Unsolicited PMs for product reviews

Unsolicited PMs begging for product reviews.

I hate these.

Absolutely despise them.

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I like to help people.

But I am sick and tired of literally years of receiving, "You're so respected...will you review our software / WSO / exhaust rumble?"

No, I won't.

The moxy is fine. Asking is fine.

The issue is that you expect me to provide my expertise and time for free.

The two decades of experience. The 3 years of taking 10 and 11, then 7 courses a term busting my ass back in '94-97 to get my certifications. The 15 years of corporate executive experience after that. And the over three years running my business following those.

No, you don't get that expertise and the resulting broad and unique point of view for free.

A couple of "butter up" sentences and "we think you'll really like it" lines I've seen a thousand times before will not get me to give you my most precious resource.

Your product, sorry to say, is not unique.

You may think it is. I have seen many like it.

And who are you?? If you just did a post count search and we've never interacted before, why should I risk connecting my name with someone I've never heard of before?

Which leads me to an all-too-common sales issue I strongly suspect these people may be suffering from:

Thinking about what they can GET instead of what they can GIVE.

If all you want is sales, you're not thinking like a customer.

And if you're not thinking like a customer, you're not really thinking about user experience, are you.

Really contemplate this.


This is the third version of this post. I've deleted and rewritten it a couple times with waits in between because I don't think people will really care. But I feel I have to express this, and I'm trying to express it positively.

If what you wanted me to say was, "Jimmy has a great product here!" that's not what you would have gotten back from me anyway.

It would have been more like, "Here's where your process fails the user. Fix this and you'll have a much better product."

So few people here have any real expertise. If what you want is gushing, "OMG it was SO AWESOME like a Super Nova Waterslide!!! :-DDDD" BS review, then post in Help Wanted. If you want a genuinely constructive review that will improve your product and thereby your user experience, customer service and sales, then be prepared to invest in getting that information.

Invest some time in interacting with the person you are interested in feedback from.

You know how you look when you PM me in the middle of the night two days before your big launch? "HELP! I left this to the last minute"--shows you just how important this is to you, doesn't it--"and will you say some nice stuff about me?"

Just do that one thing. Start the interaction before you ask. Do it well ahead of when you need the feedback.

THEN, when you ask for it, you'll have a chance because the expert you're asking will know and care a bit about you.

And get into the mentality of looking for feedback that isn't necessarily glowing. That will help you create a better product. If someone I had seen and had a couple back-and-forths with said they were making a new product, and asked for my feedback...and then made improvements based on what I recommended...I'd be very happy to write a public review detailing how much they care about their customers.

But instead, you try to rush into getting the expert to drop everything and look at your lackluster product.

This is a SALE, and you're trying to go from "Hey, just popped a business card through your mail slot--will you marry me?"

No, I won't.