Everyone gets calls from telemarketers, students (or so they say) doing surveys or calls from Sales Reps. Talk about a time-waster! I mean, I get that the cold-call is an important part of getting new sales but I do question just how effective it is.
Regardless, I find that most of the calls I get during the day at the office are from one of these three groups of people. I rarely call them back. After all, I get paid to get things done, not return phone calls from these people. (I’m amazed how many attempts people make to try to reach me after getting voicemail … one guy is up to 12 voicemail messages … and that’s just from the time I started counting! )
Nonetheless, you can’t avoid these people forever and will eventually answer the phone and have to talk to one of them live. You know the instant they start talking that you’re committed to call that’s going to waste 3-10 minutes of your time. Here’s some things I like to do/say in these situations:
- “I’m sorry, we have a corporate policy that prohibits us from taking part in surveys.”
- “I’m sorry, we have a corporate policy that prohibits us from giving out ANY information about our systems” (or networks, servers, PCs, … anything really).
- “Instead of me telling you what I use, how about you tell me in 3 minutes or less, what makes your product/service/company so great.”
- (Follow-up to the one above if they say they need more than 3 minutes): “Really? I ask this of everyone who calls and no one has ever had a problem doing it. — Its often the best way for me to learn what your company is all about … I think we’re done here.” (hang up)
What people here are saying…