I admit, I have a fear of commitment on so many things and an unwavering loyalty to certain things that I commit to.
Example #1 Commitment Fear – I am almost OCD when it comes to making decisions on no brainer things in my life (at work, no issues w/this – odd? yes) like flavor of ice cream (do I do vanilla, vanilla bean, french vanilla? AND YES there is a difference) where to go on vacation, etc. because I don’t want to commit to any one thing and always be questioning if the other option was the right decision.

Example #2 Loyalty – TV Shows – I can’t stop watching a show after I commit to it – I call it being a show deserter and if it gets cancelled, I feel it was my fault all those people were out of a job. You have NOO idea how hard it was to watch those last few years of Dawson’s Creek! Yikes! Now that Pacey (My first real TV Crush), I mean Joshua Jackson, is on Fringe, I automatically become committed to that show as well…you see the crazy cycle?


Anyway, my point is – before I make a commitment, I like to explore all of my options. Learn (in detail) about what I may be giving up and missing out on as well as determine the long term potential there. I like to research and learn and make sure that I am making the best possible decision at this moment.
Once you fill in a form on a vendor’s website – you are commiting to a product. Well, not the product so much, but the sales reps and email campaigns and everything that goes along with it. You are putting your name on a proverbial dotted line of commitment that I just don’t like to cross until I am really, really interested in something.
So why are vendors making it MORE difficult to learn about their products right now? Seriously – We are in a recession – they should be doing backflips that someone still is considering buying from them. HELLO Vendors, no one wants to fill out forms to see some really basic information that your competition is offering up for free on their site, then get hounded by your sales people forever.
Believe it or not, my idea this morning was to write about the new performance management solution that Success Factors was offering for “emerging” businesses (Apparently, “Emerging” means you are under 50 employees which is what it takes to be considered a “small” business. UGH!! More terminalogy to learn!) I think small “emerging” biz is a really under focused on, yet important market and I was excited they were going to play ball in that area. I was also excited that it was built on the cloud technology. Then I got to the site and while there is some (limited) information – if I want to see so much as a data sheet of what the product even includes I have to commit to “the form”. I can see for the online demo, pricing, etc – but to see what is included in the product? Really???
My favorite part on the form was the statement: “We will not share your information with 3rd parties.”

My immediate thought – It isn’t the 3rd parties we are concerned with…its your sales team!

I seriously started laughing out loud to myself at the irony of that statement. Maybe someone without such a fear of commitment would have just filled out the form and gone on where there lives. Me? I see who else is doing the form thing (I am adament not to have it at HRMDirect) via some quick research and am proud to share some vendors that actually appreciate commitmentphobe’s learning about their product - HRMDirect, Taleo, PCRecruiter, ICIMS (to a lesser degree), SilkRoad, Newton