Bomb Throwers Who Like to Be Clever

Periodically, I write a blog about a negative encounter I’ve had with someone on Twitter.  Although the vast majority of the people I’ve encountered via social media have been terrific (I can’t count the amount of wonderful friendships I’ve established), I’ve also had the misfortune of running into a number of screwballs who caused me to roll my eyes in wonder; I see them as bomb throwers who like to be clever, as opposed to people who offer genuine substance.  Today’s blog describes one of those unfortunate—you should pardon the expression—connections.

I posted a guest-post article on Thursday, July 26^th entitled “7 Cold-Call Opening Statements From Hell” by Jim Domanski, a colleague in North America’s Best, a sales mastermind group of 35 top-tier sales experts in the United States and Canada, which I’m blessed to belong to.  I personally thought it was a great piece of writing by Jim and I can honestly report that it received excellent reviews; except from one individual whom we’ll call by his first name, Brad.

From when he started college, I’d guess Brad to be about 32, a decade younger than my older son, Michael (Michael is 42, Jacob is 38, and Jessica will be 29 on the 28^th of this month); I’m easily old enough to be Brad’s father.  He’s had six jobs since 2003 and since March 2011 has been a partner in a consulting company.  His LinkedIn page is quite impressive, as are the eight recommendations on that page (not that I give much credence to that, which is probably why I’ve never sought to boost my own credentials on any of the social media sites).

Brad found Jim’s article from a tweet by another member of North America’s Best, my dear friend Mike Weinberg; Mike once spent a night in our guest bedroom and now the rest of North America’s Best refer to that room as the “Weinberg Suite.”  Mike, like all 35 of North America’s Best, is someone you should follow.  Brad’s initial tweet went like this (any grammatical or punctuation errors you spot belong to Brad himself): @mike_weinberg @Robert Terson why dont you give us 7 from heaven? How does jst showing the bad ones help anyone?

My response (all my responses included Brad’s Twitter moniker, as well as Mike Weinberg’s and Jim Domanski’s): Some salespeople, Brad–not you, of course–first need to know what they’re doing wrong. Get it?

Brad came back with this: How do they take action to correct if not provided “right way.?

I replied: Stay tuned, that’s a future blog. In the meantime, many have benefited by spotting their errors.

Brad: True. But what if that’s what they were doing? The only answer is to not pick up the phone

Moi: After reading what NOT to do, a resourceful person would go to Jim’s site & read WHAT to do.

Brad: Let’s hope so Robert.

I replied: An article should be judged by what it provides; not disparaged because of what’s not there.

Brad: Is that the opinion of the writer or the customer who is looking for answers?

Yours truly: That’s MY opinion, although I’d bet my colleagues and most others would agree.  I added this: Out of a rather large audience, you were the ONLY individual to find fault with the article.

Brad: Perhaps that is due to the vocal minority, silent majority world we live in.

I thought of Richard Nixon and his first VP, Spiro Agnew, who coined the phrase “silent majority.”  Agnew, who had to leave office instead of ascending to the presidency when Nixon resigned, because of accepting bribes when he was Maryland’s governor; I could have thrown up.

Me: Did YOU go to Jim’s site & look for what you thought was “missing”? Are YOU resourceful?

Brad didn’t want to answer my question; he said: Some people would rather “be right” than more influential or rich. Is that the case here?

That’s when I rolled my eyes for the last time and gave up.  I wasn’t going to get this guy to appreciate Jim’s great insight if I offered him a $10,000,000 prize.  I thought his “Some people would rather ‘be right’ than more influential or rich” ironic as it gets.

Now, I’m not so naïve as to think all of you will agree with my perspective re Brad and his opinion about Jim’s article, but I’d bet any amount that most of you do.  Let’s take a survey.  Please, everyone, take a moment to vote in the comments section.

Posted by Robert Terson | 4 comments