Spotting When You're Being Influenced To Make A Decision....NOW!

How often do people in business attempt to influence you?  Very often I expect as without influencing, nothing would get done and communication would not exist.

I absolutely love exploring how people influence each other, ethically and not so ethically too.  You've experience the charity 'chugger' who makes uses the town or city centre precinct as their stage to approach you in perhaps an overly friendly manner, in an effort to entice you to stop, listen, feel guilty about not supporting the charity s/he is 'representing', in the hope you will sign up for a monthly standing order to 'support' their charity.  What these 'chuggers' don't tell you is that they are employed by an agency which, if you sign up through their representative, take a commission of anything from 50 to 70% of your first year's 'donations'.  

OK, chuggers are an extreme case, but take a look at the content below which was an initial response from a conference exhibition sales representative following my enquiry about my company possibly exhibiting at a HR conference.

This email is by no means unethical, unprofessional or misleading.  Indeed, it is the exact opposite, and it's a pretty good effort to attract business and encourage me to make a decision to exhibit....NOW!

See for yourself what journey the sales representative takes me on.  Read through the complete email immediately below and have a think about the author's intention.  On the copy immediately below this original email, I've detailed my notes in italics so you can differentiate his and my comments.  Let's see if you and I are spotting the same things!

Many thanks for your enquiry. 

I have had a look at your website and the services that Summit offer would be ideally suited, and of interest to the senior level L&D decision makers that the exhibition delivers.

As you can imagine at this time of year the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now, we have approximately 5 remaining.

Price and size of stands are,

3m x 2m £2,322

4m x 2m £3,096

3m x 3m £3,483

4m x 3m £4,644

There is also two other costs that you would need to factor in,

Administration Fee £245 - This covers your for 3 main areas of insurance, Loss Damage & Theft, Cancellation & Abandonment and Public Liability Insurance to the value of £2million.

Registration Fee £270 - However this is refunded in full if the invoice is paid within 3 weeks. As we are are already within 3 weeks from the event and all invoices must be paid before the event we can literally ignore this cost.

I have attached a copy of this years brochure, media pack and floor plan. The floor plan isn't quite up to date with the bookings that have come in this week, but I can still accommodate various size stands that companies may wish to book.

Obviously I would be delighted to have you exhibit this year, but a question I would like to ask is, that bearing in mind the event is in 19 days, does that give you enough time to prepare to exhibit this year?

If you have any questions or queries don't hesitate to let me know and if you could let me know your thoughts I would really appreciate it.

Kind Regards

Copy With Scott's Comments

Many thanks for your enquiry. (not a good start as my name would have developed a more personal, less scattergun approach).

I have had a look at your website and the services that Summit offer would be ideally suited, and of interest to the senior level L&D decision makers that the exhibition delivers. (The author claims to have invested time in reviewing my web site to understand my company's offering, and yes, of course, my company's offering is 'ideally suited, and of interest' to his conference audience.  This is rather like you trying on an item of clothing in a store and the sales rep stating 'Oh, it really suits you'.  Not that they would ever state otherwise).

As you can imagine at this time of year the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now, we have approximately 5 remaining.  (Here, the author intends to place me in a visual thinking mode with 'As you can imagine' and then he uses the time of year and scarcity of time...time is running out, trick to understand that 'the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now' and 'we have approximately 5 remaining'.  Whether true, accurate or otherwise, the author is using the rule of scarcity to push me towards...NOT LOSING OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Price and size of stands are,

3m x 2m £2,322

4m x 2m £3,096

3m x 3m £3,483

4m x 3m £4,644

Notice that the author has not stated that the prices are exclusive of VAT.  This serves to present the pricing as less expensive.  Bu then we go on to other costs to be factored in...

There is also two other costs that you would need to factor in,

Administration Fee £245 - This covers your for 3 main areas of insurance, Loss Damage & Theft, Cancellation & Abandonment and Public Liability Insurance to the value of £2million.  Such admin fees are similar to the charge you receive when using an ATM in some stores which charge you up to £1.99 for you benefiting from the convenience of using their service.  But my company for one has these insurances in place and this 'AdministrationFee' is perhaps being presented as a 'Compulsory Fee' rather than an optional fee.  But one question to ask if you were considering paying the fee is - just how much commission is the event organiser receiving on this income stream?  The author's hope is that exhibitors will simply pay it.

Registration Fee £270 - However this is refunded in full if the invoice is paid within 3 weeks. As we are are already within 3 weeks from the event and all invoices must be paid before the event we can literally ignore this cost.

I have attached a copy of this years brochure, media pack and floor plan. The floor plan isn't quite up to date with the bookings that have come in this week, but I can still accommodate various size stands that companies may wish to book.

Obviously I would be delighted to have you exhibit this year, but a question I would like to ask is, that bearing in mind the event is in 19 days, does that give you enough time to prepare to exhibit this year?   What a wonderfully soul searching question!  Beginning the question with 'BUT' and then accompanying it with a question to create uncertainty and again, scarcity.  The challenge the author experiences here though is that, until he asked the question about whether I was running out of time, I hadn't even considered the possibility.  As it happens, my team and I don't have enough time - so we're not exhibiting!

If you have any questions or queries don't hesitate to let me know and if you could let me know your thoughts I would really appreciate it.

Kind Regards

This email was sent to me 3 weeks ago, and just yesterday I received an email from the same author asking if I had made a decision on exhibiting.  What does this second message chasing business actually do?  it discredits the content of the author's first email which encouraged me not to lose out.

If you want to not just survive, but thrive as  a leader, business owner or entrepreneur, don't just accept what some people communicate to you as true, accurate or win-win.  Take time to dissect their communication and reflect on the consequences and implications of you choosing to make a decision based on their, perhaps self-serving communication.