Send to KindleYou may think you have a great offer and are ready to engage or negotiate with your client; but have you put up a barrier that discourages a person from engaging you? While traveling last week, I hit upon a curious phenomenon – people in business that don’t want to do business.
The first was while looking for a place for Sue, the dogs and I to stay in Florida to get away from our Nashville cold and gray weather. I looked on Vacation Rentals by Owner and looked at the listings for a pet –friendly place. VRBO’s website nicely accommodated my situation by showing a paw-print for those that would accept pets. The vast majority 85-90 percent did not have the paw-print. End of story, there was no room for discussion if I had large or small dogs, if they were calm or rambunctious, or if they were young or old. So we passed on several nice rentals.
Of those remaining, several owners did not have a calendar of available dates, just a note to contact them. My time to search was limited, so those also dropped off the list.
Finally we found a really nice place, the cost almost reasonable and in a good location. My wife wrote the owner to confirm availability and to check on the price for 10 days. She also mentioned to them that we had two older dogs, that were sedentary and that we normally crated them when we would leave the house. When we got a lease back, it named all the occupants allowed to stay in the place including the names of the dogs; that the dogs had to be crated whenever we left; that we were responsible for any repairs under $25.00 included replacing the batteries to the smoke alarm;, and that the dogs could not be on the furniture. Now I don’t mind negotiating for goods and services, 
my alarm bell went off on this one. I could see that this was a very picky person and that we would not enjoy our time based on their rules and regulations. I passed on the house and wrote a nice message explaining why we would not proceed with the lease. Of course I got a rebuttal about how great his lease was, that he never had problems with the deposit, etc. I left it at that with no response.
My final example occured when we stayed at the Marriott for a conference that is held there annually. As we checked out, we asked if they had the conference rate for next year so we could book it while we were there (a ready and willing customer). No, they didn’t have the rate at the front desk, but we could call reservations later on and they would have it. She was real nice and even gave us a business card, (after we stared at her in disbelief) so we did not have to go online to get the number. We left in a state of shock without booking!
What about your business, are you inviting people to come in, or are you unconsciously throwing up a barrier that wards them off? Remember you cannot engage and negotiate if you have a non-started to begin with, whether it’s price, terms or lack of perceived value.
Well, since I was there I don’t need to add fuel to Bill’s fire. But customer-service wise, a woman who stands behind a reception desk in a hotel and, while we are physically standing there, refers us to a phone number to book a room a few months later at the same hotel should be FIRED in my book.
Bill, sounds like you were wise to “let sleeping dogs lie” when it came to the home rental. As to the hotel, I guess they didn’t want any additional business!
Hmmm … ‘non-starters’ … okay, you’ve got me thinking. Am I guilty of any here? Maybe so. I will have to report back on this one.
Interesting post, Bill. I actually like the idea of the paw prints from the viewpoint of rental website. Some folks are looking for places that accept pets and some people are looking to avoid places that accept pets, so I see it as a time-saver for the customer. Your point is that you need to make it easy for people to do business with you. As for the conference, I can’t understand why you weren’t able to book a room at the hotel. That’s like going to a store and having a cashier tell you to go buy it online! Crazy!
I love this phrase -> “people in business that don’t want to do business” It is such a perfect example of why some businesses succeed and some fail. Some business owner just make it HARD to do business with them and give them money … Geesh!