Cold Calling – traps for the untrained or the unwary.

 The other day my administrator buzzed me, “Lady named Grace is calling”, she said, “Evidently you’re expecting her call”.

I wasn’t. Not actually sure I know anyone called Grace, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a call.

Regardless, I usually take sales calls, if I’m free. Firstly, I respect the fact they have the cojones to pick up the phone in this day and age, and secondly you never know if their pitch may just actually be of interest.

‘Put her through’, I said.

“Hi David”, said Grace, “You probably don’t remember, but we spoke 2 months ago and you asked me to call back”.

‘No’, I replied, “We didn’t, but carry on’.

Grace then went into a longwinded, high speed, rambling monologue about upgrades to our local telephone exchange and some product or service her firm was offering and how someone was in my area next week or something. All I can recall from the pitch was that it was fast and that she used my name in virtually every single sentence - “So what we’re offering, David”, “The reason I’m calling today, David”, “This is important because, David…” - blah blah blah, and it was like nails being dragged down a chalkboard and inside me a loud voice was screaming “I KNOW MY OWN NAME!!!  STOP SAYING MY NAME!!! JUST STOP IT!!!”.

She then finished her pitch with a reasonably decent open question.

I ignored this and said, “Grace, why did you lie to me?”. She faltered, ‘What do you mean?’.

“Firstly”, I said, “You lied to my administrator. I wasn’t expecting your call, you knew that. Secondly, we didn’t speak 2 months ago  - we’ve never spoken before - and therefore I could never asked you to call back”. I have a weirdly savant like memory for names, going back years & years, probably one of the reasons I’m a half decent recruiter. “Why did you lie? If you lie about having spoken before, how can I believe a word you say about anything else? You can’t build a relationship off lies”.

She tried to blag past it. I told her that whilst I respected the fact that churning out cold calls is tough, she was doing all salespeople a disservice by taking such an approach. The call didn’t end well for her.

Now the sad thing is that even if I had been in the market for a new phone system (I’m not! Phone sales people – please stop dialling now!), I wouldn’t have bought from her. You build a relationship on trust, not lies. And even though some may construe these as ‘white’ lies, they were lies nonetheless, and all she has managed to demonstrate is disingenuity. And an irritating verbal tic in repeating my name every 3 seconds.

As a sub-note, Grace (if that’s even your real name) - don’t be disheartened. At least you had the courage to pick up the phone and make a cold call – many don’t these days - kudos to you! You’ve just had poor training, that’s all. If you want to elevate your career and receive some proper training, please call me (just don’t say my name 28 times in the opening gambit!) – I’m always happy to speak to people who aren’t afraid to make cold calls, and can offer both IiP approved brilliant training and a career trajectory that will far surpass having to tell fibs to flog phone systems to people who like the sound of their own name.

(And as a sub-sub-note I’m aghast that these ‘tricks’ are still being taught somewhere. The notion that people love the sound of their own name – wasn’t this being promoted by Dale Carnegie in a book published in 1936…??!! Amazing).

Am I being unfair?