I can’t tell you how many times we receive an urgent call from a prospective client with a white hot crisis and a need to hire an agency post haste. When this occurs, we weigh the prospect’s ‘clientworthiness’ as well as our ability to properly staff the need and make a ‘go-no go’ decision.

So we’ll draft a detailed plan, include budget and staffing suggestions, and wait to hear back. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. But, increasingly over the past year or so, we do neither. In fact, we end up hearing nothing from the prospect who was so desperate for our assistance. Not one word.

She or he has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth. We give it a few days, or a week, and follow-up, only to get voice mail. We give it a few more days, or a another week, and send an e-mail, only to receive no response. Eventually frustrated, and more than a little upset, we write off the lead entirely.

I’d like to attribute this sort of poor behavior to the marketing types at start-up technology companies, who are running at 1,000 miles per hour. But, the fact is, we now deal almost exclusively with large, established concerns that, one would hope, are staffed with more considerate and responsive professionals.

Obviously, we’re all busy multi-tasking our way through the crazy quilt business landscape we inhabit. But, do yourself a favor and show the professional courtesy of at least responding to someone who has taken the time and effort to share his or her best thinking in your hour of need. By being too busy or self-absorbed to respond, you’re only accomplishing one thing: undermining your own image and reputation.