January 28, 2008

John and Jane Doe

4321 Happily Thereafter Ave.

Everytown, USA

To the Companies Who Want Our Money,

Yesterday’s selling techniques aren’t working so good. Have you noticed?

We’re betting that your traffic has been trending downward for the past few months. Are we right? (If we’re wrong, keep up the good work. You’re doing all the right things.)

But if your traffic has, in fact, been trending downward, here are some things for you to think about:

Today’s customer expects easy access to information.

And that information includes the price.

Quit trying to romance everything. Cut the hype. Just say it clean and tight, shoulders back, looking us directly in the eye.

Give us the truth with clarity. Transparency. Openhanded disclosure. Nothing hidden behind your back.

If you tell us about a product or service online and we wonder what it costs and we learn the only way you’ll tell us the price is if we give up our contact information, we think:

1.   you’re charging too much and you know it.

2.   you want an opportunity to “overcome our objections” or

3.   you’re planning to contact us and control the conversation with rigged questions

       under the pretense that you’re “consulting” us for our own good.

4.   you want us to give you a credit card number,

5.   but what you really need is a clue.

Sorry, we don’t mean to be rude.

You seem to be sincere in your confusion about why traffic is down and we’re just trying to tell you the truth you need to hear.

Yes, it’s partly the economy.

But you’ve also lost touch with the times.

You’ve got reasons for not disclosing your prices. We understand that. You don’t want to give your competitors “the edge” or something or other. But companies with good prices aren’t afraid to share them. In their ads. Over the phone. On their websites. From the housetops.

Or at least that’s how it seems to us.

Have a great 2008.

John and Jane Doe