Eat, Pray, Love is Fine. Eat, Crunch and Work is Awful. Yet Another Complaint about.... Dealer Salespeople!

Dear Stephen,

The column you wrote two weeks ago about dealers being a necessary evil struck a chord with me. Honestly, my first response was that the person who wrote the letter was an obnoxious manufacturer big-shot who ought to be retired. I used to report to a guy just like that and he was completely out of touch with how difficult dealers have it. I’m a manufacturer’s sales rep for a big company, and where I work, we totally respect our dealers.

Currently, we’re at the phase on a project where the end-user and this big design firm that everyone knows is asking us to recommend three dealers to send RFPs to. Honestly, the design firm already picked the top three dealers they wanted, and that’s who I sent the documents to... A couple hours later, one of the dealer’s sales managers called me to ask some legitimate questions about the RFP. I put them on speaker phone in my private office so that I could study the RFP along with some custom drawings of the furniture, when suddenly, I realize, there is a consistent chomping and crunching sound coming out of the speaker as this woman spoke to me. Off the bat, I was confused and offended. It’s not even like she was eating a normal lunch but rather some new fad diet of only carrots or only celery, or something like that. It sounded to me like she was chewing carrots... but one after another after another! I’m not even sure how she heard me speaking because the crunch in her ear must have been too loud. It was so bad that when I walked out of my office, my associate asked if someone on the phone had been chewing carrots the whole time. That's how loud the crunching sounds were.

Do you think I'm crazy for being annoyed by this? It just felt so rude and disrespectful to hear her continuously chomping and crunching on our business call. I hate judging people or making assumptions about things - I’m no hater! But am I wrong for leaving this call with such a bad taste in my mouth? (No pun intended).

To bring it back to your column, this?was?a dealer person – the very culprits you were referring to. I can’t help but think that the reason this person was so comfortable to eat on the phone with me was because I work at a manufacturer. I doubt they would have done that if they were talking to someone from Gensler. It’s this type of behavior between a dealer and a manufacturer that negatively impacts the relationships we have, in my personal opinion. So, my question is: am I crazy for finding this really disrespectful, annoying and gross? Was the dealer out of line for chewing carrots on the call?

Signed,

Bugs Bunny Called

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Dear Yosemite Sam,

Wow – I’ve had that same experience on the phone before! As well as sometimes even with people in the office, in-person. Personally, I think it’s awful! I’ll take it a step further and say that I don’t want to hear anyone eating! I don’t want to see them eating on a zoom call… and I especially don’t want to smell them eating in my office!! I’m not even going to respond to the fact that it happened to be a dealer salesperson who did this to you because this could happen to anyone at any time. But, you’re right, there’s an unspoken tension between dealers and manufacturers.

Okay, now, to the heart of your question that could apply to?any?work dynamic –?you should NOT be eating on business calls. I call it phone-terrorism.?Eating or drinking on a telephone call with a client or a co-worker, or even a family member, is rude and distracting. Doing it in a work situation, which this column is about, is unacceptable. If you’re trying to win someone over on the telephone, talking while eating is not going to do it, for anyone! The worst is when someone says something like “Let me take a quick bite.” Now that’s just nasty. There are other distractions on phone calls which I don’t like such as car noises (wind, trucks, traffic) or a bit of road rage (pathetically shouting at another driver), music or television or kids or dogs in the background. And how about email and text notifications being turned on too loud? A steady stream of bings and bells and swooshes going off in the background… please. Enough Already! Twenty years ago when I would call on a dealer principal and they would sit behind their big desk and open their mail while I was talking, I found it rude and off-putting; now, people are just as rude, except they read emails instead of snail mail. In our new business climate, we should all be hyper aware of how we are perceived digitally and what sensory perceptions cross the digital void and which ones do not. Noise, for example, will always cross over into the phone call yet if you haven’t showered in three days, no one will really know. And if you haven’t showered in three days: go take a shower! And that goes for you, Jake Gyllenhaal!

Meanwhile, chewing on carrots or eating, anything, for that matter, will always diminish your interactions over the phone and your reputation. When you’re speaking to a professional colleague, especially a client, not being in the same room gives you no excuse to be unprofessional. You should give your full attention to the person you are speaking to, and to answer your question; yes – eating on a business call is the ultimate insult. You are, in effect, saying, “I care more about my sandwich then I care about you,"?whether it is intentional or not. Beyond that, if you’re a salesperson trying to close a deal over the phone, this is the number one way to fail and let your company down.

I’m not even going to tackle Skype/Zoom etiquette in this column because that subject’s been beaten to death lately, but the same general rules apply.?This is your job – treat it like one!

Signed,

Stephen

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Stephen Viscusi is the CEO of www.viscusigroup.coom, an executive search firm that specializes in the interior furnishings industry. Hires made through The Viscusi Group are guaranteed a two year free replacement. Please share your stories or comments in the comment section and send your workplace questions to [email protected].

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