The seeming indifference of a soulless agency.
Robert Solomon
Consultant, coach, and workshop leader, author of the widely read and respected book, "The Art of Client Service," expert in achieving behavior change with advertising/marketing/PR agencies, clients, and individuals.
Executive recruiters can be serial non-responders – they approach you with an opportunity, then disappear – and a few real-estate agents I know behave in much the same way. I even had car salespeople not return my calls and emails after we explained we wanted to buy a car.?
But an advertising agency??Agencies are, or should be, in the relationship business; it is their duty to reply, which is why I’m sharing what I wrote to?Matt Doud?and?Stacey Bollinger?of the agency?Planit.?
If any of you been approached by someone who expresses interest in what you’re offering, only to have that person ghost you after you respond, let me know in the comments section below.?I’m particularly interested in how you chose to address this, or not.?
Hello yet again, Matt and Stacey.
I want to recap some recent history for both of you:
On March 21 you, Stacey, messaged me on?LinkedIn?to ask if I “ever do any sort of guest speaking. If so, would you be open to and interested in presenting or speaking with our agency’s PR and Account Teams this June?”?
I messaged back in the affirmative, to which you responded, “We are beyond excited at the possibilities. Upon sharing the idea of having you do a workshop speaking engagement with us at the culmination of reading the book, our president loved the idea. He also leads our Account Team. Ideally, we’d love to have you come in-person.”
The “President” to which Stacey referred was you, Matt; on May 4, Stacey introduced us by email.?I responded with an email acknowledgment; on May 5 you wrote me to say,
“Thanks for such willingness to work with us. As Stacey mentioned, we’re big fans of the book, and the idea of engaging with you personally to take our Book Club readings/dialogue even farther is quite intriguing.
After reviewing the Art of Client Service’s website as well as the Solomon Strategic consulting’s website, I’m confident we can determine content that would be compelling and relevant to my teams.?
“But before we go too far (and at the risk of being callous), I need a sense of your fees. Can you give me some ballpark ranges to help us determine if you are the right fit (or more frankly, if we can afford you)??
I responded that day with a detailed email reply, observing my fee often can present an obstacle for some, but then proceed to quote a range of scenarios, ending with, “If none of these options work with you, what I would propose is coming back to me with a figure you have in mind; I will see if I can make it work.?If I can’t, I will tell you.”
I wait, then wait some more, not receiving so much as a confirmation you received what I wrote, so on May 18 I emailed again to follow-up.?A couple days pass and still no reply, so on May 20 I reach out to you, Stacey, saying, “Even if the answer is a ‘No, we will not be moving forward,’ I would like the courtesy of a reply.”
Today is May 31; I?still?not have heard from either of you. My guess is having a week-and-a-half to respond is not enough time.
It is clear we won’t be proceeding, but I have to ask, do either of you have even the slightest shred of courtesy or decency, or are both of you just plain rude??
Perhaps if I made an unsolicited contact, you might have reason to ignore me, but the two of you approached?me; I did?not?approach you.?Instead of responding, you choose to ghost me, unwilling to expend the 30 seconds or less it takes to simply say “No, we won’t be moving forward?”
You might be thinking, “Solomon’s?not?a client; we are under no obligation to respond to him.”?But it doesn’t matter if I’m a client, a colleague, a supplier, or a potential presenter; I am a person, a human being, who deserves the most minimal form of courtesy, which is all I am asking for.
Stacey, you wrote me about my book, saying, “My colleague read it as part of our mentoring work together, he loved it so much his team (the Account Team) is reading it at our current agency.”
Matt, you added,
“we’re big fans of the book, and the idea of engaging with you personally to take our Book Club readings/dialogue even farther is quite intriguing.
“After reviewing the Art of Client Service’s website as well as the Solomon Strategic consulting’s website, I’m confident we can determine content that would be compelling and relevant to my teams.”?
I don’t know how many copies of the book?Planit?has in its possession, but if one of you will gather them up and return them to me, I will mail you a refund check for the amount due.?If Kyle O’Rourke or anyone else wants to know why, ask them to email me for an explanation.
No matter how much both of you claim to like the book, it’s clear you disrespect its core premises, and your behavior disrespects me, so there is no reason why you should want to keep copies on hand.?Once I receive what you ship me, I will re-distribute those books to people who deserve them.?Planit?surely does not.
Robert
I did (finally) hear from Matt Doud in response to what’s above; in my next post I will share our exchange.
Country Marketing Manager | just an everyday marketer trying to be brave and do the right things ??
2 年Ghosting someone after taking the initiative to approach someone is plainly rude and is a sign of some other bigger underlying issues. It has happened to me a few times by corporate recruiters; I typically would follow up once (max twice) and if still no response, I put them on my never-to-work-for or partner-with blacklist because they wasted my time with utter disrespect as it takes time and heart to research the company/ job position to determine if I’m interested and then to tailor CVs. When I apply for jobs, my opinion about the company and its teams starts with the recruitment process; I apply the same principle when I am the one recruiting. It’s interesting (in a negative sense) to see that account people from a PR agency would do such a thing, especially when they claimed to love your book so much…and that they are in the PR business. ps. Your book has been a comfort and mentorship-on-pages that I go back to visit from time to time. Thank you for writing & updating it. I recently recommended it to an acquantaince whose very small and young account team is having troubles and frustrations with managing clients. (He managed to find a copy of the Mandarin translation of an earlier edition, think it’s the 1st edition).