A Bad Copy

The Effective Detective seemed to be in a particular foul mood this day. As I entered his study I could see him hunched over the keyboard cursing softly to himself as he deleted several email messages.

“Is there a problem, sir?” I asked gently.

“What? Oh hello Watson. Nothing serious, just my daily frustration with a variety of marketers that I respect, doing their usual pitches. I glance at each one to gain insight into their sales letter techniques, but I have decided I need to keep my email box a little cleaner so I now have to decide whether to delete them or not,” The Detective replied, before turning back to his task.

I watched him for a minute or two, noticing the intense look on his face never wavered. Suddenly he smiled for a brief moment as he opened another email, then his face darkened, he clicked on a link within the email, again on the web page he was sent to, then the intense look returned as he went back to more emails. Curious about the change, I interrupted him.

“Sir, you looked so focused, then one of those messages elicited a different reaction. May I inquire as to the content of said message?”

The Detective looked up, seemed to gather his thoughts, then replied.

“Quite so Watson, your powers of observation improve with each passing day.” Not sure if he was being gracious or sarcastic, I did not respond. “The message that you correctly noted caused a different reaction was from a relatively new marketer, whose list I had recently joined. I had high hopes that the lad would be providing some refreshing new insights, but alas, it was merely a pitch… again.”

“I noticed you clicked on a link in the email sir. Surely there must have been something that caught your eye,” I observed.

“That was the unsubscribe link Watson. If the lad chooses to bombard me with solicitations rather than his thoughts, I am better off without his emails,” The Detective explained.

“I’m confused sir, I saw you delete the messages of several of the major lights in the industry, but it was only a delete, not an unsubscribe. How are they different?” I exclaimed.

“Ahh Watson, I hold all of those major lights, as you put it, in high esteem. I can tolerate their sales tactics for a much greater time simply because they have proven themselves to me. There may be new products at some time that do spark my interest. I would like to able to continue to get notices of such products or programs. So I remain on their lists. However, so you don’t need to ask the question, the person I unsubscribed from did not prove themselves to me. They merely assumed since I had expressed enough interest to join their list, I would tolerate their incessant advertising. They assumed incorrectly.”

“I sense a moral approaching,” I said with a smile.

“Perceptive again Watson. Until you have gained someone’s trust and belief in you, don’t go sending steady streams of offers at them. A person needs to believe in you. They want to believe in you. They want to trust you. If you immediately begin pounding them with requests to buy something without giving them some indication that you understand their issues, and their pains, you violate that fragile trust and never give them an opportunity to believe in you. You must nurture before you sell,” The Detective concluded.

“Eloquently put sir,” I said as the Detective turned back to his email review with a slightly dismissive wave of his hand.