Saturday
Mar152008
Guessing Games Stink. Right?
Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 03:15PM 
Do you intentionally allow customers to guess about your brand story?
At this point, you're probably shaking your head and thinking, "Of course not! No way!"
Playing guessing games while developing your video brand story with your producer is no different.
For example...
When talking budgets, there's a difference between saying:
- "I don't know what our budget is" because you truly don't know.
And...
- "I don't know what our budget is" when you truly do know.
It's tempting to say "I don't know what our budget is" when you do know.
Saying this is one of the five temptations every corporate video client should avoid.
Doing this puts your relationship with your producer right back into the "guessing game" business.
Certainly, your brand story isn't a guessing game. Or is it?
---Tom
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Reader Comments (2)
Many companies are afraid to share their budgets because some vendors have the propensity to spend what they are given. So some companies withhold information, thinking they can negotiate a better deal or protect themselves. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.
Recently, one of the agencies we work for acquired a new account after the last agency, who knew the budget, misspent $2.1 million. There more often some abuse budget knowledge, the more reluctant companies will be able to share it.
Of course, there are also some have no idea idea what's a suitable communication budget anyway. They'll overspend on office space and then scrimp on marketing that informs people about the space, taking the erred "if we built it, they will come" approach to business.
Anyway, there are many reasons companies do not share budgets. For someone like yourself, it may be even more important to find out why they aren't sharing ... which may help you move out of playing the game and positioning yourself as a trusted adviser who can help them set a budget.
Yes, a trusted adviser is exactly where I often wind up.
But what often happens is this: you develop a plan of action with a budget and THEN they say it's not in the budget. Of course, had we known up front what the budget range is, then a solution could have been developed within that target range.
Points well taken!
Tom