Lesson in Sales

One of my favorite parts of caller ID is being able to dodge calls.

My current responsibilities at work have increased dramatically the number of emails and phone calls that I field daily.

Inbound calls on my office line do not show the number of the caller. I don't like that.

I have my cell phone number on my work voicemail, and people who truly want to speak with me track me down on my cell if I'm out of the office. While my cell phone does have caller ID, many of these calls are from numbers I don't recognize.

Most of the people calling me, especially the ones I would like to dodge, are attempting to sell me something. The easy part of chasing away inbound solicitations is attempting to drive them down on price. If they don't budge, they go away.

What inexperienced sellers forget to recognize is that, especially with cold calling, they are selling something that people didn't necessarily want, nor know they needed.

I give credit to the people selling products who are persistent. It's so easy to send one email and assume your audience has read it, and wait for them to respond. Someone like me that receives tons of these emails from potential vendors, repeated emails and sales calls might lead to business. Not a single call, a single email, or even a single call followed by an email.

Above all, I prefer inquiring about things I want to buy, not being sold things I wasn't looking for.