Last night at dinner, I was telling my wife about one of my mentoring students, “Tom”, who  received an angry email from a prospect he had contacted.  Apparently, the prospect was offended because Tom asked if he would be interested in a new web design for his local business.  He had designed the site himself, and took offense to the idea that it could possibly be improved.

Tom responded with a polite email, apologized for causing offense, and mentioned a few things that he thought could be improved, and explaining that those were the basis for his contacting the business owner.  Soon after, the business owner called him on the phone, wanting to know more about Tom’s ideas for his site.  After a 30-minute conversation, the business owner had requested some renovation work to be done on his site, and a possible contract for a new design for his wife’s business.

When my wife heard this story, she said “Hasn’t that happened to you before too”, and she’s absolutely right.  I’ve turned angry customers into buyers on several occasions, and all it took was a polite and genuine response to an angry email.

When people are being sold to, especially online, they put up a lot of barriers.  I know I’m a nice guy who would always work as hard as I can to please my clients, but potential prospects have no way of knowing that at first.  Simply showing a genuine interest in them and their business is enough to break down much of the skepticism they have towards me and my business.