A Supplier Loses It!

We all have our breaking points in our personal and business lives. For some of us, it's easy to get frustrated and lose our cool. I can get mad occasionally. Through the years though, I have become more controlled in my response. A supplier recently did get mad at me and was not controlled in responding. The experience got me thinking about different approaches to handling business situations.

I lost my cool over a flurry of non-stop pre-show e-blasts that were driving me nuts. I'm not against e-blasts that are so common, and often valuable in our industry. What does make me crazy is sending e-mails that offer nothing of value. Before a trade show hundreds of supplier companies, with whom I have no relationship, invited me to "Visit them in Booth 1234." The barrage of these e-mails drove me over the edge.

These invitations were not beneficial. I didn't know these suppliers and there was no compelling information in the email for me to "visit them." In a moment of frustration, I put this note in the subject line in a couple of these useless-to-me e-mails: ALL SUPPLIERS SENDING SPAM E-BLASTS ARE GETTING A SPAM REPORT

Actually, I did nothing. I was just frustrated and it had to come out somewhere. But this response was harsh and out of character for me. I had hit a breaking point and lost it. At the time, I didn't understand that I actually had not opted out of these pre-show mailings when I registered. By failing to do so I had implicitly agreed that I was willing to accept these emails. Suppliers who send such e-mails have permission to send them unless I requested otherwise. My reaction to their business strategy to drive traffic to their booth was wrong.