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Process/Systems

If you've ever been around a 17-year-old (or been one yourself), you're likely aware of how effortlessly they can combine rudeness with a request for something from you.

"Gawd, don't you know anything!? None of my friends' mothers would say that! Can I use the car?"

They're so focused on their own perspective in the relationship that you've become little more than a tool for getting what they want. Certainly not a human being with thoughts, feelings and reactions all your own.

So what does that have to do with marketing? Well, I've noticed that same lack of "other" perspective oozing into the marketing behaviors of some small business owners. Let me make haste to remind you - If you're hoping for a positive response to your request, Rule #1 is not to p*** off the person who's got something you want (in other words, clients or potential clients).

Now I realize the same things aren't going to annoy everyone. But I thought I'd share with you my top 3 (so far) pet peeves of how entrepreneurs are getting my goat (a quaint American expression meaning "to irritate"). Here they are, in no particular order:

1) Signing me up for their newsletter without permission - Actually, this probably IS my number one pet peeve. A colleague starts a new business or I meet someone at a workshop, and next thing I know, I'm on their mailing list.

I get far too much email to want to be on newsletter lists for which I've not registered. And if I know the person at all, it puts me in the awkward position of having to unsubscribe and worry (even momentarily) about creating bad feelings. So they've just irritated me twice - first, by putting me on their list unasked and second, by making me feel uncomfortable about how to get off their list.

2) Answering the phone and then saying, "Can you hold? I'm on the other line" - I suppose the theory here is that it's nice to have the phone answered by a live person. But I'm left with the impression that the other person they're talking to is more important than me. Not exactly the best mindset putting me in the mood to hire them. Maybe I'm a party of one here, but quite frankly, I'd rather be able to leave a message so they can call me back when they're available.

3) Not communicating when there's a change in time frame - I realize that things may come up for a service provider that cause a projected (and agreed upon) timeline to change. A death in the family, an unexpected snafu in my project, whatever, but I don't want to be left out of the loop and wondering what's going on.

I know there are differing ideas about punctuality. But if we say "10 days" and two weeks later I'm still waiting to hear from them, you can bet I'm not happy. Perhaps the person is trying to avoid a conflict by not giving me the bad news that things have been delayed. But keeping me in the dark is more upsetting than telling me something has changed.

It's useful to put on your "client" hat and take a look at some of the actions, strategies and systems you have in place in your business. You may be surprised to find you're causing irritation -and doing damage to a relationship you want to strengthen- without even realizing it.