In sales, being well-liked is a tie-breaker

About a year ago, I shared a thought from Blair Enns where he stated that when it comes to sales, price is only a tie-breaker. It seems he considers a handful of things to “only be a tie-breaker”, as a recent episode of his 2Bobs podcast talked about how being well-liked is only a tie-breaker as well. To be clear, I agree with both of those statements.

I encourage you to listen to the entire show, but here’s the piece that matters. David and Blair are talking about marketing firms that have a desire to be liked and what that means:

David: It’s not bad to be liked. It’s just bad to try to overcome other things with it.

Blair: It’s a tie-breaking variable. The only meaningful variable is the client’s sense of your ability to solve problems, create value relative to the other firms under consideration. I think we all intuitively understand that if you are leaning on personality and likability in the sale, then the implied message is that you yourself see your ability to create value is no greater than the other firms under consideration. Because if you are a low-affinity person and you really thought “we’re the only option here”, you could show up however you want.

The thought that being well-liked is a big factor for a client relationship stems from the degree to which creative firms value their…