I belong to a variety of lists and see frequent posts about needed services or products. Due to my busy schedule and being occupied with other matters I often don’t reply immediately but an hour or two after the message was first sent. And the usual response I hear is “Thanks, but someone else already replied.”

I’m a bit mystified by this. Is it really the case that the *first* responder to a post is the most able to help you out? Would you hire the first person who answered your job opening or marry the first person you dated? I’d guess not because these are long-term relationships that have a huge impact on your life.

Funny then that people will make snap decisions about their vendors or business partners since these also have a huge impact on your life. The wrong marketing pro could tank your product launch, the wrong payroll company could put you into trouble with the IRS and the wrong caterer for your company party could give food poisoning to your best client.

So ask yourself the next time you need something and want to rapidly respond to the first offer that comes along - is it really worth months of trouble to save a few minutes of waiting?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Deep Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.