Rude People

[hrdickinson]

Security company managers/owners in this industry are the most rude people I have ever encountered in my entire 30 year career! I am so p***** off, I can't begin to tell you. But I will anyway. This morning, I had an online demo of our contract pricing software scheduled for the second Thursday in a row with two individuals from a regional company in the southeast. I am tempted to name it but I won't. Last Thursday, when I'm sitting here with the gotomeeting session going and neither one calls the conference call number, after 15 minutes, I called them. Neither one was in their office and neither one bothered to call me. No problem, we rescheduled for this morning.

Yesterday I sent out a reminder email to both and received a "Read Receipt". This morning, 10 minutes before the session one guy's secretary calls me to say he is out of town. When I called the second person (different location) to tell her we will have to reschedule, I found that she wasn't in either!

I am sick of this cr*p. This happens all the time. One has already seen the software and is all excited about it. I'm sending them an email telling them that I have software they need. If they want to schedule a third time, it will cost them at my hourly billing rate (this is not good marketing advice). Alternatively, they can download the free trial version, and then go to my website, take out theri f***ing credit card and buy it.

One person in this forum posted a thread asking where they could find pricing/bidding software. I responded to the post and after a couple of weeks, emailed the person asking if he/she had had a chance to check it out on the website. NO RESPONSE.

If they treat their clients this way (and I know many do) that is why there are 10,000 companies in the US and 9.900 can't grow beyond 2,000 weekly hours.

Geoff, feel free to zap this, but I needed to vent somewhere! Thanks, I feel better. I can now resume my daily activities of calling the 9,900, at their request, and leaving voice mail messages that are never returned!

[Andy Taylor]

I think your problems are common in the sales industry, not just to security.

[Bill Warnock]

Richard I know just how you feel. You work up a presentation at a client's request and send it to them. After three call back attempts, you are curtly informed by a "personal ASSistant," no mistake, I intentionally held down the shift key for the first three letters, they have no further interest in the proposal. They do this to you three times. Then at an ASIS Chapter meeting you learn from others in your speciality the same companies have done that very same thing to them.
Worse yet Richard, is the client who failed an inspection and hires you to perform a security survey to recommend ways in which to improve before the reinspection. You have an inbriefing with all the players and establish the ground rules. They all agree to your proposal and sign an agreement, copies of which go to their counsel, yours and your accountant. After the survey is completed, you make your initial outbriefing covering first the deficiencies noted during the compliance inspection. It suddenly goes down hill from there. You have uncovered a major theft and diversion scheme. This is carefully laid out. Suddenly they are combative, and you are ordered to remove certain portions of the report or you will not be paid and they will take legal action for libel. You remind them of the statements they agreed to which have been sent to your lawyer and their counsel.
You are forced to pack up and leave. $5K down the drain. You then are compelled to send all of your documentation to the US Attorney in the District where you were along with a copy to your lawyer as you have knowledge that federal law has been broken.
The next thing you get is a subpoena to testify before a grand jury. Oh God, Richard, that is such fun!
Then silence. A two thirty in the morning the phone rings and your lawyer tells you the gods have smiled upon you and all the participants were taken into custody. In the end they all plead out and that is that. Not quite, your reputation for being firm, fair and not backing off cause all your business prospects to vaporize. Sadly that happens to a lot of small business people.
In the guide I send to prospective clients, all this is carefully spelled out. I didn't just pull this stuff out of the air, that is why you have a lawyer assist you in its preparation. The ground rules are spelled out way in advance of going on site. Some of the forum members have copies of this guide.
Well now, we both feel better having vented. To boot, I sleep soundly!
Enjoy the day,
Bill

[N. A. Corbier]

Well, I'm not zapping it.

First, I can't remember HR's first name, so he's now Homestar Runner. I think he'll understand. (If any of you don't, please see homestarrunner.com. If you do, then you are one of us and are laughing right now.)

I've found it amusingly infuriating when you sell a product (or in my case) a service, everyone is on board, and then they drop off the face of the earth at one of the following points:

1. Formal proposal sent.
2. Contract due for signing.
3. Payment. (No one escapes me for long, though.)

Its infuriating, indeed. I've had people on this forum express interest, then ... die off? I'm not sure what happened. Granted, I don't harangue them over it. Some, I know, are not in an operative position to do online marketing or print material yet. Others are locked into contracts from previous decisions made.

[Chucky]

I feel that a lot of this behavior in the security field is Champaign taste on a beer budget. Some companies have all their eggs in one basket and like the stock market the slightest rumor that the main client is shopping for a cheaper company will send them hiding from purchasing commitments. Or perhaps you gave them to much info on your demo and they figured out what they need to do themselves and head to radio shack meanwhile keeping you on the hook just in case.

Example a good friend owns a cement crack fixing company for basements, pools etc. They are off the wall with business and can't keep up. So I thought what if I E-Mailed the school in the mid west that he sends his guys @ $600.00 a pop to learn how to do this work. Not only did the school tell me how but posted 6 video scenarios from beginning to end on how to do it and how not to. Now all I had to do was shop around for the best prices of supplies and get to work. It has to be hard to sell something you are excited about without giving to much away. Or I could totally be off track and those clients are simply butt holes.

[hrdickinson]

Thanks guys for the replies, support and opinions. I think you're all right in one way or another.

[SecTrainer]

The world is full of "flakes". In fact, I'd say the ratio is probably right along the lines of Pareto's Law - 80% flakes to 20% non-flakes. Before you decide the ratio is too high, consider what constitutes a "flake".

A "flake" is any time-waster, so it includes a lot of people who:

1. Have no use at all for your product. These people aren't even in the industry you sell to. Maybe they were just following a Google link and became intrigued by what you offer.

2. Have no reasonably foreseeable (say, 3 to 6 months out, max) need for your product.

3. Have no budget for your product.

4. Have no purchasing or recommendation authority within their organization.

5. Pipe-dreamers and grandiose schemers.

6. Don't have a platform that can support your product anyway.

7. Congenitally unable to make decisions even when they do need to do something.

8. Caught in the "surely I can find this cheaper" trap.

9. Interested in seeing your product so they can make it themselves.

10. Ignorant about ROI and other analytical tools for reaching sound business decisions.

11. Simply self-centered. These people feel the world dances attendance upon them (or should), and are blatantly indifferent to whether or not they are wasting the time and other resources of other people.

I'm sure there are others!

The point is that:

1. Most of these people cannot and will never purchase from you.

2. Of the small percentage who do, they usually make lousy customers and/or business partners.

Distinguishing flakes from those who might just initially look like flakes (for instance, an appointment is missed, but for very legitimate reasons) is crucial to limiting their ability to sap your time and energy.

Fortunately, most flakes are self-identifying, often by the very sort of events that you describe. There is just "something wrong" with the way they respond to your early inquiries and your attempts to establish a business relationship with them, demonstrate your product, etc. I think that the best advice is to keep your flake-detector fine-tuned, and disengage rapidly when it sounds the alarm.

Some companies respond to initial inquiries with a survey that is obviously intended to weed out flakes, but it doesn't look like that. It usually begins:

"Thanks very much for your interest. In order to provide the best overview of our product for your specific needs, we would appreciate your taking a minute to provide the following information:

1. Your industry (choice menu relevant to your product)
2. Your position (title choice menu)
3. Company size - employees (range choice menu)
4. Approximate annual sales - $ (range choice menu)
5. How long in business? (range choice menu)
6. Are you currently using another software application to prepare bids? (Yes/No)
7. Approximately how many bids or RFQs do you prepare per year?
8. Do you believe that your contracts could be more profitable by using a more comprehensive bidding process?
9. By what percentage do you believe your profitability could be maximized with better bids?
10. Do you select or recommend business process software for your company?

...etc. Probably no more than 10 questions.

The subtle purpose of this survey is not only to identify serious prospects, but also to set up certain expectations about your presentation - i.e., that you're going to show this prospect how to maximize his profits. The answer to the last question - if "no" - tells you that your next step is to identify the decision-maker and politely insist that they be included in any product demonstration, etc.

Just my 2 cents!