Is it too much to ask for vendors to get my name right? As well as my company name?
Neither one is that difficult. Ron Sellers. Grey Matter Research. It’s not rocket science.
Yet it’s amazing to me how often I’ll receive bids or materials from vendors that get one or both wrong. Ron Seller. Ron Sellars. Rob Sellers. Grey Matters Research. Greymatter. I mean – seriously? I can maybe understand spelling it “Gray Matter” (the more common US spelling), but “grey matter” is a common term referring to a part of the brain. Grey Matters? What is that? Do they think I’m trying to promote the importance of a color?
As a vendor, you want to put your best foot forward. You want to demonstrate that you pay attention to details. And you want to show at least basic common courtesy. Getting my name or my company name wrong, when both are prominently featured on our RFPs, letters, e-mail, and all other communication, suggests you either aren’t really paying attention, or you just don’t care.
Imagine how well Grey Matter would do submitting proposals to Walls Fargo Bank, Crispy Cream Donuts, or Subaroo.
If this happens to me with the simplicity of my company name, I can’t imagine what happens to companies such as Schlesinger Associates, Kiyomura-Ishimoto Associates, or Weinman Schnee Morais Inc. (I hope to heck I just spelled those correctly.)
Vendors aren’t the only ones doing this. I have clients who drop e-mails to Grey Matters. I was recently interviewed by a national radio network and repeatedly identified by the reporter as the president of Grey Matters. But I have to show a little more forbearance with people who are giving me business or publicity, as opposed to people who want to get business from me.
So, please, enough with field reports, bids, and invoices to Ron Seller at Greymatters Research. It’s annoying, it’s insulting, and it tells me you don’t care about the details. None of those is a quality I want in a vendor.