The Facts Don’t Speak for Themselves

On Feelings, Facts, and the Minefield of Human Motivation

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

A few months ago, I was on the phone with the sourcing manager of a prospective customer. I had submitted a quote to her a week ago, and I was following up to see what the next steps were. As I suspected, the next step was: lower your prices.

I asked the sourcing manager that I was working with: what number do you need us to get to and why? Her answer was that she needed to see a 7% reduction in our pricing. She needed that because she and her leadership are facts-based people. Her (paraphrased) explanation was: “Just show me the facts. Show me the numbers. Facts tell the stories. It doesn’t matter how people feel about things. The facts speak for themselves.”

I lowered our pricing as she asked. Taking her at her word that “the facts would speak for themselves.

We didn’t hear back.

I Guess We Don’t Need Marketers…

So I scheduled a follow-up call with to find out what happened. The sourcing manager began to tell a story about how the people at the site had feelings of loyalty to their current supplier. There was concern about bringing us in — despite our lower pricing.