Tip: Don’t Ever, Not Reply to a Sales Inquiry

Lesson here: A small project coming your way might just be a way that someone is trying to test you out for potential larger projects down the road.

My buddy Eric is looking to get a simple Facebook app developed — it’s small and shouldn’t take much work. Mashable has been pumping FBFactory as often as they possibly can — wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a connection there. So I recommended Eric contact them — their website is quite simple, seems professional and straight to the point.

It’s been a week now and no response — not even a, “This is an auto-reply, we’ll get back to you — thanks for the inquiry.”

I was curious about how they would handle him (his project), because I’d possibly recommend them in the future to people looking to get a Facebook app developed. Even if they are slammed with work and this is too minuscule for them, they should have said that. Some/Any kind of reply back to him was necessary if they’re wanting people to send email into them or fill-out a form on their website.

But they didn’t. And quite frankly, they’ve lost any future business I (or someone looking for my recommendation) may have sent their way.

If you are slammed or have a minimum project price — state that on your contact/inquiry form page. “Minimum project price is $XXXX. We are currently backed up with work, we will respond to your inquiry no later than Monday August X.” And then set aside some time each week to reply to each inquiry — keep your sales funnel churning.

P.S. Any web developers out there that are independent consultants — I look at Odesk from time to time; there’s not really anyone on there focused on Facebook apps. You should add that as a skill if you’d developed one before. Not that it has to be dev’d in FBML [since you can instead use an IFRAME and use any language you want on your own server], but not a single provider has listed FBML as a skill set. Ditto on ELance, and not sure on Guru.com as I can’t seem to search for a specific skill set.

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  • http://www.techstbooks.com Colin Dowling

    Agree 100%. There are a ton of other, related negative consequences as well as the one you mentioned. One is that the non-responders (in this case FB Factory) did not reduce your friend’s need for service by ignoring him. Instead, they have implicitly driven him to a competitor. It’s kind of like in baseball where the winning team not only gains ground in the standings, the losing team loses ground.

    In other words, ignoring potential customers is a terrible idea in itself. Doing it and, as a consequence, strengthening your competition is an even worse idea.

  • http://jamesdkirk.com James D Kirk

    Just goes to my personal biggest pet peeves in business, crappy customer service. Whether you’re trying to get a sandwich made by a disinterested deli person or have your databases made more efficient, why would you consciously give someone your money (or your company’s) and be treated lousy? It’s like you’re paying for them to hate you!

    Just the other day while I was in the Bay Area for a meeting with a potential client, I stopped for gas. Normally, I could care less about pan handlers, and being 6’2″ I usually just stand a little straighter and firmly inform that I don’t have/won’t give/don’t need whatever they are offering (and not in a mean way, just firm). I also needed to check the air levels in my tires, and wash my windshields. As I drove up to the pumps, I noticed a young man who had been chatting with the cashier immediately come over and hit me up. Add to this the fact that I saw no air machine on their lot, and the windshield washer bins devoid of fluid and squeegees. So, without hesitation I simply got back into my car and drove on to another facility.

    Perhaps the owner didn’t know about this sort of thing. Who knows? But I’m not willing to financially support all of that just for the luxury of getting the product (service) I needed. Why would anyone do that with a software development company? Beats me! The important thing here is to do just what Steve is doing, and share that experience with others. And our duty is to pass it on if we know of someone who needs such work done for them. And the flip side of this coin is important: if someone in this community knows of great work this (or another company/consultant/etc) has done, we need to know about that as well.

  • http://www.instigatorblog.com/the-4-immutable-laws-of-giving-great-proposals/2007/08/15 Ben Yoskovitz

    You have very few chances to make a good first impression…um, wait a second.

    Being slammed with work is great, but you need to be looking at the long-term funnel, and maintaining positive word of mouth.

  • http://www.MyNextDeal.com Fred Simanek

    Steve,
    We experienced the same thing with FBFactory after submitting our request: complete silence.

    Fred Simanek
    MyNextDeal.com

  • http://spindrop.us/ Dave Dash

    Does Odesk even have an option of listing Facebook as a skill?

    If it does I’ll gladly list it, I’ve just not had the best luck using Odesk, guru, etc.

  • stag

    Anyone recommend facebook developers?

  • http://fuser.com Eric Wu

    So where can I find a small, professional shop to build a high-quality FB app quick? If you’re interested drop me a line: eric at fuser dot com

  • http://comingsoon.com FBAppDev

    There are many facebook developer available now..to have a successfull application the key factor is Innovative idea..getting it developed in not a big deal.Not sure why people are not able to identify facebook developer. We are very small team of Freelancer who love to work on latest trend with innovative people.
    Let us know if we can work together.

    FBAppDev at GMAIL

  • http://www.ideatagging.com IdeaTagger

    I had to chase fbfactory to get a response after a long wait for one. They did respond eventually though. I guess Mashables plugs must be keeping them busier than they can cope with, but you are right – there is no excuse.