I received an email, this morning, from a speaker's bureau offering to list me in their directory - along with a link to their website.
Seemed interesting enough that I picked up the phone to find out more.
The first thing the man on the other line (the owner of the company) asked me was if I had looked at their website.
I hadn't. Their email was compelling enough that I had wanted to talk to someone. Thus the phone call.
He did not feel the same way.
Every time I asked a question to try and understand how they operated, I would be told to "look at the website."
After being told to look at the website four times in lieu of actually communicating, I thanked the man for his time and hung up.
Websites are great. Especially at 3 in the morning. But - I feel - their purpose is to get you to want MORE. To pick up the phone and connect.
To reverse the flow and see your website as a substitute for human interaction and thus tell a live person who was interested enough to pick up the phone to "go back to my website and call me if you have any question" is fully missing the point.
And in this case, the client.
