Have you ever been in a car with someone who is learning to drive a car with a manual transmission? For those of us who have, I'm sure you can cringe at the thought of your body being thrusted forward into your seatbelt and back into your seat.

Well, working with businesses can be the same way. You run full speed ahead to get a proposal to a client, then they sit on it for a year. Then they call you up wanting to move on that project and need updated pricing. Again, you tell them that the offer is good for 30 days. On the 45th day they give you the green light, on the condition that it can be done in half the time quoted.

On the converse, you may work with vendors or employees that are waiting for your response. When you finally get around to answering, you essentially just took them from their seatbelt to the back of their chair. All in about the time it took them to figure out which question they had asked you weeks ago that you just provided the answer to.

Here's an article I found about trying to maintain a good tempo in business while trying to avoid the driving school scenario.

Before you launch your website and start advertising, make sure that you ALWAYS make it easy to allow someone to contact you. Nobody likes a Contact page that requires 50 questions to be filled out just to reach a human.

Don't beat around the bush with a bunch of dropdowns, like:
What method of communication do you prefer? (Email, Phone, Snail Mail)
What day of the week is best for you? (Sunday-Saturday listed)
What time of day is best to reach you? (Morning, Afternoon, Evening)

Instead, ask them directly what you want.
Here's a great example of what you should ask:
When and how would you like to be contacted?

Then leave room for them to say "Call me after 5pm", "Email me", or "Mail me a membership packet".

Let them just tell you what they want, and the both of you will be happy.

One of my biggest pet peeves in business is when communication is made without my permission. Now, first off, Permission Marketing is a concept that has been widely developed and evangelized by Seth Godin. It basically states that your most effective communication in business happens after your customer (or potential customer) has given you permission to market to them.

One example of this is when a user signs up for a newsletter. They have given that company permission to send them material.

Now, I do a LOT of business online. I email companies about products, prices, service terms, etc. I love to handle it over the web. It allows me to communicate when its most convenient for me, and in turn, they can respond when its most convenient for them. (Its a win-win)

Here's my pet peeve: When I go onto a website and submit a form asking for them to contact me, and they CALL me back! (Especially if I selected the "Email" option from their dropdown asking what is the best method to contact me) If I really wanted to TALK to someone, wouldn't I just call their toll free number? The same thing can happen when I email a vendor asking a question, and they call me right away.

People think that any contact is permission, but its not. I now have to make sure I put in a fake phone number if I want to make sure to not get called.

Are you responding with Permission?


Check out Seth's book, I highly recommend his material: