In previous post, Contact Us, I probably got a little to far in “The Reply”, but will see if I can add a little here.

First, I realized it has been 3 weeks since my last post. That was not my intension, I need to do better.

Enough housekeeping.

I have been told I am a bit of an anomaly. If someone sends me a message, a personal message, I typically respond. Yes, even if it is a cold email from someone trying to sell me valve gasket thing-a-majigs for my V valves on my fire prevention system, if it appears to be a personal one-on-one message, I respond. LinkedIn message, yes response. DM on a random social site, yes response. Phone calls, yes, I pick up. I’m not perfect, but I never purposely do not respond.

I email many, many customers and suppliers and get very few responses. Don’t get me wrong, I begin with an email, and do whatever I need to, to make a connection and establish the best way to communicate.

In my opinion, there are 3 acceptable answers:

Yes, I would like to work with you

No, I don’t want any, please do not call me again

Maybe, let’s continue the conversation

I get it, if you reply you will be plugged into an automated loop, yuck. You don’t want to talk to a salesperson. You figured everything out, and you don’t need help. Got it, you have your bubble. I’ve always tried to communicate as I wanted to be communicated with, right, do unto others, that whole thing.

Try my process for a month, see if you learn anything, or make a valuable connection.

I have a few more strong feelings that relate to Contact Us and this post. Recovering Marketer, Part 3 will be a bit of a smorgasbord, and I’ll say, coming soon, as I have some travel coming up.

Give my best to the next cold caller you reply to.

I no longer am a marketing practitioner in the traditional sense, PPC, adwords, print ad, content, design, etc. You get the idea.

I have moved up the food chain, literally, and buy and sell food commodities. I can make that sound much sexier, but like I said, recovering marketer, there is much more to it, but that sums it up.

When I was in the game, it was very important to observe marketing, great, I need to do that, or NO! don’t do that. I was always watching others and improving my game, by both addition and subtraction.

I still observe.

Every (most) websites on the internet have a “contact us” option. Typically this is created by marketing and monitored by marketing, or sales. Many times it is a phone number or an email, but most likely, it is a form in which you explain your inquiry. In all cases, it is the company who owns the website saying, “If you have a question, please … contact us”

I have used this way of contacting companies a number of times, in fact, since I started counting, I have made 33 “contact us” inquiries. (why in the heck would you count? … after a number of non-responses, I could not resist collecting the stat) My “contact us” inquiries are split about half and half between, “I would like to buy your product” and “Can you send me to someone at your company that would purchase my product?”. Often times the contact form is quick and basically the path of least resistance. I typically follow up with a phone call, or whatever else I need to do to make contact.

The point is, if you are giving the general public a way to contact you, how often should you respond? Let’s assume you are receiving personal inquiries and not spam, bots, etc.

Replies to contact us inquires should be 100%. Yes, every inquiry you get should be responded to. Of my 33 inquiries, 9 were responded to, yes 27%.

You can say NO, you can say, “I will forward your email to the correct department”, you can say, “for that inquiry, please give us a call at 867-5309”. You must reply. If you don’t want to reply, don’t give the option. If you have it all figured out and you don’t want to reply to customers, salesmen, complaints, compliments or general product questions, don’t put yourself out there.

Next time, we dive deeper into, “The Reply”

If you bat .400 in baseball (40%), you would probably be considered the best baseball player ever.

If you are a quarterback and complete 75% of your passes, odds are, that would be an exceptional performance.

A surgeon probably should have a 100% success rate.

How important is it in your business to be 100%, should a salesman close 100% of proposed deals, probably not, in my business, I would be the king if I closed 10%.

If you are a manufacturer, is 90% on time, or even 80% on time OK? probably

Jacob deGrom received a 5 year, $185 million contract for winning less than 40% of the games he pitched.

With all of these examples, there are variables, in most cases, you don’t have to be 100%, you just have to be better than everyone else. You can set a goal of perfection for yourself, but what is reasonable to expect of others.

The next time your shipment is not ready on time, your restaurant service is not perfect to your standards, you miss on a deal or your co-worker does not meet your expectations, consider the alternative. Is the competitor better? should I switch to them? Is it OK for your co-worker to do an average job every once in a while?

Before you react to the single mistake, think about the other 7 or 8 or 9 times that task was executed properly. Temper your expectations, companies and people learn from mistakes, they are just as torn up about the mistake as you are.

The moral of the story, before the story.

Your customer did the research and they are informed, they do not need a sales pitch they need honesty.

Along with my college age daughter, we needed to buy a car.

I told Casey at JT’s that we could spend $10,000. There were no prices on the cars, but in a number of cases, we were told it was “less than 10”. First, we went inside so he could get a list of everything under 10 for us to look at, and of course he tried to sell us something new. Second, he went to get the perfect fit (from the list), that he knew was in the back of the lot. No dice, “it wasn’t ready”. Third, he brought up a clunker, my guess is that this was the car they all brought up, so we would buy something different. Finally, the car that was right in front of us the whole time was less that 10. We took it on a test drive, sunroof, side camera’s, all the bell and whistles, Toyota, medium miles, beauty, OK, let’s write it up! We hauled Mom in and sat at Casey’s desk. I told mom and daughter that Casey would come back and say he made a mistake and it was really more. Casey came back and said, “I made a mistake, it was more”, his sheet showed how I could finance the $15,000 car.

Bye Casey.
Thanks for wasting my time.
I have come to your dealership twice, there will not be a third time.

Next, we went back to the same lot that we bought our last two cars (Toyota of Rock Hill), loaded with the knowledge of what they had posted online.  Willy was honest and did not push us into anything. He walked around with us to cars that were tagged with a price and helped us find some options in our price point. He took us on a nice test drive and watched over us through the rest of the process, financing was fair and they delivered a nice car. How hard was that?

No matter what your product or service is, think about your “sales” process. Potential customers turn into return customers if you do it right.

It seems that the Super Bowl is no longer a football game, it’s too bad, I love football, and I love the Super Bowl. Its tough to just watch the game … what commercial did you like? how was the halftime show? what are your friends saying? (and of course, I mean your friends on social, a good old fashion Super Bowl party is clearly out of the question). So anyway, I didn’t take notes, but 2 days later, if it stuck, it must be a thing.

Here is my 2 day old take.

The Game: There was definitely an element of a defensive struggle, no one can tell me that a 13-3 game was all bad play. With that said, I am a certified arm-chair quarterback and a 6 step drop on 3rd and 2, or the same on 4th and 1 .. probably a little suspect play calling. Shout out to Stephon Gilmore and South Pointe High School, Rock Hill, SC for the big D effort.

Commercials: I’ll let Ad Age do the analysis, I’ll just leave you with this … Game of Thrones / Bud Light was the best, it just was. Everyone loves to hate those damn dilly dilly commercials and the rest of that nonsense. Close second is Doritos, Chance the Rapper and the Backstreet Boys (the best music we saw all night … yes, I said it).

Halftime Show: TBH, I’m not a big fan of any halftime show in recent memory, I think the last performer that I confess to be a fan of was The Who in 2010. But, I can appreciate a good show (I’m talkin to you Katy Perry). With that said, this show was just bad, the voice, the shirt (lack of), it just didn’t work … Adam, Adam, Adam.  And the whole Spongebob thing, no, please, no.

Social: The highlight of the event for me was following #SuperBowl on Twitter … in the first half. In the second Spongebob took over (didn’t he used to have square pants?) and my fun was over. @mental_floss was the social winner.  I also enjoyed the work @snickers did, well done.

There you have it.

FMSC, wake, 3a, stretch, nap, fight, wake, coffee, pack, coffee, pack, clean, dress, pack, drive, arrive, bus, arrive, CLT, drop, screen, freedom, coffee, wait, board, fly, bounce, bounce, arrive, DC, reminisce, wait, board … love, time, death … arrive, bus, uber, in, lunch, set, meet, clean, work, uber, Elton, tour, social, drive, Blvd, BBQ, Radler, network, family, shuttle, arrive, work, sleep, KCMO.

I love reading books by and about musicians. I have less than 0% music ability. My only music talent is turning the volume up and getting to the rail at most metal shows.

I am half way through this one, and wish I had highlighted my way through the thoughts he has shared. I doubt the Dorchester County Library would appreciate that, but then, who is picking up this book in St George, SC? Corey Taylor … thought provoking … true story.

I was having a conversation with a PAX in the gloom (def. friend I work out with) about … where are you from? We have both lived in Fort Mill for 12 years, both are in our mid-40’s (I know, you had no idea I was that old), and have both moved around through the years. This is the place I have lived the longest since growing up, so, am I from here? Corey suggests that you are from 2 places (I may be a bit loosy goosy on that interpretation) 1. The place you grew up, and, 2. the place that defined you. I’ll buy that, but, am still not sure about #2.

Get on with it … why are you getting soft?

I confess, over the years, I have listened to most every kind of music. Lately (the past 10 years … Fort Mill years) I have gone back to my metalhead roots, Testament, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Death Angel, Exodus and the list goes on. In a month, Exodus and Obituary are open a tour in Durham, I’m in. It has been a good year for shows, Seputura, Kreator, Obituary, Testament, Armored Saint, Iron Maiden, Ghost and even the legendary Diamond Head.

Do you have a point?

As I write this, I am listening to Stone Sour (Corey made me do it) … On purpose, I turned on Volbeat more than once in the last year … a co-worker recommended Tool last weekend, and there I am, getting my grunge on. I’m not sure I like the way this is going … that’s not a knock on that which is not thrash metal, it’s actually growing on me, so it may be a compliment … and I may have to download Hydrograd.

Family, work, music, friends, Fort Mill, PAX, travel, hobbies, age (you are not a spring chicken anymore) … you are all part of the last 12 … which probably makes that my answer to #2.

  At age 3 the deja vu kicks in and you start to realize that you have been here before, by age 4, you remember it all, from age 3 to 60 or 70 something … whenever you passed of natural causes. A lifetime of knowledge and clear memory … and you are 4. Typically, your kind will go crazy at this point, you end your second, and 4 years later, you are in your 3rd life with a bit more understanding of the situation.

In later lives you realize you can manipulate the situation and live comfortably. You can change what you want, and leave the rest the same. You find others who are in your same situation, and you help each other. After a half dozen lives you realize there are good and bad people of your kind, messing with history and creating the future. You can choose to fight the fight … or use your knowledge for good … or lay low and continue to improve the same thing, life after life.

At this point, you are pretty sure that if you go, you will be back. You can be careless or carefree. You can try it again and again, in hopes of getting it right. 

Would you take the same journey, life after life?

With the same people?

In the same place?

I can’t say that I would take Harry’s road. I don’t need to manipulate the future, nor stop others from doing so. I could not watch a former life go by, while I choose another. I would be comfortable with peace in knowing and avoiding.

… and I would definitely bet on the Packers in ’96 and 2010.

Definitely worth the read.

Dear Las Vegas,

I love you. I hate you. I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

Those who indulge, indulge at the highest levels, and love it. You can feel the desperation in the air, those who are desperate, show desperation like none other and I hate to see that.

5am East Coast work time. Sleep is a luxury. All senses are working OT.

Your air is bad, really bad. Your water is worse. $.99 Arizona Ice Tea is my hero. You shouldn’t have built on a desert.

On the strip, I saw a police office covering a body with a tarp, after the area had been taped off for hours. I hope things were not as they seemed.

Thank you Giordano’s, for joining the party, and my maiden voyage at IN-N-OUT Burger, well done.

FTR, I broke even with a late win, but was willing to pay for the love of the game.

If there is a doctor on the plane, please push your call button … I blame Vegas

Until next time … take care …

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This happened in 2016. EPIC. Do not miss the special guest appearance.

The long awaited sequel to Throwing A Watermelon Off The Roof is finally completed. Camerawoman & Gaffer – G$, Director & Producer – #TheChad, Special Guest Appearance – Mannequin Head