This Blog entry was done from the HarbourLynx Ferry… gotta love aircards!

I got the call several months ago; an upset client. “Why didn’t you bid on the RFP?” “Sorry I don’t understand,” I responded. “An RFP this is the first I have heard about it?”

“You were a shoe in; I kind of thought you must have thought the deal wasn’t worth it, we e-mailed the RFP out a month ago.”

I still maintained that I didn’t get it. I would have loved the business. It wasn’t a huge deal but it was a big client that could turn into many big deals. I thought it was his mistake; and then I looked in my SPAM filter folder. There it was. My SPAM filter that was designed to protect me from Viagra Ads and Free Airfare Scams had eaten my client’s Request For Proposal.

If you’re visible on the net and internet marketing is part of your business strategy then you have to look at the pros and cons of spam filters. Imagine being a CEO of major company that gets a response from a vendor’s spam filter program that says “Suspected Spam, please click the link below to be added to this person’s address book.” It’s hard enough to get them to our site, to find our contact details, send as an inquiry about our services or products, but now we are going to add one more step.

Commonly used stats on the net state that for every time a visitor to our site has to clink a link we lose anywhere from 20% to 50% of the visitors. What does that extra step in making the client manually click through and confirm their ID do? We are saying that it’s too much trouble for us to sort through our inbox to find their e-mail; the one where they are offering to spend their money with us.

If you’re in sales, invest the time to wade through your inbox, I know the Viagra ads are annoying, but not as annoying as having your spam filter eat your next deal.

Shane Gibson
shane@closingbigger.com
http://www.closingbigger.com