I have been working on a post about email prospecting. There has been some BAD email prospecting going on these days. A robust post is coming because I’ve asked other sales experts to weigh in on this approach to prospecting and want to include their comments. But this post couldn’t wait…
Maggi, a seasoned sales pro, forwarded me a series of emails that demonstrate a nasty side of human nature…the act of pointing fingers when someone else makes an error! The story follows…
A newer sales rep at a Chicago radio station sent out a mis-guided attempt at email prospecting. Ignoring the text of the message itself, the biggest problem was that she inadvertently included ALL the names/emails of the distribution list so they could be seen by everyone on the list. Ouch!
Yes, definitely an error. And an error that isn’t that hard to make. What happened next is what has me irritated… more than a dozen people on the list decided to Reply All and humiliate the poor woman to everyone on the list! They called her unprofessional, asked how she got their email, and on and on.
C’mon! Is THAT professional? Clogging up EVERYONE’s mail box with your complaint? And for what? What was to be gained? Finally one person asked for it to stop – his note…
“This is nuts! I think we all agree that she made a mistake,
so can we stop replying all, why the need to embarrass her any further?
Reply to her directly and ask to be removed from her list, now that
would be the professional thing to do. If you’ve had the opportunity to
meet with her, you’d realize that she is a young and aggressive AE
learning the business and I’m sure this is one lesson she soon won’t
forget, but c’mon, enough already…”
Thanks for standing up for her! Mob mentality isn’t a good thing. And as business people can’t we help build and support each other? This error was not one that needed THAT much time and attention from everyone on the list.
Next time you see someone who made an “oops” how about a direct message giving constructive feedback that they can use? And maybe a little compassion because on the path to learning to be great, we ALL make mistakes!
