Now and again though fate steps in and sends you a prospect where you have to figure out for yourself where he or she is coming from and where in fact they think they're heading.

I got one such prospect a few weeks ago in the shape of Rocco, a gentle giant from Brooklyn.

How do I know Rocco is a giant?

He emailed a picture of himself towering over his significant other and some friends.

How do I know he's gentle?

Read on…

Rocco emailed me expressing interest in three of my products but he didn't want them in digital format (which would have cost him $107 in total) he wanted hard copy.

I suggested CD formatting.

He got back to me saying, “No, I don't want CDs, I want hard copy. I'll pay a grand”

So now I thought, loony tunes, but I emailed Rocco back intimating that if he deposited $200 in my PayPal account I'd give him what he wanted; hard copy on all three products

I reckoned I would hear no more but the following morning on checking my PayPal account I discovered to my astonishment that one thousand dollars had been deposited.

I can't take this man's money I protested and I told him so.

Rocco got back to me within the hour.

His brusque message read, “I said a grand, I meant a grand, so take a grand”.

So I took Rocco's grand.

Wouldn't you?

I mean who wants to be emailed to death…

The moral:

Never assume you know better than prospects – or what they are prepared to pay – and why. Maybe Rocco has a sight problem beyond my ken or maybe he finds it difficult to read from a computer screen. I will never know for sure but this I do know. Rocco is delighted with the hard copy he craved.

He told me so… in yet another email.