Business Etiquette: A New Series

I am starting yet another new series of posts called Business Etiquette. Perhaps "etiquette" is the wrong word and should be replaced by "know how" or "conduct" or "traits" or "behavior" but I think you get the point. At any rate, I have found over the years that about 99% of people in the world do not do business like I do. Sometimes it annoys me, sometimes it upsets me, and sometime I just stop working with the person because they lack Business Etiquette. You might consider this the series where I whine like a baby, but I figure that if more people adopt good etiquette the world will be a better place to do business. This series is also motivated by the many emails I have gotten from younger readers who have interest in venture capital, private equity, entrepreneurship, and business.

One thing that you need to know is that the way people do business totally varies according to industry. You all know that if you go to the post office or DMV, be prepared to deal with a snooty person who has never been in a position of power but now holds the bureaucratic key to solve your problems. Similarly, if you go to a fast food restaurant, don't expect the person to get your complicated food preference order correctly.

In private equity, you will find differences as well. The real estate guys usually lag on paperwork and phone calls. The VCs don't want you to keep calling or emailing them. The bankers and buyout guys will be fierce like pitbulls sometimes. And the Hedgies won't tell you a thing, not even their address!

I believe that each person must have a basic set of business etiquette rules that translate into every kind of business they do. If you want to do good business and if you want to do business with me, then here are some of my first pieces of advice. If you follow these rules, people WILL notice and they WILL WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU AGAIN!

1. REPLY WITHIN 24 HOURS - Whether someone emails you or calls you, give them a call back or drop them a note within one day. I don't care if you are "slammed" at work or whatever the heck is going on in your life, at least call or email and say "Hey, I am slammed I will get back to you by XXXX day or date." I am warning you though, if you say you will get back to me by Friday and you don't, you will lose points and I WILL remember that you can't keep your word! If you have time to eat and go to the bathroom, then you have time to reply. You want to check your messages at least once a day and get back to people as soon as you get their message. If you are serious about letting people know you are accessible, then that means you need to get a PDA or a laptop with wireless access and you need to have access at home. I do not want to work with people who are inaccessible or cannot access their email or voicemail from home. I want to know the people that I am working with are on top of their game and that there will never be a time when they fall off the face of the earth.

2. READ & ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS, MEANINGFULLY - How many times have you emailed a person with 4 questions and they only responded to 2 of them?!? When someone does this it tells me that they are either too busy to read the email closely, or that they don't know the answer, or that they are avoiding the question and hoping that it gets lost in my inbox. This is a bad tactic. Similarly, when someone writes you a long well thought out message, do not respond like a politically correct bureaucrat with a two word email that says "Sounds great, we'll talk" or "Interesting idea."

3. KNOW WHEN TO EMAIL, CALL, OR MEET IN PERSON - This applies in many aspects from the initial meeting to follow up conferences. In this day and age of electronic communication it is OK to transmit information or submit queries via the internet. But you have to know where to draw the line. You can't give a pitch over the phone. You can't initiate a sales relationship over the phone or email. Similarly, when you are working with other people, you can't always schedule meetings in person when a simple phone call or email will suffice. If you do that then I will get the impression that you don't know what you are doing or you need some hand holding. There are some instances where I have worked with people who have wanted to meet to discuss the progress of a project or assignment and I have flat out told them that I will not meet them in person until the project is complete. If there is something they need from me in person to help them complete the task, that is a different story. But if they just want to meet to "discuss" why they haven't finished their task and to try and save face, then that is a waste of time for me. I already know that they haven't done their task and meeting them is not going to change that fact. If they want to save face, they should just tell me why it isn't done and when it will be done and ultimately they should stick to their word.

I look forward to the comments, suggestions, or questions on my personal pet peeves of Business Etiquette.

Comments

[Bob Lerner]

it all boils down to this: it's just common courtesty. You'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at how un-common common courtesy is.

[Rob Wurth]

Great post. Been reading your blog for a while but just found this through the link in the CXO Network article. I read an interesting quote by Richard Branson in B2.0 a few months ago that said something to the effect that he calls/responds to every single person who contacts him. I thought it was a really simple idea yet very important and meaningful. I've been trying to follow it closely, even if it's someone I have no interest in doing business with - I at least let them know that so they can move on. I figure if Branson has enough time to do it, I certainly do.