You ask too much

A Twitter message today invited me to a Webex seminar that I might have been interested in attending. Unfortunately, they turned me away by requiring full registration information: name, email, address, all that.

OK, sure: if you are offering me something free, we both understand that you are trying to sell me something. You want to be able to contact me. Maybe you even think you have a right to demand this information as quid pro quo.

Let's be a little more rational about it, shall we? First of all, with the possible exception of my email address, I can lie through my teeth on that form, so it's more than silly to make those other things REQUIRED fields.

Second, no, you don't really have any right to that information. Your webinar is offering information about your product. I'll watch it, and if I am interested or have more questions, I'LL CONTACT YOU.

Finally - and this is what ticked me off here - if you already have my information, you don't need any more than my email. That was the case here and I just was not going to take the time to repeat data they already have. Yes, my web browser will fill in most of it as I start to type - that's not the point. YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME.

You may think I'm a big old grump. True enough, but do you want to sell only to cheery folks who never get annoyed by your sales policies?

Rule number one: don't annoy your customers because of your strong desire to sell.