Buyer Courtesy

Long before emails many corporations had secretaries or assistants in the procurement (buying) departments who answered the calls for the buyer.    Being in that type of position from 1980 to 2006,  I learned fast that you always try and call the person back before you left for work that same day.  If a salesperson was trying to make an appointment, you had the assistant control your calendar and the appointment was made.

Then comes the internet and assistants became fewer and fewer , so you had to set your own appointments.  We were taught that even if you do not want to meet with them, you gave them the respect to return their call within a couple of days.

Fast forward to the last five years.  I am on the selling end of several new products and am experiencing something frustrating.  A buyer is contacted and we are invited to make a presentation at their corporate offices.  We get a positive feedback at the meeting and go away with some tweaks on the proposal.  We email them to the buyer and then we get dead air.   Now with the "read request" set to on, we know exactly when they read the material but there is no response.   In one case the buyer met with us in October 2013 and told us he would make the decision in January and we supplied him with his requested information and even went and added our product to their EDI site as requested at the meeting.  Since then we have sent numerous emails and telephone calls which we know he has read, but get no response.

I talked to one buyer's assistant and she said that the buyer was just so busy that they do not have time to respond to emails.  Therefore I asked what is the best protocol to get a response, as I have left voice mails as well.  Her response was to keep trying with no other thought.

In calling on over twenty-five retail companies at the present time, I would like a grunt of some kind to accept our offers, reject our offers, or negotiate our offers.  I think many do not realize the "READ" email I get when they do open the email, but since there is no response, we continue to spend time and resources chasing the buyer.  If they do not want the products, then just say "no thanks" and we will move on.

I am not sure if this is taught today to buyers, but I know it is frustrating to carry on this practice as a way to do business today.

Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No.

Thanks for reading!