Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for all the advice, some great stuff here. After a week of ingesting the theory I'm definately getting up to speed.

Thanks

Justin

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

DAC: Sadly there aren't too many ladies in the electronics industry, it's all geeky blokes with tanned faces from all the UV emissions that PC monitors give out

I guess my point was that some people, like myself, receive quite a volume of cold calls, and have to learn to despatch the uninteresting ones politely but firmly. Presumptious questions like 'When's a good time to pop in and see you?' are the ones that particularly upset me. Either I'd have to give a time (in which case we'd both end up wasting the time it takes to have a meeting), or I have to say something along the lines of 'Hang on, wait, who said anything about a meeting?', which is antagonistic. Personally I can live without the stress. I get enough of that commuting on the M25.

If the caller said instead, 'Would you like me to come in and see you?', and actually took 'no' for an answer, then that would ultimately be better for both of us, although I understand that some people might instead cave in under the pressure and accept the meeting. I feel sorry for these people. I'm sure that psychologists must have fun with this sort of situation.

Occasionally I have to admit that an especially persistant caller can brighten up my afternoon. I'll start repeating their questions back to them aloud, so that my colleagues can get an idea of both sides of the conversation. To make up an example that's remarkably similar to one I had a while back that made me laugh:

Caller: "Good afternoon Mr Cawet, my name's X, and I'm a distributor representing companies Y and Z. Have you heard of them?"
Me: "My name's not Cawet, it's Cawte, pronounced as in 'court'. Your mailing list has a typo."

(Cue sniggers from colleagues my end and flustered mumbling from the caller. I love to derail a well-practised, routine opening speech - it makes people think for a change. The very fact that the caller has got my name wrong suggests that I'm in for some fun here.)

Caller: "Company Y, whose products we distribute, is one of the world's largest..."
Me: "Really?"

(Mental alarm bells are ringing loudly by now. Only complete no-hopers try and justify themselves like this. If they were that big or important, I'd have heard of them.)

Caller: "...and your company already uses them."
Me: "I see..."
Caller: "I'll be in your area tomorrow afternoon. Can you give me directions to your office?

Me: "We don't use that sort of product. My company is huge, we have development groups all over the world. My group has nothing to do with that sort of product."
Caller: "Your company buys loads of stuff from them."
Me: "Not my group. I've no doubt that someone else has used them, but we do something completely unrelated. How did you get my name exactly?"
Caller: "It's on our database"

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

(Translation: "I don't have a clue who you are or why I'm calling you. We got your name by rummaging through your office bin.)

...and so it goes on. Eventually we reach a mutual understanding that I really don't need anything from company Y, and that even if I did, I'd buy it directly from company Y and not through a distributor. Hopefully I've also put across the message that if he sends me a data sheet on company Y's latest product, I'll wipe my ar*e on it.

Trouble is, it's not over yet. The caller still has to try and sell me everything that company Z makes. The bizarre thing is, if he'd asked me exactly what sort of work I do, I'd have been reasonably happy to explain, at least in very rough terms. That would have immediately given enough information for him to realise that we were both wasting our time. Unfortunately, that sort of genuinely useful, information gathering question isn't on the mental list of pushy questions designed to get meetings arranged. Duh...

Caller: "Is there anyone else in your office that I should speak to about these?
Me: "Well, not really, no. I've explained already, my whole group does the same sort of work that I do. WE don't need your services."
Caller: "Is there really no-one..."

At this point, I run through the list of all the people in the office who have done something to annoy me in the last few days. If anyone's really spoiled my day, I'll happily give out their name, and hang up. Otherwise I tend to find myself losing the 'polite' part of 'polite but firm'. By now, I've generally been spending the last few minutes thinking of ways to say "f*** off and die" that won't get me sacked if the wrong person overhears.

All of that happens in the office. I'm representing my employer and its interests, so I have to try hard to be reasonably nice without actually committing to doing anything that would waste my company's time or money. This is hard.

Call me at home, on the other hand, and you're in for the ear-bashing of your life - I'm registered with the Telephone Preference Service and you should respect that. 'Nuff said.

So, my advice to anyone involved in cold calling people would be:

- Do your research. If you're calling someone at work, at least be sure that you've got their name right.

- If someone says they're not interested in your product, it's for a reason. Maybe they're not interested NOW, but could be later, so listen to exactly what they say. If it's "we don't use that product, ever", then take the hint. If it's "we're not looking for that sort of product right now", then maybe it's OK to try again some time later.

- Don't be presumptious. It's OK to ask if the potential client feels that a meeting would be useful. Asking for a time, before the usefulness of the meeting has been established, is out of order.

- Do explain straight away who you are, and what you're selling. I can differentiate very quickly between things that are definitely interesting, possibly interesting, and completely uninteresting.

- In my social order, pushy sales people are just below the slug, and only a few steps up from Transport 2000 members. That's just the way I feel - sorry (Some sales people and technical reps are in my good books - it IS possible. I've even bought them beer. The only pre-requisite is that the product they're selling has to actually be useful to me).

If anyone's interested in the way I deal with email spam, just send a blank email with a profanity in the subject line to postmaster@127.0.0.1 and I'll give it the full attention it deserves

Andy.

(ps. for some reason, this whole post crashed the server when I submitted it all in one go - thank heaven for the clipboard! Anybody feel like trying to sell Scoobynet some new bbs software? )

fast bloke

Andy - If you are wondering why no-one posted a reply... Its because your answer is so long and incredibly boring that no one can be ar**d reading it.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

How ironic, that I should find myself boring and wasting the time of people who spend their working lives cold-calling people

fast bloke

Damn......


Hey - what are you implying. I provide a socially worthwhile service to people. They just find it so incredible that they refuse to believe there is no catch.

Do you have a mortgage?