The PR Entrepreneurs

While doing business consulting on behalf of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, I got to know two women entrepreneurs who had started a public relations business. Both had switched careers from teaching, and they set up their office in the Krayot, just north of Haifa.

One day I showed up for a regular meeting and found them scowling and very angry.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A certain client really managed to get under our skin today," they said.

"What did he do?" I asked, and got the following explanation:

"About three months ago, before we knew you, the CEO of a big meat plant near Afula (not exactly kosher over there...) contacted us and asked for a price quote for PR work. We realized right away that this was the opportunity of a lifetime. If we could land work with such a well-known plant, it would pave the way for lots more deals.

We studied the subject very thoroughly, put in a lot of thought, creativity and what have you, and submitted a fantastic proposal, detailed and very impressive, at a ridiculous price.

We waited about two weeks and didn't hear a thing. Not even confirmation that he'd received the proposal. With no other choice, we called the CEO and asked where things stood... and this arrogant, cold, blunt man told us: 'If I had something to say to you, I'd have called. Don't call again'...

We got the message and forgot about it.

Today, about three months later, he calls us and asks us to come to the plant near Afula, and adds: 'Just so you know, your price is very high!'

So we told him: 'If our price is so high, then what's the point of us driving all the way to Afula?!'"

"When did this conversation happen?" I asked, stunned.

"A few minutes before you got here," they said.

"Then call him right now and set up a meeting!" I said firmly.

"But what's the point? He doesn't want to pay what we asked," they said.

"I don't even have time to explain. Just call and set it up!" I insisted again.

Once the meeting was set, I had time for some analysis: "This man got a price quote from you (at his own initiative). What he did with it, I don't know. Maybe he wrote a doctoral thesis on it, or maybe he even forgot it at the bottom of his in-tray for three months. But today, after reading your proposal, this man, who by your account is arrogant and difficult, comes down off his high horse and invites the two of you, little old you, to his plant in Afula. What for? To eat sausage? He most likely wants to close the deal. And what did you want him to say? That your price is low, so you can spend the whole drive to Afula figuring out how to raise it? That's a garden-variety price objection, and not even a particularly clever one...

And by the way, didn't you expect there'd be some negotiating here?"

"We knew there'd be negotiating, and we even left some room in the price for it," they said.

"So drive up there, negotiate and close the deal!" I encouraged them.

So they drove up there and closed...