Whenever I ask a business owner, why he or she refuses to get professional help in the key areas of their business, the answer is always the same. They tell me that they can’t afford it.
This answer is based on a 100% incorrect assumption.
The incorrect assumption, is that by not investing in professional help, a business will somehow be in a stronger financial position. The reality is very different, because the price a company pays for neglecting to invest, is a price it pays over and over again, every day.
- The next time you visit a website that looks like crap; so you leave, never to return – That company is paying the price for commercial neglect.
- The next time you find yourself reading about how bad a company’s customer service is – That company is paying the price for commercial neglect.
- The next time you throw a poorly written marketing letter in the bin – That company is paying the price for commercial neglect.
If those people think the price of success is high, wait until they see the cost of failure.
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What about google? Can you find a help email box for google? You have to use those horrid groups to get help. I agree with you about each point but it is interesting how the biggest companies can get away with providing crap help.
Gebadia,
Thanks for the comment. Google offers a wide range of services, which are deliver to users like yourself free of charge. The ‘horrid’ groups you refer to are usually places where unpaid, fellow users help one another.
I disagree with your point, that the biggest companies do not get away with offering poor service. Thanks to Twitter, FaceBook, blogs etc, it’s possible for a disgruntled customer to tell a large number of people when they are getting a bad service. In fact, the customer has never had so much influence over the companies they use, because they have never had such a huge audience.
Hi Jim,
An alternative interpretation of the reason they don’t get professional help is that the professional hasn’t proved to them that the value they add is worth the cost.
I’ve seen plenty of professionals do crap websites and poor marketing letters too. If the business owner doesn’t perceive the professional to be capable of doing a much better job than they could do themselves then they’re going to say they can’t afford it.
I exaggerate for impact, of course, but I think my point is valid. Buying professional help is really scary – how do you know how good it’s going to be? They all tell you they’re great, and they all have great testimonials. Professionals are often quite bad at reducing this perceived risk for potential clients.
Ian
Hell Ian,
Thanks for the comment.
I am either not reading your comment correctly, or you are saying that the reason some businesses refuse to invest in professional help, is that every professional they come into contact with, has ‘crap’ marketing?
But those same professional providers have other clients, who responded to the same marketing messages and are happy to pay for professional help. If it’s down to bad marketing, they wouldn’t have paying clients. Instead, they do have paying clients; but they also have people who will never become clients, because they refuse to pay for professional help.
What about those small businesses, who refuse to pay for professional marketing help? Most marketing companies are extremely good at marketing their services, so why do these same people refuse to hire professional marketing help?
In fact, within professional marketing, there’s a name for people with this approach; Serial Freebie Hunters!
If you speak with the various agencies that provide free business development advice, (like Business Link here in the UK), they will tell you that the same small businesses apply for all the free stuff. They will do anything to avoid paying. They want the help, they just won’t pay for it.
They see all professional help, no matter how effective it is, as a cost rather than an investment.
It is true that companies who operate in an unprofessional way pay the price. I however believe that there are alternatives to investing in professional help, namely reading, studying, and learning how to do things yourself can be extremely effective.
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The Huge companies do not get away with offering poor service.
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