Camp Basic: the ABC of how not to treat customers. This week: responsiveness.

Wow, just 1 edition shy of 50, stay tuned for a great 50th edition of this newsletter in the coming 10 days. I've got a surprise for you.

This week I want to emphasize that I keep coming across the same observation again and again, especially for about the last 6 months.

In my work as a sourcing consultant, I often reach out to manufacturers to learn more about their products. Most often this starts with first requesting a specification (if it is not found on the website). It is important to note that the demand I represent is real and often significant in terms of volume.

And often the responsible (sales) people simply don't respond. I usually check the email address again a week later, write a friendly reminder... no response. Another week later I would send another reminder. Guess what: no response. A very similar observation can be made when using the “contact” form on the websites of large companies. Silence is gold? Lots of Tremeloes-fans out there it seems. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4GzfEfXuKx7bBKSt7SEQ2t?si=7fb78f109a484abd

And don't get me wrong here: I'm not the seller in these cases. I am the customer.

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When I tried to figure out which companies were more likely to respond, I started noticing some patterns. However, I don't know whether there is causality or simply correlation.

1. In most cases, non-responding companies employ more than 2,000 people and are truly multinational
2. ?Usually it seems to be a top-down problem. Case in point: The business unit's Global VP promotes a new, more sustainable chemical intermediate (like here on LinkedIn). I contact him/her and he/she respond very quickly with a CC message to the national sales manager. A few days later, a short response from this person with a CC to the responsible sales representative… Silence. Reminder. Silence. Reminder. More silence.
3. ?Very often the CEOs of these companies are the ones (and I'm mostly referring to companies headquartered in German-speaking countries, I am sorry) who mainly complain about a lack of competitiveness here in Europe due to energy and labor costs and the beloved “Fachkr?ftemangel”, rather than spreading a vision and take real leadership to bringing companies into to the next level.
4. ?Interestingly, some start-ups in the chemical and fermentation sector show similar business behavior, especially when the management is at the same time head of R&D, CEO and business development, and of course they do not find time to respond. And it's no big surprise that these companies come, and they go. The ideas may be brilliant, but it's a shame no one gets to know about them in the end.

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Of course, consultants like me and my multinational clients focus on and prefer companies with good responsiveness. And there are great examples of both multinationals and start-up companies that are responsive and quick.

It's my top priority to be responsive too. I believe this will be one of the key differentiator going forward.