When I was in college, I once read that people who take sales calls don't suffer fools gladly. At the time, it didn't mean much to me, but years later as a Buyer, those words have great resonance.
A couple recent posts about the importance of doing research on potential prospects, one here on KMM and one referred to by that post made me think that the following is a story that should be told. As someone who for years has had to "suffer" inappropriate sales calls, I've heard more than could fit into this space.
One that stands out and probably the best example of a salesperson who didn't research his potential target is someone we'll call "Donut Man."
I was working in the Purchasing Department of an international multi-billion (yes, with the "B") dollar company. We received a sales call from someone pushing his promotional donut boxes!
Everyone likes donuts, except those who have been temporarily converted by the carbo-phobes, but let's face reality: When was the last time sales executives from a multi-billion dollar company hopped on the corporate jet to go make deals with executives from another multi-billion dollar company while toting promotional donut boxes?
We told him that nicely, but he still insisted that he would follow up (Now there's a sales technique, right?) by sending us some samples. I admit that, even though there was no way we would ever do business with Donut Man, some of us were looking forward to the samples. That is, until they arrived - just flat promotional boxes - minus the donuts!
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