The Carrot Dangler

An opportunist that sells a dream. A poker player that bluffs the true value of their cards. They promise the world with no follow-through.

When I first started my business many years ago, naive and young, I never heard of the concept of a Carrot Dangler. At first I believed, after a few more I doubted, and now I’m skeptical.

Ladies and gentlemen, new and old business owners a like, allow me to introduce: The Carrot Dangler.

The Origins

Many years ago a financial planner, I shall call him Tony Chobbie, called me on behalf of another client for a job in which they hired my company. Tony, a slick-haired, fashionable, and charming man, called me to discuss the project on the request of my client. As I answered the phone he immediately greeted me in an abrasive but charismatic tone, as if I was friends with him from 10 years ago.

For more context, my client let me know that Tony tried to recommend his “friend” for the job but they chose me instead. They feared Tony recommended the friend not on merit but based on mutual financial benefit. A clear conflict of interest given the friend of Tony sent a substantial sized quote.

In my conversation to Tony, after 10 minutes of general small talk, he dangled his first carrot by flirtatiously saying:

Tony: “Sav, ya know what, now that I know you exist, imma send ya so much work, yeah, I got heaps of clients that need software stuff.”

At this point I felt excited. My brother and I fought hard for clients in our first years of business and Tony promised to “make me busy”. An angel sent down from heaven to help us. After I hung up the phone with Tony, I called my brother and business partner Dom:

Me: “Dom, that finance bloke, Tony, promised us heaps of clients, can you believe it? That’s great!”

Dom replied with glee:

Dom: “Great, our hard work is paying off.”

For anyone reading, please forgive my school boy naivety from 6 years ago. Back then I trusted everything that everyone said on face value because I assumed they matched the same authenticity I gave to others. Lakes reflect, not people.

Long story short, Tony ended up talking bad about us continuously to the client with provocation, made up stories that never happened which forced us to defend ourselves, and never sent us a single customer even to this day. He knew the effectiveness of dangling a carrot in front of us because we started our business recently and to build a client list takes an enormous effort. I am unable to 100% confirm his true motive but I assume he wanted to build a false sense of trust to help in his greater scheme plan: to throw us under the bus because we “stole” his referral bonus.

We completed the job successfully even with the hardship but the financial planner left a bad taste in my mouth with his unethical behaviour; empty promises and needless stress. When I self-reflected I thought to myself, after many years of study of my Computer Science honours degree I was book smart but street dumb (the worst combo for business).

The Carrot Dangler Antidote

Carrot Danglers continue to appear throughout my business career, whether they aim to receive a discount, use it as a negotiating chip, or create a false sense of trust… who knows. Their motives change, but the tactic stays the same: make a big and lucrative promise to use as a bargaining chip.

For example, another client of mine, I shall call them Eden Jones for anonymity, around a year ago said to me:

Eden: “Hey Sav, I have these large projects coming up with massive funding, we need this small one done first, can you do a better price?”

Eden promised a larger job to use as his bargaining chip to help negotiate a lower price for the current work. Unfortunately for Eden I drank the Carrot Dangler antidote years before. Dearest reader, want to know the antidote?

Drum roll….🥁🥁🥁

🎉 Experience 🎉

Let me explain. My business offers top notch website and app development services, not something cheap and commodity, plenty of others offer that. I know my quality of work returns my clients many multiples times what they paid me for the service. I am confident in my work, what my business offers, and the success it brings my clients. Even if a person dangles 1000 carrots, it means nothing. I know if they think I am quality they will hire me for future work, not because I negotiated down to their lower price but because they know the value myself and my company deliver them, accompanied with excellent customer service.

Not For Me

I loathe a Carrot Dangler. They lack the foresight to know that if they fail to follow through then they show a lack of authenticity and build a reputation of empty promises, like Tony Chobbie or Eden Jones. I dislike short term tactics. It’s not my style. I prefer authenticity every day of the week. I discovered that authenticity in the business world builds a robust client list and organic referrals, not the unethical financial incentive type like Tony Chobbie and his “friend”.

Please understand, I am not an advocate to distrust everyone. Someone might indeed dangle a true carrot and a big job might exist, but who cares?! I treat a dangled carrot as a secondary benefit, not a primary driver. Instead for the primary I focus on incredible customer service and produce top quality work. It helps land carrots in my hand, not suspended from above my head.

Authors Note: I replaced the names and positions of the people in all the stories for anonymity, as I do in all my posts. I share these stories as learning lessons for myself and other business owners around the world, not as a personal attack on individuals.