If the system makes your customer wait, sell them not having to

There's a "no" that doesn't sound like a no.

It sounds like "when the grant comes through".

And it can last a year.

Here's how I think about it.

Many of our customers are clubs, associations and small businesses. When they want to go digital, the first thing they look for is public funding. Makes sense: if someone else can pay part of it, all the better.

The problem is the calendar. Between applying, processing and the money arriving, many months can pass. Meanwhile the problem is still there: fees chased by hand, a website that doesn't work, nobody moving forward.

The customer hasn't said no. But they haven't said yes either. They're waiting.

The fastest product is not waiting

One day it became clear. If time is what's holding the customer back, maybe what we should offer isn't a discount. It's time.

So we started doing something different: instead of waiting alongside the customer, we front part of the work ourselves. Start now, and payments begin later, once the customer is already feeling the value. And if the public funding arrives, it's still theirs.

When the system makes your customer wait a year, the fastest product you can sell them is not having to wait.

We don't compete with the grant. We're just faster.

It's not a gift

It's worth being honest about this: it isn't money you give away.

It's work you do now and expect to recover later, bit by bit. If the customer leaves early, you never see it again. It's a real risk.

That's why it only works under a few conditions:

• A specific figure. "We'll help you" means nothing. A clear amount is something the customer can weigh up and you can control.
• It leads to a long relationship. If the upfront work doesn't turn into a monthly fee, it's just a postponed loss.
• Payments start when the customer feels the value. Not before, because that puts them off, and not much later, because that sinks you.
• A limit. Decide how many of these you can carry at once. Customers' money isn't in a hurry, but it does run out.

Why a small company can do it

This is only possible if something else pays the bills in the meantime. In our case, web services. They let us wait for a customer's fees to start coming in without struggling.

It's the same deal as always: less money today in exchange for more control over how fast we grow. And, along the way, a customer who starts moving months earlier than they would have by waiting.

Next time a customer tells you "when the funding comes through", ask yourself what they're really waiting for.

Sometimes it isn't the money.

It's someone to help them get started.

P.S. If anyone from the ministry is reading this: the idea's yours. No paperwork.