A Business First

InteractRV has been growing steadily since 2000, helping RV Dealerships accomplish their website and Internet marketing goals. It has truly been an exciting time ... learning the RV business and studying the RV buying consumer, their behavior both online and off.

One of the 'feathers in our cap' has been the fact that we've been able to say as a company ... we've never lost a client. Well, that's about to change ... we've had our first defector.

Oh, the rush of emotion when the conversation occurred ... the feelings of frustration and concern. The initial state of mind rushes to denial and worry ... it can't be happening ... what did we do wrong. It takes a day or so, but the body and mind come back into balance and thinking straight is possible once again.

I'm always interested in learning from our success and failures ... so the process of breaking down what happened begins. Scanning through client notes and trudging through sent/received emails ... converstions with employees ... looking for 'that thing' if done differently would have saved us from this experience all together. So, where did we go wrong?

Emerson Eggerich in Love & Respect talks about men having blue lenses in their glasses and women having pink lenses. If you've any relationship with the opposite sex you know that women and men tend to 'see' things differently and this can lead us into thinking that what the other person sees in our relationship is wrong. Emerson coins this as ... not wrong, just different.

I began to wonder ... did we do anything wrong to 'lose' this business relationship or is it possible that we are just seeing things differently?

They'd been a client for nearly 3 years ... we had good dialogue with them consistently ... just 4 months prior they had made a committment to improve their existing website ... we had communicated the project every two weeks ... price was discussed and agreed to...

And that's where the difference was ... based on what they said their goals were we had worked with them to define what needed to improve to achieve them ... and agreed on the cost. In marketing, whether traditional or online cost is a sister to risk. We eat, breath, and sleep website marketing and been bleseed by helping numerous other dealers accomplish their goals ... so, we know what it takes.

After all was said and done this client wasn't willing to take the risk/cost to acheive what they said their goals were ... now they appear to be taking the route that most dealerships take ... the road filled with progress potholes, expensive detours, and expectation roadblocks.

So did we do something wrong? Are they wrong for going elsewhere? No, they just see things differently and I wish them the best of luck!

Until next time ... Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is. H. Jackson Browne