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I lead an engineering team and am on the receiving end of a ton of vendor pitch emails. Almost always they go ignored but nearly every single one will have a fe

I lead an engineering team and am on the receiving end of a ton of vendor pitch emails. Almost always they go ignored but nearly every single one will have a few follow ups and surprisingly (but rarely) I may end up responding at the 4th of 5th attempt. I realize that they're likely automated but sometimes you just need to get me at the right moment in which I'm more likely to respond.

marcus_holmes 10y ago
I have a cast-iron rule that if a vendor has spammed me, I will never use their services. I have the same rule for cold-callers. If a vendor cold-calls me, I take a note of their business name, politely explain that I am ideologically opposed to this marketing method, and that I will never use their services because of their use of that method. I've been doing this since the mid-90's. I like to be the change I want to see in the world :)
- hoodoof 10y ago
  Perchance are you a Unix/Linux admin?
- dangoldin 10y ago
  Definitely respect that but a bit too extreme for me. Have you never had a vendor reach out with a potentially useful service? Occasionally I'll find something useful. And sure I could have found it on my own if I was searching for that specific problem but occasionally something new comes across that piques my curiosity. Even then I end up looking at competing products (love relying on Google's autocomplete to do "product vs" and seeing what shows up). The spam game is getting better and better too - I wonder what they're going to look like in a few years with some help from ML. At that point they will look personal.
  - marcus_holmes 10y ago
    Yeah it's getting blurry between spam and targeted ads. I have less objection to targeted ads, because it's not wasting everyone's time - there is some reason for the recipient getting the ad.
- 1123581321 10y ago
  This is well-meaning but not effective. First, feedback like yours is rare and it doesn't give opportunity for follow-up, so there is no incentive to change. Second, this comes off as tire-kicking to the company, just like the classic "I'd totally buy your product if you had Feature A/B/C" excuse to avoid having to say "not interested." If a business cold-calls heavily, and they receive this feedback often enough, the worst that will happen is that they work on developing a response to it, just like to any other objection. Third, vendors know that you will consider them if they are the best option. They have been told no for more substantial reasons before and still gotten the account.
  - marcus_holmes 10y ago
    I have a bunch of behaviours like this, that are ineffective if it's just me, but would change the world if we all did them. Because if vendors knew that the act of cold-calling or spamming would immediately exclude them, then they wouldn't do it. I get your point that with just me doing it, this is ineffective because the vendors don't get enough feedback as to why they didn't get my business. But I have no power to change other people's behaviour. I can only change my own and hope others see the world as I do.

marcus_holmes 10y ago

I have a cast-iron rule that if a vendor has spammed me, I will never use their services. I have the same rule for cold-callers. If a vendor cold-calls me, I take a note of their business name, politely explain that I am ideologically opposed to this marketing method, and that I will never use their services because of their use of that method. I've been doing this since the mid-90's. I like to be the change I want to see in the world :)

hoodoof 10y ago
Perchance are you a Unix/Linux admin?
dangoldin 10y ago
Definitely respect that but a bit too extreme for me. Have you never had a vendor reach out with a potentially useful service? Occasionally I'll find something useful. And sure I could have found it on my own if I was searching for that specific problem but occasionally something new comes across that piques my curiosity. Even then I end up looking at competing products (love relying on Google's autocomplete to do "product vs" and seeing what shows up). The spam game is getting better and better too - I wonder what they're going to look like in a few years with some help from ML. At that point they will look personal.
- marcus_holmes 10y ago
  Yeah it's getting blurry between spam and targeted ads. I have less objection to targeted ads, because it's not wasting everyone's time - there is some reason for the recipient getting the ad.
1123581321 10y ago
This is well-meaning but not effective. First, feedback like yours is rare and it doesn't give opportunity for follow-up, so there is no incentive to change. Second, this comes off as tire-kicking to the company, just like the classic "I'd totally buy your product if you had Feature A/B/C" excuse to avoid having to say "not interested." If a business cold-calls heavily, and they receive this feedback often enough, the worst that will happen is that they work on developing a response to it, just like to any other objection. Third, vendors know that you will consider them if they are the best option. They have been told no for more substantial reasons before and still gotten the account.
- marcus_holmes 10y ago
  I have a bunch of behaviours like this, that are ineffective if it's just me, but would change the world if we all did them. Because if vendors knew that the act of cold-calling or spamming would immediately exclude them, then they wouldn't do it. I get your point that with just me doing it, this is ineffective because the vendors don't get enough feedback as to why they didn't get my business. But I have no power to change other people's behaviour. I can only change my own and hope others see the world as I do.