the squeakiest wheel..

as part of my job, i have the joy of having to deal with unsolicited requests for business from printers and cultural guides/search engines.

once a week i'll end up with a) a big pile of environmentally unfriendly paperwaste on my desk, supposed to be some kind of lure into the obvious temptation of doing business with a company who can't get their head around print sustainability issues

and b) a phone call/voicemail message asking us to pay for advertising in the next guide to victoria or online cultural portal. last week, someone from some new naff aussie search engine company or something called me every day (and didn't want to leave a voicemail message) trying to get us to join this new site. every day. i'm guessing that he grew up with the saying 'the squeakiest wheel gets the most grease' and still believes it to be true. the fact of the matter is, the squeakiest wheel is a pain in the arse and there's no fucking way i'm going to do business with a stalker.

i'm sure my grandfather would have done business with him, for the simple fact of his tenacity, but in this day and age choice is key and businesses have to work differently than they did IN THE 1950s! With the advent of search engines and the reign of google (by slayer?), we know that we can find a printer/designer/supplier at the drop of a hat and if i need one, i'll look for one. i'm not an ignorant user, who needs somebody to sell me their service - i need them to tell me about it, lead by example and if i'm looking for what they have, i'll check it out. the consumer is far better informed nowdays and hassling the fuck out of someone shows an arrogance about the way people operate that is a greater turn-off than stinky pits.