A few days ago I cold contacted through my site’s contact form with a person trying to sell me on his video services. No effort to really get to know me…he just wanted to sell me. I’ve lately been receiving phone calls with automated messages from people trying to sell me some service, who are too lazy to pick up the phone themselves (I’m on the do not call list). I’ve reported those people. And then there’s also the people who seem to think that if they have my email they can add me to their e-newsletter. I get lots of e-mail newsletters I never subscribed to. I report them as well.
And then there’s what I call Facebook spam. These are people who use their personal accounts to spam people about their business. The blatant over -promotion they do is just as spammy as anything else I’ve received. I usually unfriend them.
Why you don’t want to spam comes down to the simple fact that instead of creating relationships all you are really doing is turning people off to what you have to offer. People want relationships. Those relationships are how they determine if they’ll do business with people.
What I see happens with lots of businesses is a tendency to try and force someone to do business with them. They think that if they call people or subscribe them to their newsletter that what’ll they get is business, but it usually backfires because it shows no real attempt to understand the needs of the people they are contacting. It’s spam and it doesn’t provide much in the way of a connection.
Look at your own business and ask yourself if you are spamming people. If you are, it’s time to reconsider what you’re doing. It’s time to stop alienating people in the vain hope you’ll get business.
