A "no stupid deals" policy will improve your brand

One of my clients taught me a great lesson about selling, branding and marketing. Sometimes, in our quest to find revenue, we forget something more important - trust.

Our goal as an organization is to deliver on our commitments reliably and predictably. By doing so, we build the trust needed to sustain a healthy relationship for many years. The sum of these healthy relationships is a strong brand. A strong brand is evidenced by happy customers.

At Macon Raine, we put skin in the game and invest in our client’s sales, marketing and business development process. If we are going to promise revenue growth, and if we are going to bet on the successful outcome and consistently meet client expectations, we can’t sign-up for bad deals. In fact, if we sense that the client can’t deliver on their side of the agreement, we need to back off fast.

Bad deals cost too much. No matter who is at fault, bad revenue costs everyone dearly in reputation and pain.

That is why we have a “No Stupid Deals” policy. It makes a lot of sense. No one wants to be in a “stupid deal.” The “No Stupid Deals” policy has yielded immediate benefits for our clients and for our business. Our quality of life improved because we were no longer spending too much time putting out fires and this increased client satisfaction as well. Our ability to manage expectations and deliver on our promises grew rapidly.

Clients don’t want stupid deals either. Making an investment in a vendor is a big deal. Finding the right vendor is a big deal. Finding a vendor that can help move the needle is a big deal. Clients want long-term, trusted relationships as much as we do. If they don’t, they are generally not a good customer.

But it takes a leap of faith to say no. it is hard to walk away from dollars. In this economy, why would anyone turn down a deal? But if you can’t establish a dialogue with the client and modify the project into a win/win, it is probably not worth doing.