Don't Answer My Email Please

And there's absolutely no way to know which 20% it is.

See, here's the problem. I frequently ask questions and "waste the vendor's time" when I know I'm going to be putting a lot of effort behind something.

I've got a membership site launching in a couple months. I'm very frustrated by the number of WP plugins and expensive membership scripts I've got which simply don't do the job. I'm going to be putting a few hundred hours into this site before it makes so much as a dime, and I would really be pissed off if I got halfway through that and found out ONCE AGAIN the system isn't up to the task and I have to throw it all away.

You put a kick-arse system in my hands, make me feel good about using it, and walk the talk when I get into the meat of it? I will sing your praises from the damn rooftops. Whether I buy your system is the least of your concerns. Chief among them should be that if your competitor does this with a script that isn't as good, you lose a shedload of publicity and promotion that would have put cash in your pocket.

Because for reasons I don't entirely understand, people listen to me, and think my opinion means something. And since I'm just a big attention whore, I'll take that and run with it.

Couldn't have said it better myself, dude. :-)

I can immediately tell if someone is a serious buyer or just someone with random chit-chat.

I understand that Gurus don't have time to reply for every email, but if they earn as much as they claim they should hire a person for customer support.

Internet marketing is all about building relationships with potential buyers.
If they know you treat they seriously and you really want to help them, they will trust you and they will be more willing to buy anything from you.

I don't like when people ignore my emails. I don't buy from them.
But if someone replies I'm so happy that I would buy anything he offers...
And I would do something more: say about him and his product to everybody around.

I know it may sound funny but most people make buying decisions under emotions. Our role is to keep the customer in that positive emotion longer to avoid refunds.

If I buy something and after purchase the vendor ignores me, I ask for refund with pleasure

This is what I do, I find very few are personally to me.

This is a good point, but here is what I noticed. The ones that ask alot of questions, do very little action. I always refer them back to the guide or training and I always ask the same question over and over atain. Have you done ABC. The answer is no and they now know that if they come emailing exactly what I am doing to say, do the work. I will be asking if they have done the work. If they have done the work and its a lot of work, they will succeed and I am happy.

I do agree that if you buy a $7 product, dont look at that as free access to the person training you. It is wrong to think that. I do expect that no matter what price you buy the course, it does what it says it does. If it does not make logical sense to put together then ask emails on it. A product owner should only be selling what makes sense and works for them.

I set up a coaching page if someone wants consulting as I get lots of request as do others. Honestly, I prefer not to consult people, I prefer doing the online business. the other thing I often tell people and I do it myself (I am doing it now). Come to Warrior Forum and ask your questions (always contribute twice as much as you ask I suggest). You get lot of different perspectives and thats GOLD!!!!!! I do this all the time.

As for GURU, no one says they have to answer it themselves. But they need a system in it so there customers are not hanging. It is bad business to leave customers hanging.

One last point. I did mention that I was getting random people adding me to skype and not saying hi and just chatting asking there million questions. I removed skype. Make it less easier to reach you, if you cannot answer peoples questions.

I am SHOCKED that people are cool with ignoring emails. Sorry to say the only ones I hope do that are my competitors. I got a 1 hour response to emails during business hours to my customer service rep.

I dont do much in the IM market, less then 5% income. It is more for learning, but I find that people who purchased 1 of my products, there are a lot who have picked up the other one. Maybe this is due to response of emails and talking to people.

Why bother having an email if you are going to ignore it.

Cheers,
Mukul

PS - Sorry, I had a lot to say

It's not about not answering emails. It's about doing it EFFICIENTLY. I repeat: once you've been doing this for a while, you KNOW which of your prospects are interested and have their credit card in hand, and which are just sniffing around without any intention to buy.

Your time as an entrepreneur is precious, and you don't want to waste it with "casual sniffers". 20-80, remember? So invest your time in that 20% of people who are actually looking to buy.

There is an old saying that if you open a restaurant in New York City, you can treat every customer that ever walks into it like crap... and still never go out of business.

The market for restaurants in NYC is like that. The demand outstrips supply so much, quality doesn't mean squat. Service doesn't mean squat.

The only thing New Yorkers care about is... rats. If your restaurant fails a health inspection because of anything to do with rats, it will make the news, and in a matter of weeks the word will spread far enough that nobody will ever come into your restaurant again.

There are lots of markets like this, where the only thing you have to worry about is easy to avoid. AA could very well specialise in them, there's nothing wrong with that, and it is actually a very efficient business model.

Doesn't make you many friends, but that's why the first A. If social and reputation concerns were part of every post AA made, honesty and transparency would not be on the menu.

In my opinion the mindset towards email is typically an eventual assumption that your time is worth more then people who want to ask you questions. It comes down to your level of compassion and regard for your fellow man. Whether they buy from you or not should not dictate if you will take the time to be a friendly marketer. Then your just a prick.

The successful people who have advanced their business to a point where their time is more valuable should perhaps put some thought into hiring a real person to do nothing but answer those emails to the best of their ability and follow your guidelines to accommodate everyone who takes interest in their business among all the competition just to dot all the I's and cross all the T's of possible prospects.

The mindset towards unanswered emails is often a disregard for that email being composed by a real person, once you cross into taking it upon yourself to identify real people as nothing but wallets which are closed or open is a realm that in my opinion should never exist and will hinder your business in the long run. You can argue that it is a waste of time to consider another person but I will still think your a jerk and pick up on your self assured superiority complex which closes my wallet instantly.