Question

A sales manager sends this email: 

"An order just arrived to my client and the print doesn't match the proof that the client approved for the order. They want us to re-print the order." 

How would you respond to that email?

Answer 1

First of all, appreciate one critical thing: the client probably knows their target audience a lot better than you do. Just as web professionals quickly learn personality types among their own clients, your client interacts with their target audience on a daily basis and knows what makes them tick… and that may be just what makes you cringe.

You can begin to establish if the client is wrong simply by exploring why the client is making such a request and what the business case for it is. It could well be a situation in which they spoke to many people in the target audience demographic, and they all said that they were more likely to click an animated Flash banner link than a static one, or that they felt more engaged by a website that had stock images of smiling people everywhere.

It could be that the picture of the jigsaw-puzzle globe with a piece missing actually sums up the client’s sales pitch quite well and that similar messaging has proven to win over potential customers in the past.

I hope this helps you.