Sometimes I like my job

[ericcoleman]

Part of my job is answering the phones. A big part of that is fending off sales geeks. I can usually spot the bad ones pretty quickly.

The phone call I just got rang some bells from the first line. Here is how it went

Me: >insert company name here< Printing, this is Eric can I help you?
Sales Geek: What is the name of your shipping manager.

Ok, at this point I know that it is a cold call, otherwise this person would know at least one name to talk to. We have long standing corporate accounts that are not changeable by us. So my job is to say something like ...

Me: I can probably help you, what do you need? (and I usually can, since I know how most things are run in the building)
SG: I'd like the name of your shipping manager.
Me: I can help you, what do you need?
SG: The name of your shipping manager.
Me: I can help you.
SG: You're a dumb dick aren't you?
Me: I do my best (this said as he hangs up)

If he had been legit, he would have told me what he wanted. And I would have either pointed him to the right person or said that he needed to go to his next cold call. I do hope, for his sake, that his calls were't being recorded "to guarantee customer satisfaction".

Comments

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee. I have a VERY assertive admin who filters 90% of the sales-type calls i get, leaving me only people who have admitted they are trying to sell something, have identified themselves and their company, and have been told once that i am unlikely to give them more than 30 seconds or so to make their case.

When i or my salespeople make cold calls, and get someone like you on the phone, we try to enlist them to our cause.
We tell them who we are, who our company is, and what we do. We ask for the name of the person who would likely deal with us or buy our services in the organization. We explain that we are actully calling from our company, have reason to believe that we can benefit YOUR company, and will not make pests of ourselves if given the contact name.

Lots of times, we get really good information that gets us to the right person, and we get a legit shot at talking to them, which is all we really want. if they don't want to talk to us, we take them off our cold-call list, beacause it's a waste of their time and ours to hound them, and there are other people to call, some of whom need our services, and WILL want to talk with us.

I cannot understand, even a bit, why these basics are not followed in every sales training program.

[ericcoleman]

And people who do this get through, or get a very polite explanation why not (it would be a waste of their time).

And the reason this guy didn't follow that, he probably wasn't legit.