Saying thank you is bad for your brand

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: February 1st, 2007 | 5 Comments | Posted in: More clients, Personal branding

Have you noticed the trend in business that saying thank you has just gone out of fashion in fact it’s positively ‘de rigueur’ not to acknowledge people and can be damaging to your personal brand.

Here are four examples:

1. I’ve noticed a trait in some of my clients that often when they email me asking questions between meetings requesting information and advice and I reply with detailed answers by email,  don’t get an acknowldegement that they received the email nor a thank you.
2. Then there is the authors and business coaches who I don’t personally know but who contact me to tell me about their great services and perhaps I could help them find a speaking gig in Ireland and promote their programme in my newsletter and blog.  So I duly reply with some suggestions, but again no thank you or achnowledgement of my email.
3. Or how about my ex-colleague who I send information to connect them with a great business opportunity – you’ve guessed right, no acknowledgement or email.
4. And finally there is the entrepreneur who has been a guest on one of my programmes or the radio show but fails to promote the workshop or podcast to their own clients and community throught their newsletter or blog.

There is obviously a new book or teachings on business etiquette that has been written that I just haven’t come across that advises that saying thank you is no longer good business sense. 

I really must do a search in Google and on Amazon to make sure I get access to these new strategies so that I can update my clients, friends and colleagues that this is the case including:

Sheri who shared with her community that she is to be a guest expert on Biz Growth Live with me and how they can join us for the no-cost telseminar

Michael who sent me a lovely personalised Christmas card to thank me for all the support I’ve provided as a leader on his programmes and as a guest expert for his clients

Chris who always thanks me for any observations and insights that I provide and when he shares them with his clients always gives me or other contributors and colleagues clear attribution

Erin who posts regularly on my blog to thank me for the tips and ideas.

It clearly makes bad business sense to:

• give all your clients on your programme a copy of your business book or information product as a welcome package to joining your programme – after all why shouldn’t they pay for a copy themselves like everyone else?
• thank your business partners and affiliates with a small gift or a simple email – why on earth would you want to say thank you if they helped you attract more clients to your programmes, consumers of your book or clients for your products?
• offering attendees of your programme the opportunity to come back time and again at no cost – you don’t want them to become brand ambassadors and raving fans referring you to others, great case studies and showcases for your work and be successful in implementing the strategies you teach after all do you?
• make attribution in an article, do a track back from your blog or make a link to another persons website when you reference them in your post – after all you can’t be considered an expert if you didn’t originate all your ideas yourself can you?

If you’ve learnings on this area of business etiquette that you are happy to share with me and the readers of Biz Growth News, it would be great if you could post your comments here – of course I’ll have to remember not to thank you for the post and the time you took to add your comments.