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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
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Making a list and, too bad, you’re on it
Recently, a friend and I were talking about one of the worst types of Marketplace Molesters. You know the type: You exchange business cards with them and then you find out that you have subscribed to their newsletter list without you ever opting in.
Adding to the frustration is that you often can't unsubscribe without sending an e-mail directly to the molester asking to be removed. It would be so much more professional for the person accepting your business card to follow up with a personal e-mail inviting you to opt in. Unfortunately, this type of tribal seduction is beyond these types of people.
I'd like to think that they behave this way only when they are so desperate for business that they feel they have no other choice. Sadly, that's not the case. This mindset afflicts "big name" moneymakers, too.
My partner, Deb, personally experienced this recently when she interviewed a very well known online/Internet marketer. She shared her private e-mail with this guy for the purposes of coordinating the phone interview and she ended up on his list. Needless to say, we never published his interview. His loss.
It is very arrogant for people to assume that, just because you have met them at an event, you automatically want to be on their distribution list.
My friend said that she has been racking her brain on how to deal with this and the only thing she can think of is to be very, very selective as to whom she gives her business card.
Obviously, it's difficult to tell anyone and everyone who you give your card to that you don't want to be signed up for their newsletter or offer, etc. It can get a little awkward, if not unprofessional, and possibly embarrassing, if the person has no newsletter or offer and never had any intention of doing such a dastardly deed.
I, personally, don't use business cards. Our current businesses don't dictate it. Besides, my policy is that if I want to connect with someone, it will be a genuine connection initiated during our in-person meeting. If the feeling is mutual, we exchange contact information. Done.
When I was running my previous businesses where I was selling to retail consumers and business owners face-to-face, I used custom, oversized, art-quality business cards to stand out from the crowd. But, I never handed a card out unless I had created rapport with a prospect and had a specific reason to connect with them.
The bottom line is that if a marketer or entrepreneur cannot create enough of a rapport to seduce, be remembered, and sought out, handing out all the business cards in the world will not help.
And, molesting people in the marketplace by adding them to a mailing list will only make matters worse.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach at RPM Success Group Inc. Reach him at
JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business success coach and life strategist. Reach her at
DCM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.