PAY ATTENTION!!!! INITIATIVE, SHOW IT!!! and why am I yelling?

I am sure we have all had that experience where someone asked us to do them a favor and being one prone to be kind we comply and then we get some follow up message that makes you go "really? Did you open the damn attachment? Did you read the damn email?" Did you bother to look at the screen before asking me for further assistance?" For example, if I make an introduction for you to one of my contacts and they don't respond, it seems appropriate ( to me anyway) to send a follow up e-mail yourself. After all, we are in sales and good sales people often have to have some persistence and initiative. So then  a few days or a week or more go by and they don't respond to your e-mail. Let me ask you, what would you do next? If you answered "call them" you would be correct. But wait Mike, you never gave me their phone number? I'm sorry my mistake. However there is this wonderful device called "the Internet" that contains just about every piece of information you could possibly need to contact somebody.  So then people will say " well, I didn't want to seem pushy." I can't speak for the rest of the sales world but If I take the time to introduce you to someone, I entirely expect you to make at least one phone call and send at least one email regarding the introduction. Very rarely will a customer take the initiative to call you after such an introduction, so take this opportunity and make the best of it.
And this leads to my bigger problem with the sales community, initiative or a gross lack there of. I recently sent a VERY good lead to a couple of contacts in my industry regarding a potential client in need of their services. Not only did they not thank me, but neither of them have contacted the customer. I don't want lunch or an award or something but a "hey thanks Mike" would be greatly appreciated. Oh yeah, a quick email or phone call to the customer is probably a pretty good idea too.
I admit, as a salesperson I make mistakes all the time. I forget to do stuff that I said I would. But when it comes to a new sale or a new opportunity and you don't EVEN send a quick note acknowledging the interaction, WTH?! If you are soooo busy that you don't need more customers, just tell me, I wont bother you any more. I don't know about all of you loyal readers, but I seem to have the exact opposite problem. I don't have enough customers.
I am often told by people that I follow up very quickly. My opinion on this matter has always been that answering an email or phone call only takes a couple minutes and if it is for a customer, why not? I am sure someone will blast me for making that statement and tell me that it is an "inefficient use" of my "selling hours." These are often the same people that like to tell me how effective cold calling still is. We will agree to disagree (at least I will, they will probably keep yelling into their megaphone that they're right). This is an important point to make across the board. If your treat everybody as equally important then they will also begin to treat you the same way. If you answer some calls right away but ignore others for days and weeks at a time and then respond "I'm sorry I've just been so busy" what you are really saying is "my relationship with you is largely less important than just about everything else going on in my life. Think about it, either you didn't read my email which means " oh it's just Mike, no way this is important, I'll read it later" or even worse you did read it and your lack of response says " Mike went out of his way to try and do something nice for me and I just don't give a crap." I am sure several people will blast me with responses like "well what about a death in a family or some other emergency?"
Every concept has very real exceptions. I find it "highly unlikely" that the overwhelming majority of people that ignore me are in the middle of a personal crisis. they just think very little of me and what I may be able to do for them. It's okay, I'm in sales, I am VERY used to people ignoring me, at least until they really need something, then I am "Mister Popular." I have a LinkedIn contact that is a very successful business owner in Baltimore. When I first reached out to him he quickly accepted my connect request and has subsequently ignored almost every single message I sent him. Every year I make a point to wish him a "Happy New Year" to which he always replies "thanks Mike, I hope you have a great one too!" but he ignores every single other message I send him. So I know he reads them. He just doesn't care enough to be a considerate human being and respond to them
In summary, Please share today's entry with your office mates and when they laugh and tell you "that's a good one" don't be afraid to say, "uh yeah, it's also how you act, so straighten up and fly right!"

Thanks for reading today

Mike S.

If you are in the Baltimore area, I hope you will come out to my next great Networking event. We are raising money for a very good cause.

Networking and FUNdraising 11-11-11 in Baltimore!