Standing Out In A Crowd
Apropos of “Consulting Wisdom” posted here recently, life imitates art.
A guy named Todd ordered two of my books in the Ultimate Consultant series. The publisher, Jossey-Bass, has chosen to change the format from hard cover to soft cover, which is the publisher’s right. There are no other changes—the jacket art, contents, and so on are all the same—except there is a difference of about 8 pages because of the larger page size on the paperback.
Todd writes me on receipt of the books and points out that my web site describes them as hard cover, and of slightly longer length. This is absolutely true, since I forgot to change the description when the publisher changed the format.
Then old Todd goes on to tell me that “there is a significant difference between hard cover and soft cover, and there are a dozen fewer pages.” He demands an explanation, immediately, and accuses me of “fraud.” (The price of the book has not changed at retail from the publisher, so he was not overcharged.)
I told him that Todd was a tad anal-retentive, and asked: Did he bother to appreciate the content? Humorless, as anal-retentive people always are, he told me he had just opened the package, how could he have read them? (He apparently immediately felt the cover, however.)
If you want to stand out in a crowd, just hold your ground. The crowd will recede around you. Todd is representative of some of the people you are “competing” against. I really wouldn’t worry about it. He’ll be too outraged when a prospect has told him he has an hour, but only provided 58.6 minutes.
You can’t make this stuff up. And he’s expecting to help others?
© Alan Weiss 2009. All rights reserved.
Dave
Oh my! I didn’t even bother to look.
Customers like this I tell “if you don’t like the item, just return the item for a full refund”
I had one who thought that meant they could keep the item AND get the refund. Sigh…
Alan Weiss
The customer is NOT always right. Life those folks who wear the clothing and then try to return them….
Shama Hyder
This really made me laugh out loud Alan!
I had a guy email me letting me know that my ebook seemed to offer EXACTLY the content he was looking for – but 27 dollars was extremely overpriced for an ebook. I mean-come on-it’s not printed.
What can do you with such clowns? Ah yes-blog!
= )
Alan Weiss
It is ASTOUNDING that there are people so myopic and anal that they tell you four typos are “ruining your reputation,” without even considering the content of the book. These are the people who eat their meat and vegetables in a certain order, and go through rituals every time they turn on the TV.
The are outstanding–out standing in the rain!
Todd Anderson
Some Todd’s don’t make it easy to be a Todd.
Alan Weiss
It ain’t easy being green!
Dave Gardner
Alan…you’d better hope Todd doesn’t sign up for the Mentor Program…Dave
Alan Weiss
He can try to sign up, but he’s not getting in! I do turn people away and can usually tell by their questions and attitude if I want to commit to helping them or not.
Graham Franklin
Please don’t tell me Todd lives in Ipswich-on-Mutton?
There is hope for us Brit consultants yet.
Alan Weiss
I believe he was in Baden-Hampshire on Darby-Nottinghamshirewoodschaseborough, near the Miltion Keynes roundabout.
Laurent Duperval
“… can usually tell by their questions and attitude if I want to commit to helping them or not.”
Oh. Wow.
L