A Little Research

can go a long way.

I’ve been getting almost daily emails from a business consultant who is sure he will be able to help me with lots of leads for the nonprofit I head.

The problem? The emails are directed to my predecessor who retired six years ago.

While I suppose there may be old contact information out there on the web, the correct information can be found at our website, which is conveniently the same URL as the end of the email address he has been using. In fact, if you search Google using the email address, our website is the first hit.

I suppose I should have just marked it spam and moved on, but in the spirit of James Veitch, the comedian who spent two years replying to spam emails, I decided to reply. It was simple and to the point:

I would be interested in knowing where you found your contact information since the person you referenceĀ hasn’t worked for VSTE for six years. I obviously need to update something.
That’s really the reason I haven’t responded: you promise all sorts of stuff but clearly haven’t taken the time to even visit our website to find out anything about VSTE!
I suspect that if you HAD done some research, you would have discovered that your company is not a good fit for our organization.

To his credit, the gentleman replied with an apology and a thank you for getting back to him. But no gratitude for my helpful business lesson? Maybe I should send an invoice.

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