04/03/2005: "Why Pay for a Copywriter?"

I get e-mail like the following from time to time:

Dear Sir,

I am starting a New Company from 1st April. Name of company will be "Shri
XXX XXX".

I am doing a business of web development, designing, cd presentation etc.

Please suggest me slogan for my new company.

Thanking You,

Well, to begin with, the fool doesn't even know I'm a woman, not a "sir." So this tells us a lot about him. I know he's not worth my time but just to play around a bit, I send him my quote.

"I can't afford that", he replies by e-mail. (I'm surprised he even answered!)

I write him back --- still playing --- "How much can you afford?", I ask.

No reply.

See, here's the thing. Many very foolish, very pitiful, very unsuccessful failures don't value the very people who could make them rich --- the people who can sell with words. They want to pay us crumbs. I say f-ck 'em. Why should I make them rich and myself poor? Indeed!

I wonder if these same wretched souls would tell their surgeon he'd have to lower his fee if he wanted their business? If his life were in the balance, would he pay anything to get well? To live? Of course he would. He loves himself.

Yet he won't pay the person who can give him wealth and success. He's a bloody fool! And there are lots of them out there.

Another guy wrote me back and said he could get lots of cheaper writers than me. You bet he could. And he'll get exactly what he pays for too. He's a fool.

I admire people, smart people, who know they have to pay high fees to get where they want to go. Success is not a cheap affair. It is not for skin flints. Microsoft pays very high fees and salaries for copywriting and marketing. My clients pay high fees. And they get their money's worth. They get a truck load of value that other people don't get. They understand and appreciate value.

The difference in my clients and the skin flints is that my clients are very successful and very smart. And it's my job to make sure they stay that way.