Topic: How Not to Reply to a Business Inquiry (Page 1 of 1)

You know, I never fancied myself much of a businessman. But over the last couple of years, I've come to realize I'm better at conducting business than many so-called professionals out there. Some I've learned by watching others, but a lot of it, to me, just seems like common sense.

Today, I sent a number of inquiries to various companies about developing a portion of my upcoming Web site, one of which I had to send using the company's contact form. I gave that particular company, as I did the others, my name, my e-mail address and an explanation of what I was looking for (commerce functionality for selling my photographs). Here's their reply (emphasis mine):

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Dear Wesley,

Thank you for taking the time to explore [company name omitted] and introduce yourself. Successfully launching a web project is an interesting and rewarding process. The first step is finding the right people for your particular needs. We appreciate that you have already chosen to learn about what our web design firm can offer you.

Based on the requirements you shared, I am thinking that we would not be a good match in your case. We do not usually work with nearly anonymous individuals (no phone, no address). Also, we do not specialize in Drupal.

Your photography work looks great, and we wish you all of the very best Wesley. Thank you again for your interest in our services.

Warmest Regards,
[names omitted]

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First, I find it funny they think my photography work looks great, when none of my photography is currently on my site.

More importantly, they don't work with "nearly anonymous individuals"? Is it just me, or is this blatantly condescending? I gave them my full name, my e-mail address and my Web site address. My inquiry was professional and detailed. What else did they need? Besides, all they had to tell me was that they didn't work with Drupal.

I can say with confidence that I won't be seeking their services in the future, and I won't be recommending them to others.

Sometimes it's just a misunderstanding. Not always, maybe even not most of the time, but sometimes. If you really care, it's important to communicate some more and have them make themselves absolutely clear.

The reverse is actually happening to me as I try to reply to a biz inquiry.

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Good afternoon.

I have seen the batch that you have made for personnel in [company name].
I need to made the same for my personnel, what is the cost for that, please?

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My Reply...

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Thank you for your inquiry.
Please provide us with a bit more info about exactly what you need.

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Then the guy replies with...

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It is exactly the batch that you have supply for [company name], color, dimension, etch?
If you are the one have made this batch, you know what the price is.
I need the same sample for my personnel.
I need to know what this price to start to speak about it.

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I guess it really depends on who you're dealing with and like Wes said when it comes to running a business most of it is common sense.

Yeah, not all professionals are that professional. It certainly possible that misunderstanding happens, but it can also be that they respond without having done their home work. When I get a request like that, I would certainly look closely at the website at hand and do a somewhat quick analysis, and in my response mention some things I've learned from analyzing the website. It will obviously take a few minutes extra to do this before replying to the email, but it also will give me a much better chance of getting the job.

Workpage http://www.vitaleffect.com/
Homepage: http://www.dolphinstreet.com/

Hope that was not one I recommended Could be though!

A lot of the people I know in the business stay very busy and will pick their clients based on criteria that seem luxurious to mere mortals. For instance I might choose to work for a company with the clear ability to pay the bill while these dudes' are interested in that, sure, but it's usually third on the list behind the positioning they can achieve for their company based on the relationship (networking) and lifetime value of the client.

When you're offering a one-shot chance to build something, based on Drupal at that, it becomes difficult to justify taking the work when you're busy up to your eyeballs.

But yea, sounded a bit condescending, they could have handled that reply much better.

You might have gooder luck hiring off of elance or something similar, or perhaps from within the Drupal dev community. Lot more open source developers concentrated on elance and the like and with the rating systems as mature as they are now, you can usually be assured that you're getting the goods. With your organizational abilities and the specs docs you've developed I bet you'd have real good luck there.

(Meant to get back to this earlier, but I've been under the weather.)

They sent this follow-up later that day:

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Dear Wesley,

As a follow-up, we wanted to acknowledge that we understand you may be traveling or have other reasons for needing to remain anonymous during initial contact. We were only hoping to explain that it is extremely unusual and usually a sign of a mis-match between our firm and a potential customer.

I hope it came across as we meant it in the prior email and did not offend you.

Please take care,

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Obviously, they, too, realized it sounded condescending. But, honestly, I've never heard of using such a criterion to determine a "mismatch" between companies. Especially since I may have withheld my phone number on initial contact for the very reason they proposed. If it's so vital that they have my mailing address and phone number when making initial contact -- I don't know -- why not make those form fields required? Besides -- again -- all they had to say was they didn't work with Drupal. How is anything else relevant after that?

As for my not being a big enough fish to fry for them, I never even got a chance to tell them exactly what the project was. For all they know, I had $30,000 to spend on the Web's next big thing. But because I wanted them to reply via e-mail initially (so I could send them my outline), they'll never know.

And don't worry, Jason, it wasn't someone you recommended. Unfortunately, the company you suggested was .NET only. But they were nice when they told me.

Me, I learned something a long time ago. Everybody starts out small. Treat them as small, and they'll do the same when they get bigger than you.

Another Way Not to Do Business: Alienate the Customer Up Front

From the Apotheis Web site (emphasis mine):

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We do not haggle
We do not play negotiation games. We will not respond to people who approach us in this manner. It is never worth the time and is most often indication of a client who will not be a good fit with our way of doing business. If that is your approach to working with your interactive agency, consider doing business elsewhere.

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At least they're honest in telling you they'll rate your importance based on how much you're willing to fork out.

*Double post* - dreadfully sorry.

(Edited by White Hawk on 06-27-2007 14:05)

With that remark on 'treating small', Wes, you made me think of an old phrase that still stands as an excellent remark on most things, not least of all, business practice:

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Be careful of whom you tread upon on the way up, as you may meet them again on the way down.

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Sure, it bears only tenuous relevance to this topic, but I'm stuck at a conference with little to do but troll... apple-oggies.

jes oh jes, .NET is getting on my nerves big time. but it's very funny, I've seen some of their more upscale and resource intensive site cores built on WordPress, go figguh