“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

If you are like me and you grew up in the 1970s/1980s, you probably watched your fair share of cartoons on TV.

Remember Popeye?

On this show, there was a recurring character J. Wellington Wimpy (?Wimpy?) whose favorite catchphrase was

?I?ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.?

Image for postImage credit: Ammon Beckstrom https://www.flickr.com/photos/abeckstrom/5504735515

Did Wimpy intend to pay for his hamburger at some future date?

Or were his intentions less than sincere?

I see a striking parallel in our own business.

At least once every three to four weeks, someone approaches us for help growing their leads/customers/revenue, peruses the available programs on our website, contacts us to discuss working togther, and then injects a bizarre curveball.

?I?ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.?

Or in this case, let?s talk about a ?partnership.?

Presumably, a partnership where we?d invest ten of thousands of dollars in resources building out strategy, traffic generation assets, lead generation assets, and lead nurturing assets for the promise of earning a sales commission if/when something actually closes. (But how do we know how effective their sales process is, let alone their product and the rest of their supporting business processes?)

When this happens, I typically chalk it up to two things:

  1. The potential client doesn?t see a lack of differentiation as one of their core problems. (Essentially, the potential client is ?fine? battling it out as a commodity broker, even going head-to-head with Amazon if needed. Ask the nation?s largest retailers how that approach is working out for them.)
  2. The potential client thinks the rules don?t apply to them. (This would be as if this person went out for lunch, saw that the burger/fries combo on the menu was $8.99, and thought they?d negotiate it down to a buck or two ? just because.)

Your thoughts?

This article ? ?I?ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.? ? originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse.

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