No No No, then maybe Yes

It appears that every week life gets harder. Some say it is due to the economy, some say it is technology, people working longer hours for less pay and many other factors. But whatever the reason why our community at large is cantankerous , we must determine what is  the best method to market to these frustrated people.

I find myself reaching out to perfect strangers almost every day. Obviously if it is a phone call, I have no idea what they are being interrupted from when they answer my call, but what happens practically 98% of the time is that they are prepared to hang up on before I even open my mouth. This has nothing to do with me, but the sheer volume of sales calls business owners and decision makers receive throughout the day.

Years ago, people would give you a courtesy 10 seconds of introducing yourself
and your product/service before they would decide whether or not to blow you off. But today, you don't even get the chance to say your name before the recipient is banging the phone down or closing a door in your face.

What made me sit down and write this article was an incident that happened the other day. A friend  that owns a restaurant wanted to create  a cross promotion with a musical band. The owner of the restaurant was interested in placing the bands info on their website, pay them handsomely for the talents, reward them with a time share in the Bahamas and a few other small perks. So as I was getting excited to create this win win crosss promtion, I picked up the phone for an introduction and set up a meeting. Instead, the leader of the band basically picked up the phone, said hello in a very gruff demeanor and hung up on me with a prepared "not interested in buying anything" routine robotic reply and slammed the phone on me. I stared at the phone for about 20 seconds and started to laugh.
This grumpy person did not know if I was going to drive over with a million dollars in George Washington's or sell him something. My guess is that he is so important, that he didn't need to extend an extra few precious seconds of his hectic life, to decipher why I was calling.

The moral of the story is try and give everyone the benefit if the doubt, even when you are stressed, since you never know what the person on the other end of the phone can offer you.

DonTolep.com