Why You Should Never Apologize To Brands

I was helping a creator with a negotiation via DM recently and their reply to the brand started with "Apologies for the slow reply."

Seems harmless, right?

Not so much.

I've talked about why words matter but today I wanted to take that a step further.

Your very first interaction with the brand sets the tone in a very profound way.

When you start off by apologizing or saying sorry, especially for something as important as the timeliness of your message, you are actually drawing even more attention to it.

The brand might now think, "hmm, this creator did take a while to respond, that might not bode well for their responsiveness during the campaign."

Why even give them a reason to pause?

Honestly, they probably didn't even notice because they were emailing with 25 other creators too!

The other thing you're doing is instantly shifting the leverage to the brand and creating a power imbalance.

Why?

Because you've already done something "wrong" so now you might feel compelled to compromise on other areas of the deal that you wouldn't have before because you're concerned the brand might pull the offer.

Look, I know this might make you feel uneasy or go against your natural tendency to be polite, especially if you really were late in responding!

But there is a time and place...save it for when you actually need to repent!

You might think I'm making a big deal about something small like this and...you're right.

Because all of these small things can add up over the course of the negotiation into something very big, like a concession you'll have no choice but to make.

• Accepting the deal for a lot less money.

• Doing more posts than you really wanted to.

• Agreeing to usage terms or exclusivity that aren't ideal.

Why even start down that road?

Easy...don't.

By the way, what happened with the creator that I was helping with the negotiation?

Well...

I'm going to help them lock this down, don't worry lol.

But my sincere hope is that you start the week with a renewed perspective on why the words you use matter...

And that you'll re-read your emails just one more time before hitting send.

P.S. If you love geeking out on negotiation strategy stuff like this, consider joining the waitlist for my Brand Deal Wizard course.