Imagine for a moment that you’ve just sat down in a very nice restaurant. You look around, and they’ve got everything just right. You’ve heard about this place from friends – it is totally the place to be.
You ask the waiter for some suggestions. He suggests the lobster; fresh, tasty and only $300.
“I’m sorry, $300…. for lobster?” You manage to exclaim…
“Yes, our lobster is the best in the province. Each is caught by hand by our chef, who dives to the bottom of the ocean each morning. They are then prepared with the most delicious spices, grown in our own Tibetan monastery and served with a selection of organic, free-range seasonal vegetables. While you eat you will be serenaded by a choir of actual angels.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that you only have $100 in your pocket…
“Wow. Uh. That all sounds amazing but… well… do you have anything more affordable?”
“Here? Nah – we only do the high end stuff. We’d love for you to eat here, but I’ll tell you what… head down the street and hang a left. There’s this fantastic little hole-in-the-wall place. Great lobster, really fun atmosphere. Great folks run the place – say hi for me. If you want, I can call for you, to see if they’ve got tables available?”
Imagine what a wonderful world that would be.
Blue skies as far as the eye can see
Last week, a good friend of mine required some help getting set up with an email marketing service provider. For months, I have been dying to check out Blue Sky Factory. I’ve heard many good things about them as they sponsor Marketing Over Coffee, and are mentioned on Twitter frequently. Their CEO, Greg Cangialosi is mentioned so many times in Trust Agents that it’s worthy of a drinking game unto itself. But it wasn’t until this week, that I realized why.
Every relationship has a story.
Unfortunately, Blue Sky Factory is not the right fit for my friend… for now. Their base service plan is more expensive than he’s looking for; and justifiably so. It offers far more complexity than he needs and is built for a more established email marketing plan – offering fantastic testing and measurement features along with consulting services that warrant the bigger spend. Its a Ferrari; I was more interested in a Toyota.
Many salespeople would take this opportunity to push for an up-sell or force their product to be the right fit for every situation. Without the sale, for most companies and most customers, the story would end here.
Make yourself part of the story
It wasn’t until I turned to Twitter to get a recommendation for a different service provider, that Blue Sky Factory demonstrated why they are well prepared to own this game.
DJ Waldow, BSF’s Director of Community, volunteered to help me find a more suitable email provider. He understood that they didn’t offer the exact solution that I needed, and went out of his way to make sure that my experience with Blue Sky Factory was positive… even if it meant sending business elsewhere.
On DJ’s recommendation, my friend will be using Mailchimp, but Blue Sky Factory is now a part of the story.
An established expert
They didn’t need a catchy slogan, a magazine spread or a celebrity testimonial to imprint that into my memory. I’ve never seen an actual advertisement for them, and couldn’t draw their logo from memory. And yet I know that Blue Sky Factory’s brand represents expertise in the email marketing field and superb customer service.
Good business shouldn’t begin with the sale, shouldn’t end with the sale, and as demonstrated here, shouldn’t require a sale at all. Good business is about the conversation.
If your business wants to have a conversation about email marketing, DJ Waldow would be more than happy to help.
What others businesses have won you over by recommending the right solution, instead of their solution?