Thank you Carol, that is greatly, greatly appreciated coming from a copywriter of your calibre. You are spot on 🙂

I totally understand where you are coming from.

As you know I’m a copywriter and one of the golden rules when writing any sales message is ‘do not insult your readers’.

As you say making disparaging remarks about your competition is insulting your reader’s intelligence (at least, that is what I think). It also shows a lack of writing (and communicating) skill if they cannot describe their services in an upbeat, positive and persuasive way.

And Sandy is right… writing derogatory comments is an attempt to manipulate and muddy the competitive waters, when in reality keeping channels clear with competitors may be an advantage in the future if they ever need some support or help from a fellow professional!

At the end of the day… their communication style will attract the type of customers they deserve and that may not be the ones they want!

~ Carol

Sandy, thanks for that 🙂

Alan, nicely put. And you are an especially good listener my friend.

Mel, thank you also, always great hearing from you.

It is amazing… I have had several emails from people defending this way of communicating and attempting to find some middle ground where it is ok… One of whom said he thought it was ok that he had written next to his fees “I don’t charge as much as my fellow local professionals because I like to ensure it is not only the well-off who can see a good quality hypnotherapist.”

This seems initially quite inocuous, but why the need to compare to other hypnotherapists and create an unwritten sense about those professional peers? Why not just say “I charge £XYZ” ?? You can even go on to explain your reasons, but not in the manner of comparing and moaning about other hypnotherapists!

That said, most emails I have received, agree with me… And that is making me smile. 🙂