While technology has helped us become smarter in many ways, it also allows people to do dumb things in many ways.
For example, salespeople sending out non-targeted messages, or just plain old ill-conceived emails and voice mails.
Here is an email I actually received.
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Subject: IFRS
Hi Art,
I thought you and your organization might find value in a new IFRS Transition Workshop. This a two day workshop has been designed to kick start the conversion to IFRS through an in-depth analysis of critical changes from US GAAP.
May I send you the detailed pamphlet via email?
Regards,
Josh
(His contact info was here)
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Perhaps your reaction was the same as mine: Huh?
IFRS?
US GAAP? Is that a clothing store at the mall?
I actually thought someone was playing a joke on me so I sat on this for a few weeks. Nope. No one took credit for it, and the guy never followed up.
Curious as to what this IFRS actually is (and perhaps there was a possibility I should be interested in it– I do tend to blow some things off that I should be paying attention to) I researched it. Well, turns out it doesn’t apply to me, and if I had to attend the two-day workshop I would likely stick a fork in my skull out of boredom after the first minutes or so. (It has to do with accounting procedures and is aimed at financial professionals.)
So what was this sales rep thinking? Obviously he could not have done any research on me and my company. Just looking at my company name, Business By Phone Inc. would have been a clue I wasn’t a prospect.
He certainly didn’t do any Social Engineering to collect information. (See the post where I explain this)
And since I have a spam email system where a new emailer not in my database must physically respond to a return email in order for his to be put through, I know this was not a mass mailing. A human was actually behind this. Amazing. Just like there are dumb cold calls, this was a dumb cold email.
Aside from my rant, and the humor in all of this, it does affect you. Your buyers and prospects receive emails, voice mails, and calls like these, too.
They clutter up inboxes and voicemailboxes, contributing to the “always too much to do and not enough time to do it” mode that it seems everyone is operating within today. And if, by chance, one of these clueless callers actually gets through to a decision maker and speaks his non-targeted message, they are quickly blown off the phone.
But again, it has created another negative impression of sales reps in the prospect’s mind, making it that much tougher for you and me.
So, what to do? Control what YOU can. Of course, that is the way you approach your calls. Today, there is no excuse, other than laziness for not being totally prepared with intelligence about your prospects, customers, their company, and their issues. That’s Smart Calling.
It’s just plain dumb not to.
Here’s another post about how to do Smart Calling.
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