#FridayFails - You don't respond to us, so we'll just schedule a meeting

This week's #FridayFails is courtesy of a friend of mine, Bobby.  Bobby's story starts with something we all have done.  He found some interesting content as a result of the inbound marketing efforts of a marketing automation company and decided to download it.  Naturally, that triggered a registration.   At that point, he was put into their "machine."  

Now this company is one that is pretty advanced in terms of their approach, using lead scoring to prioritize contacts and a very prescriptive lead development and sales process, but in this case, it went way overboard (in my opinion and Bobby's).  It is similar to a story that Dave Brock shared recently in terms of the aggressive sales tactics.  The result: Anger and Brand Damage.

In this case, Bobby really just wanted to read the content.  He was truly a contact, not a lead. Of course, the vendor did not know this yet, so they started following up (which is appropriate, given what I would presume was a high lead score because of a variety of factors beyond the content that Bobby accessed).

The first contact made an offer for Bobby to attend an event in San Francisco, Bobby works in D.C.  so that was a little strange.  But it was clearly not an aggressive "buy my product" message.  So, there is not issue at this point.  The general approach was appropriate.  But it was not relevant to Bobby, so he did not respond.

A few monthly later, they decided to try again, sending a personalized e-mail that was, again, pretty good (definitely not #FridayFails material).

Hope all is well. the last thing I am looking for is to waste your time. Noticed a bunch of folks from <<Bobby's Company>> coming by the site recently and saw that you were checking out some lead gen and SEO content. I also know you guys have an existing relationship with <<Competitor>> but  <<Company>> offers a 10-15 minute inbound marketing assessment where we can review some tips and suggestions that you can implement today to get more traffic, leads, and customers from your marketing efforts.

Is this something you are working on? And if so, when are you available to connect?

I can appreciate how busy you are so I promise it will be worth your time.

Best,
Joe <<named changed>>

Pretty strong message, right.  Short, contextual, with a nice offer.   It did come a few months after Bobby's earlier content requests, but that could be the company's nurturing in action.  

The only problem is that Bobby was not a prospect.  A next step was not important to him. So he did not respond.  And for him, the content download was a while ago.  

But the pursuit continued.  A few days later, "Joe" followed up.  Again, Bobby had no interest.  At this point, it seems that Bobby should have been reclassified for nurturing v. personalized messages--guiding him to other content.  But that did not happen.

One month later, Bobby received the "4 choice" message from "Joe" that we have seen before.  As always, my comments in <<brackets>>

Bobby,

You recently visited our website <Actually, it was several months ago>> and I've tried reaching out several times with no luck <<Maybe because I am not a prospect>>. Usually folks fall into one of 4 buckets when downloading our content or registering for our webinars:

1. Thanks for following up, however, at this point I am only educating myself on inbound marketing and online lead generation. <<And, maybe you should assume after that and given that you know our company uses a competitor product that I am not a prospect>>

2. While I am educating myself, I am also interested in learning more about <<company's>> inbound marketing solutions and how they can help me save time and make my marketing more effective. Please schedule me for a no-obligation 20-minute inbound marketing assessment of my website. <<I would have contacted if intersted>>

3. Please call me as soon as possible. I am looking to evaluate my marketing plan and would like a custom demonstrat
ion of <<Company's>> inbound marketing software. <<A pretty ridiculous option given the fact that I downloaded the content 3 or 4 months ago and have not made contact since>>

4. I'm trapped under a file cabinet and can't get up to answer the phone - please have someone come help lift it up!  <<Attempts at humor don't work when interrupting>>

I'm a firm believer that any of these answers could be the right answer as long as it is what's best for your business.  <<You really think I could be trapped under a file cabinet and that is best for my business?>>

Your response (1, 2, 3, or 4) will allow me to better gauge your interests without bothering you during this busy time. Thanks again for your time and consideration.

Best,
Joe

Now, some of you might think that all Bobby needed to do was reply and this pestering might end.  And that may be true.  But, in Bobby's mind (and in the mind of many others), requesting content did not make him a prospect, so he was under no obligation to reply.   Many presume that even a reply of no interest tells many sales reps, "I got a response, keep pushing."  

When Bobby got this message, he forwarded it to me, suggesting it could be a candidate for #FridayFails, particularly because of the way it ended, with a 4th option that was non-sensical.  And Joe stating, even jokingly, that Bobby being trapped might be good for business.

I wasn't sure.  I've seen worse.   But then the story took an interesting turn as we were discussing this.

Bobby got another e-mail.  But this one wasn't an e-mail.  It was a calendar invite from another person at the company.  Stating:

[Hold] Exploratory Call w/ <<Vendor>>

Hi Bobby,

I don't normally cold calendar invite folks <<Somehow I suspect this might be a common tactic>> but I work with <<Joe>> here at <<Vendor>> and it seems like there is some interest to learn a bit more about how we could fit into <<Bobby's Company's>>go to market strategy. <<Actually, I have expressed zero interest in that other than reading some of your content>> Would very much appreciate 15 - 30 minutes of your time to see if there is a fit/use case. 

Is this something you see value in? Would you like us to close out your account? <<Putting the burden on Bobby to fit their process>> Just trying to put punctuation on this opportunity.   <<This was never an opportunity>>

If this time doesn't work feel free to offer an alternative.  <<Well, you have pretty much guaranteed that my alternative is "never">>

Best,
Adam <<Name Changed>>

This step finally achieved one of their goals.  It triggered Bobby to respond:

Ok,

 

You finally poked me to respond. You may not like it though.

I am a professional marketer. I find the content published by <<Vendor>> to be useful. (As is the content from many of your competitors.)  But I am not an opportunity. I should think that to be glaringly obvious by my continued lack of engagement with Joe. I’m sure Joe is a nice enough guy, so it’s nothing personal, but, don’t you think if I really was in the market to buy something, I would have responded??

 The pestering, especially this presumptive invite, has alienated me. I’m not sure the value of <<Vendor's>> content is great enough for me to continue reading it. And that’s a shame, it’s great stuff.

Your sales practices have tarnished your most important asset, your brand.

I found Bobby's response to be direct and fair.  But, "Adam" responded back:

Thank you for your response. As much as I would like to point out your obvious misconception of sales, my job in particular and <<Vendor>> as a company I am going to take the high road.  

In the future a simple, "I'm not interested but I like your content" will suffice and act as a note to no longer contact you. 

Have a delightful future as a "professional marketer"!

Nice response, huh.  To be fair, we all know sales is hard.  We also know that it can take multiple contacts to reach a prospective customer.  But for me, there were a few issues here that make this a #FridayFails.

1. Downloading content rarely means you are an "opportunity."   This vendor definitely uses lead scoring, but it is clear they also have some sales process rules that if a score is met, they will contact multiple times (which is natural), but they did not seem to adapt their responses based on Bobby's failure to engage.   There seems to be some high pressure on the sales organization to "contact everyone who has shown any interest" and "don't take 'no answer' for an answer" mentality going on.  Yes, that happens when times are hard, or the end of quarters, but it often can do more damage than good.
2. Instead, the multiple contacts got progressively more presumptive that this was a real opportunity, instead of going a different way and offering more nurturing options that would not be based on a presumption that he was an opportunity, since he had done nothing to impy that.
3. The snarky e-mails, while attention getting, often strike a negative chord. Anger is not a great emotion to provoke in a possible customer.
4. The audacity of a meeting hold immediately gets one thinking of the pushy, aggressive sales representative that gives the profession a bad name.  It takes the anger to another level.

The net of this whole thing for me is that this is coming from a great company--one of the best at content marketing.  They talk everywhere about inbound and nurturing.   They are good at lead scoring.   And they did a bunch of good things here.  But in the end, they tried to force Bobby into their sales process, when he wasn't buying and wasn't even thinking about buying.  He just wanted to learn. . 

While the pressure on marketing to generate leads is high, and the pressure on sales is even higher--particularly when there are high growth expectations, that does not excuse them from recognizing that a contact--particularly a forced contact--may not be a lead and probably is not an opportunity.     

It is not the customer's responsibility to conform to your processes--particularly if they are not even thinking of buying anything. Past sales practices make many people choose to ignore followups when they aren't shopping, so that should not be an expectation.   People register because they have to, not because they want to.

When you aren't getting buying signals, consider moving your follow-ups in  a different direction v. presumptive, aggressive tactics that could finally provoke a response.

For Bobby, he may or may not continue to read the vendor's content.  But if he talks to others, you can be confident that he'll say something like, "Yeah, they have great content and ideas, but their sales approach is aggressive.  It really doesn't match their message on how to market and build interest in today's world.  I'd stay away from them unless you are definitely looking for a solution like theirs.  They like to put meetings on your calendar without your permission."

That is probably not the message they want people sharing.  The harsh fact was they read the signals of this situation incorrectly and forced their sales process (including their "formula" for number of contacts and timing to get a response) on someone who was never a prospect.  They went from inbound, value added marketing to outbound aggressive "won't take no for an answer (or no answer for an answer)" tactics that are the anti-thesis of the inbound marketer.

If they had exhibited a little more situational awareness that would have driven some shifts in their approach to be less aggressive, then this post never would have been written. They didn't.  Bobby got frustrated and angry.  The story gets shared.