Startups: be good at relations

ahahah

I wanna tell you a story. I’m not going to give names of the protagonists here, or of the company because I don’t like outing people and because I don’t want to associate my name with them.

I was contacted on may 30th by a company asking me about SEO consulting and stuff. I’m new to this world, and I think I have a lot to learn . So, instead of bullshitting them, I proposed a chat via Skype in order to understand if I could help them. I asked around about how much an SEO consultant of my level could charge and thanks to all the amazing SEO’s who helped me to understand pricing, deadlines, and more about the consultant process.

So, we conversed a bit via emails (they are never on Skype, so what’s the point to say “yes, we are gonna chat on skype”) and they said “we are gonna evaluate things and let you know.”

YEAH! I was excited.

On June 1st I sent them my proposal, saying that I could work for a weekend and let them know exactly my next moves would be. I said “is it ok?”

SILENCE.

On june 4th I sent a follow-up, and again on June 7th, simply asking them to say something, even if it was a NO, any response was totally cool, I mean, there are people better than me, but you know….”I would like to know because I have tons of things to do and it’s called respect”.

So, on june 7th, they answered me that “The CEO’s need to look over the proposals before I can hire anyone”. All right, perfect, but why didn’t you just say this sooner? Why do I need to be sending you emails every other day waiting for a one sentence response? The mis-alignment is that I expect others to respect me the way I would respect them. This is not always the case. The email they sent back said “but tomorrow we have time set aside to sit down”.

YEAH!

On June 18th I had not yet received a response, so I sent a quick inquiry email.

SILENCE.

Then finally, On june 27th I wrote them:

ok.

this is ridiculous.
It’s ok a NO but give me an answer.
You know first thing about SEO? great cool relationships.
something that maybe you have to fix soon.
good luck with everything.

and they IMMEDIATELY answered me back:

Hi Alessio,

I don’t appreciate your email or your tone.  We haven’t had a chance to figure it out since our CEO’s left for an unexpected conference and I thought I emailed you about it, if not I am sorry.  However, you were still in the running until I just received this email.

So, because of your “uncool” response and email we will not be going with you.

So you just literally talked yourself out of a job.

All the Best

THIS IS SO FUCKING INCREDIBLE. I I immediately answered them back (oh, wait, maybe I should have wait 10 days like them):

no problem really.
but you cannot let people wait. an email saying: “you know what? we are gonna let you know in 3 months” could have been totally cool with me.
I sent email, no answers.
and now you are talking about my tone? yeah. let’s talk about respect, allright?
anyway, good luck with everything, REALLY.

You can be a startup, or a company, or GOD. When it comes to human relations, there are no titles, just respect for the others.

Really, good luck guys. Because now I’m seeing exactly why your SEO is a semi-disaster. To me SEO is about punctuality and creating real human relations..