Who Are You Talking To?

I'm running into a lot of salespeople lately who don't seem to understand how to address the appropriate person or people in a transaction.

The old cliche, of course, is the construction worker or car salesperson, etc. who, when dealing with a married couple, virtually ignores the wife.

But even on a B-to-B level, things like this happen. I deal with several reps, for example, who insist on cc:'ing everyone on my team when they reply to my e-mails. In the past, I've had numerous experiences where a salesperson will invite my boss to an event or offer them some other goody, completely bypassing me.

Sure, sometimes it's forgivable. In some situations the roles of the people in a client or prospect's organization - or the relationships between those people - are complicated and hard to decipher. It makes sense for an outsider to either deal with everyone or just their "usual" contact.

It would be nice if (in all the other cases where it's not so understandable) the salesperson would simply ask a few questions to help clarify who should be involved. Don't go over my head or around me. Most of the time, you won't get a better response from the other people than you will from me, and in the meantime you're just making me think you're being sneaky or that you're unreliable.