A couple of days ago I was having a conversation with Master Coach – Noel Posis.
We were discussing the possibility of Noel using one of my personal development systems to help his clients.
This was exciting for me as Noel has a vast experience and huge list of clients. The conversations we had were positive so I felt pretty confident that Noel was going to go ahead with the plan.
But it wasn’t to be – Noel decided that though he loved the product, he didn’t have the time to give the project the attention he felt it deserved.
Fair enough. As someone with a million projects on the go at any one time I can understand that!
But I don’t like to give up too easily and I wanted to let Noel know that I was serious about forming a partnership.
So I made him a better offer. I created my best ‘offer you can’t refuse’ and emailed Noel again. My thought was – well I’ve given it everything I can and he will either jump at this opportunity, or he’ll turn it down again.
I’m not an extroverted natural-born salesman and promoting myself doesn’t always feel entirely comfortable. In fact I was actually a little worried that maybe I could have damaged the relationship by coming across as too pushy.
Next day I received a response – Noel had turned me down again. But what a nice response:
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Anton:
I’m just blown away by the generosity of your offer! Thank you so much.
And yes, it’s only about time and nothing else.
I really want to be more involved in the promotion of it, and so as generous and unbelievably wonderful your offer is, I’d still like to wait until April.
You have demonstrated incredible integrity, positivity and impact with your approach on this and not only is it appreciated, you will definitely be getting referrals from me (although I won’t share the offer you’ve made to
me with anyone).
Cheers,
Noel Posus,
Master Coach
www.askacoach.com
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Perhaps you’re wondering why am I sharing this with you?
It’s not the response I was hoping for but it was still very positive. Here’s what I like about it:
- Another seed has been planted that has the potential to bear fruit in the future. Not all seeds that get planted will be productive, but if you keep planting and nurturing them eventually it pays off. This is a good long term business building strategy.
- My ‘offer you can’t refuse’ and Noel’s gracious rejection (!) of my offer have strengthened the trust and mutual respect. This increases the likelihood that when the time is right for both of us, we will find a way to work together.
- I was delighted that Noel understood my intention in ‘upping the ante’ with my offer. The way I work is that I like to partner with people who will genuinely benefit from my help. This is the opposite of a ‘take the money and run’ mentality. My philosophy is this: the more my client benefits, the more I benefit.
Sometimes it can seem difficult to project your integrity when EVERY product and service on the internet offers a satisfaction guarantee, promises to be the answer to all of your problems, and has a list of testimonials to back it all up.
I believe the answer to this is to be honest and authentic in ALL of your communications. And to genuinely seek out long term mutually beneficial partnerships. I believe this really does cut through the clutter and the hype.
By the way I also love the fact that in this email from Noel I have a testimonial. It’s not a testimonial of a satisfied customer, since in this case Noel declined my offer.
But it’s still a testimonial. When you work in an industry like ours your prospective clients don’t just want results, they want to work with someone they can feel comfortable with, someone they can trust. And they will make an assessment about your character from whatever evidence you provide.
This email from Noel is a testimonial that provides external verification of my personal character. And that counts far more than anything that I could tell you about myself. So I’m thankful to Noel for allowing me to share this with you.
