How I Made $4000 for 15 Minutes of Work Helping a Customer

11 replies
I've always had a problem coming up with something inspirational to write about here but not too long ago I happened to have a chance to help one of my long time customers seal a deal for around $4 million dollars.

I didn't ask for anything in return but my customer insisted on paying me a fee for my services even though they only took around 15 minutes total time to do. I told him he didn't have to but if he wanted to then just pay me what he felt was due.

He then proceeded to write me a check for $4000 which blew me away. I even told him no I couldn't take it... but he kept on insisting (he is from Nigeria and I think it would have been insulting if I didn't).

Let me give you a little background though on the deal and how it all went down... now to start off with, this has nothing to do with Internet Marketing at all - just how a little help to a customer can pay big rewards even when you don't expect them!

I've been in the construction biz for approximately 30 years in parts for off road heavy equipment. Being in this biz for this long allows me a lot of contacts for different types of parts / equipment even if it isn't in my Company's product lines.

Last year one of my long time customers from overseas contacted me (I've known him for around 25 years) and said he needed to make a deal on some Competitor equipment before the end of the year but he didn't know if he could do the deal. It was for some types of equipment that didn't match exactly what we sold at my company.

I told him I had a few contacts with the local authorized dealer and would help him in anyway possible to make the deal happen. Remember though I'm in parts and he was asking about equipment... but I felt I needed to help him so I told him to give me the details of the deal.

At this time it was the beginning of December and he needed the deal done by the end of December for his customers end of year budget in Nigeria. They do have the same type of competitor dealers in Africa but his customer didn't like the local dealer over their and was asking my customer for help even though he was not an authorized dealer for this type of equipment and neither am I.

So I told him to first see if he could get all the information he could get about the deal like the total package price quoted along with the individual pieces of equipment prices. Once he did this I told him to figure in his fees along with the transportation costs to ship them over. That way he could pinpoint the exact pricing he needed to negotiate with this dealer to get the deal.

Once he had those figures I would put him in touch with someone here that I could trust to get the deal done. I then made one phone call (about 15 minutes) to someone I've been dealing with for about the same amount of years in the business at this dealer and asked him who the most trust worthy salesperson was he felt comfortable with presenting this deal to.

He gave me the name of the salesman and I passed that onto my customer and told him what to say and how to make sure the salesman would work with him to make this happen.

And in less then a few weeks they had all the details hashed out and had the equipment at the port ready to ship before the end of December!

A few months after that he was back in the US and stopped by and that is when he thanked me and insisted on writing me that check. I also sent part of this to my contact at the dealership as my thank you to him for helping also which he was also blown away with the payment from my customer.

So you can see with this story... even though I wasn't a dealer for this equipment, even though my customer wasn't a dealer for this equipment, and even though nobody had to go out of the way to make this deal happen as the customer in Nigeria had a authorized dealer not too far from them but didn't like their service... we all worked together to make this happen and didn't expect anything out of it.

BUT... we all profited from this one deal by just lending a hand even IF it was just one phone call and a little wisdom on how to make the deal work.

SO... if you have a customer that has a problem and needs a solution that you may not be able to directly help with don't be afraid to send him to a competitor (I hate this term anyway as they can be your customers too) as it may just pay off in the long one.

If you have a similar experience please post it here for all of us to read...

Regards,

TedK
#broker #customer #helping #joint venture #made #minutes #work
  • Profile picture of the author johnmags
    Great way to earn money is to help other people.

    In fact, that is one of the main ingredients of success - service. If you concentrate on earning profits then you will lose your customers and prospects. However, if you start helping other people then you will gradually realize that the more people you helped, the more you also earn; simply because you are service oriented rather than profit oriented.
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi Tedk,

      These two parts stood out for me -

      I didn't ask for anything in return but my customer insisted on paying me a fee for my services
      I also sent part of this to my contact at the dealership as my thank you to him for helping
      It's what you do when there is no legally-binding reason to do so that counts. Successful business is usually built around people and trust and realising that others might expect a 'drink' or 'tickle'. So many people (particularly online) don't seem to realise this and focus solely on grabbing as much as possible, as if there's no tomorrow.

      Sometimes the only way to establish trust and find out if others appreciate the 'rules of the game' is to leave yourself 'open' once, but never twice with someone who fails the test.
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePrince
    Anyone who is in business only to make money will eventually fail to those who care about their customers... good job proving that :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Princesse
    Happy and satisfied customers are the lifeforce of any business. The better one sees to the customer's individual needs, the better the payroll is.
    I always say a customer is an individual first and a customer second.
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    • Profile picture of the author adami
      Originally Posted by Warrior Princesse View Post

      I always say a customer is an individual first and a customer second.
      Totally agree with that. You have to view customers as real people and not just credit cards.

      Think about what they need or want and then provide it to them. They'll thank you for listening to their needs by buying your products in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author justcrowd2010
    Doing business is not always focused on having profit, but you must learn also to discipline yourself, maintain and manage everything because you might end up to zero
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  • Profile picture of the author tyroneshum
    I appreciate this great story, thanks for sharing.

    Totally these competitors can also turn as your customers by having them dealing with your customers and giving them what they need. It may sound ironic although what matters most is the amount of help you give in to your customers that lets them "pay-back" all your efforts straightaway.

    More power to you!
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    • Profile picture of the author tjk1058
      Originally Posted by tyroneshum View Post

      I appreciate this great story, thanks for sharing.

      Totally these competitors can also turn as your customers by having them dealing with your customers and giving them what they need. It may sound ironic although what matters most is the amount of help you give in to your customers that lets them "pay-back" all your efforts straightaway.

      More power to you!
      So true... many bosses over the years have ask me why I deal with "competitors". I've always believed that we all in this business to have fun... and feed our families. Competitors can be friends, family, or associates.

      Competition is fun... I treat it like a challenge if I can provide better service then them I will reap the rewards.

      But it was funny that 2 people both me and my customer who weren't the actual dealers was still able to pull this deal of for over $4 million dollars just by knowing some people and providing a better service then the end users local dealer a 1/2 a world away :-)

      TedK
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  • Profile picture of the author TycoonRob
    Great story! Sounds like good karma.
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    Doubt everything you believe.

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  • Profile picture of the author CianMcCarthy
    Banned
    Great stuff, just goes to show
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