HOW TO OVERCOME
THE “IT’S NOT ENOUGH MONEY”
COMPLAINT
FROM A POTENTIAL BILLBOARD LANDOWNER
Periodically, you will come across the landowner of a potential
billboard location that throws up an unusual response: “it’s not
enough money”. But not in the “I want more money” argument.
That’s just a part of negotiation. Instead, the argument
is “I don’t mess with anything that pays such little money, so
get out of my office”. You can get this response even when the
amount you offered is quite large, like $1,000 per month.
Let’s
first examine what is too little money to mess with for a sane
person. Clearly, a lot of people would not bother with something
for, say, $1. If you sent a form to 100 people and told them to
fill it out and return it, postage prepaid, and they would be
sent $1, most of the folks you send it out to would never return
it. However, if you increased that amount to $20, almost all of
them would. So, for the sake of argument, let’s say that most
people have a threshold of $20 to be on their radar screen of an
attractive offer.
Is your
proposed billboard groundrent over $20? Sure it is. Its’
probably at least $100 per month. I think you’d agree that no
sane person would dismiss $100 as not worthy of some time on
their part.
And then
there’s the “multiplier” effect on that $100 per month. In real
estate, income is discussed in terms of a capitalization (or
“cap”) rate, normally benchmarked at around 10%. That means that
the $100 per month you are offering actually enhances the value
of the property by $100 x 12 x10 = $12,000. So clearly, the
amount you are offering, even at $100 per month, is substantial
enough to attract anyone’s attention, and the landowner is
clearly screwed in the head.
Let me
give you a real-life example of the value of some income. I once
approached Wirt Davis, one of the founders of Republic Bank, and
one of the wealthiest men in Dallas, about putting a billboard
on a small piece of vacant land he owned on the Trinity River. I
sent him a letter, as I always did, but I assumed that he would
never respond, since why would a multi-millionaire have any
interest in my offer of $1,000 per year? So you can imagine my
amazement when he immediately phoned me with excitement over my
generous offer. The reason he was a multi-millionaire was
because he knew the value of a buck.
Since
we’re in agreement that your offer is certainly worthy of
respect, we need to come up with a plan to invigorate this
individual who clearly has no interest in “petty cash”. I’ve
found the only solution is to come up with a plan for the money
that gives more benefits than just dollars – it satisfies other
needs of the individual besides financial.
Here’s a
real life example of how to do this. I had a landowner who told
me that my offer of $6,000 per year wasn’t worthy of his time –
“I spend that much at lunch” he told me. So I put together
another offer for him. I offered to put together a program for
his employees (he owned apartment buildings) in which the
“employee of the month” would get $500. Don’t ask me why he
couldn’t do the same thing himself with the money, but the idea
of being a big shot with his employees, and be the judge of who
won the money, intrigued him. I have used this same appeal on
several occasions. My sales pitch goes like this “I realize that
you are very rich and the amount I am proposing means nothing to
you, but it does mean a lot to someone who does not have much
money. Would you allow me to start an employee of the
month/scholarship/charitable gift in your honor?” I think it’s
as pathetic as you do to have to feed someone’s ego like this,
but if that’s what gets the job done, then that’s O.K.
So don’t
be discouraged when someone says your offer is not worthy of
discussion. Just take that money and repackage it into something
more attractive. Apparently, a dollar worth of ego is worth more
than a dollar of cash.
