you mean accepting you not only work for free, but also for nothing? In that case, I don’t think I ever will grow up, or for that matter, should. If I didn’t think my professional advice was worth something, I would have the decency to find another business to work in … yet, still here I am, and therefore, yes, I would appreciate not being treated in this way. Blame me.
Also, you seem to use this comment of yours to vent your opinion on the advertising world. Wanting to be treated in a professional way seems to equal, in your mind, overestimating yourself, not being happy or not having a life. I wonder, though, if this also applies to architects, lawyers, doctors, restaurant owners, accountants, psychiatrists and any other service industry: should they also ‘get a life’ when not being paid for services rendered and advice offered. Or is it just us?
I know that “that’s the way it, unfortunately so often, goes”. But no way I’ll ever stop being furious about it.