Inevitably as your business grows, you’re going to get to the point where people come to you looking for products or services that you don’t have.
These are not the requests that you should be doing or at least thinking about doing. These are requests that stretch your business beyond your means or more importantly, beyond your mission.
It’s in your (entrepreneurial) nature to want to meet your customers needs, no matter what they are, even if what they need is not a part of your current offering.
Let me lay out why telling a customer “no,” or better yet, telling the customer “why not” can actually strengthen your brand and build more loyal customers.
Let’s deal with the obvious. Telling customers “yes” all the time will keep them around. Think about stray cats: as soon as they sense that they can get a free meal from you, good luck trying to get rid of them.
On the other hand, telling customers “no” all the time will turn them away. It’s best not to think about your customers like panhandlers, who deflect No’s like shells after an Invincibility Star.
What you want, is to keep customers around who are good for your startup. Contrary to our snap judgments, you don’t achieve this by setting clear expectations and boundaries. Customers forget. Heck, customers may even ignore your Terms and Conditions. That’s ok.
Instead, what you want to do is view the request as an strategic branding opportunity.
More than likely, there are reasons why you don’t do what your customer is asking. Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s capacity. Ideally, you don’t already do what your customer asks because it is somehow inconsistent with your startup’s mission. (If this doesn’t apply, think about how you can reframe your refusal to highlight your mission.)
Say for example, that you’re a graphics and web designer. Along comes a client who has used your services for graphic design and now wants you to build the accompanying website (up-sell!). All is well except for the fact that they want you to build the website using Square Space. You, however, have expertise with building websites from scratch and when you don’t, you’ve used other development platforms.
What do you do?
A) accept the job and learn Square Space
B) decline the job and pass them to your web development buddy who knows Square Space
C) explain why you haven’t learned Square Space
D) leave their email unread for hours while you go back and forth in your mind
Like all multiple-choice tests, there are many right answers.
I argue that the best answer is C because in my experience, taking the time to explain why I conduct business in certain ways imprints my brand’s position in a customer’s brain so that, even if they do not choose to go with me, they know to refer me to people who need my exact service.
It’s often case, too, that your why is persuasive enough to keep a customer loyal to your brand. Perhaps the designer in the example above doesn’t use Square Space because she’s learned that customized, hand-coded websites are more versatile for her clientele.
Another good answer is B. Sharing clientele with friends you trust builds brand loyalty from two perspectives. First, your client will begin to see you as the expert in solving their problems, even if you give them a good reason why you can’t solve them. Second, the business who you refer them to will appreciate your gesture (assuming that they know you referred them) and be more inclined to return the favor.
10-word takeaway: Don’t tell customers no. Build loyalty by explaining why not.
