I was motivated to write this by a phone call I got today. I am not going to mention the company, but I will mention that since my company is “1-800-PLUMBING INC” I do get a significant amount of cold calls from plumbing supply companies trying to sell me everything from pipe wrenches to jumper cables. I just politely let them know I am not a plumber and that my customers are plumbers. I sometimes tell them a bit about how 1-800-PLUMBING works and once they realize there is no opportunity to do business the call is ended. Well, I also get requests for plumbing supplies because in some Yellow Pages, they decided to list my business as a plumbing supply house. Just the other day I was thinking, “gee, I should take the requests for plumbing supplies and sell them to a supply house as they are probably really good leads.”
So for the right company I may be able to build a relationship that is mutually beneficial.
Today, one of those telemarketers called. Yes it was one of the telemarketers that gives telemarketers a bad name. He started out real bubbly like we were old friends, then I politely told him that we are not a plumbing company. At that point in the conversation he said, “well then what the H… do you do? Do you just sit at a desk and push pencils all day?”
I told him that I would be happy to speak with anyone that is nice, but to people like him this is what I do, CLICK.
Now this is just one of the rude calls I have gotten. I just don’t understand how people expect to do business by being rude, offensive, obnoxious, or just plain mean. You would think in this economy that people would start to realize that it makes sense to be nice to everybody, but I guess some of these phone sales people just don’t get it.
I remember reading something about Abraham Lincoln that before his mom passed away she told the kids to “be nice to each other” I think this is some of the best advice that anyone can give. Relationships whether they are business or personal will work much better with kindness, courtesy, politeness, etc. than mean nasty and vindictive actions.
Now what if that telemarketer asked me about my business and used his brain a little, he might have thought: “gee this guy has a bunch of customers that I may be able to sell my widgets to.” Lets see if there is an opportunity here. He could have made one call and gotten 20 – 30 potential new clients. But since he was disrespectful and mean all he got was the CLICK!
To quote one of my succesful licensees “I treat my customers the way I would treat my mother and I have all the calls I want”
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