You Are No Good at Cold Calls

For all the value LinkedIn delivers, it comes with a painful downside for many of us; excess contact with sales people.     I have nothing against sales people in general.   I happily spent much of my early career as one, and count several among my friends and family.   But my professional interactions with salespeople - which occur daily - are almost always a waste of my time (and theirs).     I don't like wasting time.    So let’s talk about how we can work together to waste less of it.

So I signed up for something somewhere,  my name and number got on a list, that list got in your hands, and you give me a call.   If, somehow, you get through and I answer, certain predictable bits of conversation are needless time wasters:

• Telling me you appreciate how busy I am and how valuable my time is (apparently, you don’t)
• Telling me you won’t waste any more of my time than necessary (too late)

If we get past that part, and I decide to continue with the call, any of the following can quickly make me regret that decision:

•  Attempts to “establish rapport,” by inquiring as to my well-being, commenting on the weather or a recent sporting event, or anything else irrelevant to the business at hand.    Maybe someday we'll have time for chit chat.  Not today.
• Launching into a long, obviously rehearsed sales pitch (we can tell when you are reading from a script)
• Informing me that a senior executive will be visiting my area and would love an opportunity to introduce him/herself
• Telling me you can save X% on whatever I am spending now (you don’t know what I am spending now)

Instead, all I want to hear, as briefly and concisely as possible, is:

• What you are selling
• Who your competition is, and how you are different from them
• Why you think my specific company would be in the market for your specific product.  Specifically.  With specification.  

That last one will require some homework and thought.   That part usually gets skipped.

Assuming what I hear is of interest, I will ask for you to send me more information for my files.  Agree to do so, say "thank you," and hang up.  That’s success.   Good job.    Make a note to send me some updated material when you have it. 

Don’t call to see if I got it, or if I read it, or if I have any questions.   If I didn’t get it, or if I had any questions, I’d let you know.  Again – I’m not waiting for you to call.  Calling me to follow-up is a waste of your and my time.

I will  not do any of the following, so don't ask:

•  Tell you who our current suppliers are, or what we like or dislike about them or their product.
• Agree to meet you or anyone from your company
• Give you a name for someone else who might be more interested in meeting you.

If I do any of those,  at least at this point in the nascent relationship, I am not being very good at my job.     This may come as a surprise, but we don’t sit around with a list of stuff we’d like to buy, waiting for someone to call and sell it to us.   And we don't share business information with strangers.   If your company and product are any good, we will find you when we need you.  It’s what we do.  

Don't ask me when we plan on buying whatever you are selling.  If you are chosen to participate in an RFI/RFP/RFQ, we’ll tell you at the appropriate time.   If you are not chosen, it is because we did our review, and you didn’t make the cut.  Better luck next time.  That keeps it fair; giving one supplier a heads-up only gives that supplier an unfair advantage, and encourages them to go around the process.

I know what some of you are thinking.   “If I follow these rules, I’m going to get fired.  I’m not paid to take ‘no’  for an answer.  I'm paid to read a script, and persistently follow-up, until either we make the sale or the customer won't take my calls anymore.”    My response is this:  if being efficient with your time (and mine), if doing what your potential customer wants, gets you fired, then you should be looking for another job anyway.   Employers like that are always plagued by failure and sales team turnover.    It's not where you want to be.

Thanks for you time.