Charles had a problem. He considered himself an entrepreneur. I could have helped. He might have broken even or seen a profit.

Charles had an industrial strength hand cleaner manufactured. The hand cleaner was in stock. It was stored in a truck outside his automobile body shop. He had no place for it. He needed to get rid of it. He thought the best way was to illustrate the effectiveness of his product on video and send a sales packet to other body shops. I agreed.

A friend of mine, a professional speaker, used to say, ?The only thing worse than not having a video, is having a bad video.? Most people don?t understand that. Charles hadn?t a clue. He had horse traded for a computer that would video edit footage. He then found someone who said they could write and produce a sales video.

The reality of the situation was that he had an antiquated computer that did a decent job when it was newly on the market, but the high-tech world had passed it by. His writer/producer thought of himself as ?talent.? He wanted to act in the video as well as write and produce. Charles came to me for advice. The footage I saw was awful.

Bad news never goes over well. Effective sales videos are produced by professionals. They know what they?re doing. They?ve done it before. They are experienced. They can be trusted. Charles didn?t want to spend the money. ?Do you know anybody that?s still learning, that might want to produce a video to get some credit,? he asked.

We chatted for a while and I asked him about his eye. There was a bright, blood red spot on his right eye. Charles explained that he had been grinding metal in his shop and got a sliver in his eye. He went to the emergency room, where a doctor had carefully removed the piece of metal from his eye. The doctor saved his eye.

I nodded and asked, ?You must have had a competent doctor, who was worth every penny. That?s good. But, did you stop and ask for someone who could remove the sliver cheaper? Say a medical student that wanted to try a small operation for some experience and credit??

Charles looked at me and said, ?Oh, you?re good.? He saw the implication and connection instantly.

Charles never bought the sales video. And for years I saw the truck parked in the same spot by his shop. The truck never moved and I?m willing to bet the hand-cleaner didn?t either. The product looked like it was worthwhile. A good sales video could have helped his marketing.

I thought my sales question was a great closer. I think about it and smile. Sometimes even the best closing arguments don?t work. Perhaps, he is keeping an eye out for a better deal.

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