Marion's Blog

This blog is intended to rankle you all - to make you think, to make you react and hopefully to reconsider how you deal with agreements you make during the course of your daily, business, life. The reason? The reason is simple - I am fed up. Fed up with all those out there that seem to feel they can change the terms of what you had agreed, after the fact. And then claim you are wrong and they are right....

These past few weeks we have had another of those discussions. Quality vs. Quantity. Now, normally, I am a Quality person - I like things to be done well, to be executed at the highest possible level, professional and so on. I like Quality full stop.

But in some cases, you don't need Quality - you want Quantity and that is what you agree on with people. Numbers, Volume, clicks whatever it is, you agree a number - which both parties feel good about and agree to.

In this case, we had indeed opted for Quantity. But after the results were due in, and we stated that numbers had fallen way short of the agreed, we got the stock reply "But I delivered Quality!". Well - let me give you an example and see what you'd say to this.

Say you buy a beautiful new car, you sign the paperwork, you look forward to it for weeks and finally the day arrives that the dealer calls you and tells you it is waiting for you in the showroom. So you jump in your old automobile and drive over... but when you walk in, and face the beaming car dealer, you just look in shock... there is the car you ordered - but it is missing 2 wheels! You obviously complain but the car dealer says - "well sir, it's a gorgeous car isn't it? We delivered real Quality"...

I personally think you are not going to be so happy, you can't drive Quality, you can't do what you intended to do with it, which is get you around town, and whilst it IS lovely to look at, if you wanted decorative art, you could have bought a painting. So Quality is NOT what you agreed on, and is not what you wanted. So my question is, are you going to pay for it then?? Are you prepared to settle for 2 wheels instead of 4 and pay the same as you would have for the car you chose to drive around everywhere?? No, I am sure you would not.

So now - think about it, when you agree with a partner on numbers/volume/clicks or whatever, don't come back with the Quality card. If you do not deliver what was expected of you, just setlle and be happy with whatever makes sense for the performance which you DID deliver. It is foolish to think anyone will pay you for results that do not match the agreement.