Almost daily I receive sales calls from various vendors to the point that I am no longer very nice about it. Everything is newer, better and more intuitive than what I am using now. That may very well be the case, but I am very pragmatic when it comes to spending other peoples money. First I need to make the most of what I have before I look for an improved product and be able to justify the additional cost and have a baseline to compare it to. The story below really explains why I feel the way I do when I receive unsolicited sales calls from vendors.

One thing that I experienced was actually quite humorous. I had scheduled an appointment with a company for an online presentation of their product. I was told it would take 15 minutes. The appointment was set for 10:30 am two days in the future. I blocked off 30 minutes of my schedule for that presentation. I was on my machine at their website at 10:30 on the day of the scheduled appointment. I started to work on some other things while waiting for the call that did not come through until 11:15. Needless to say I did not go through with the presentation.

Guess what products they were selling? CRM and ILM tools!!

A manager followed up later a couple of different times and acted puzzled why I would not schedule another online presentation.

Here is why I will never consider that product now or in the future:

1. If they don’t value my time well enough to keep an appointment for a sales pitch how is their customer service going to be.
2. If they are selling ILM they need to have it modified for their internal use. The excuse from the sales rep that stood me up was he forgot about the appointment! As honest as he was in his excuse I would of rather heard a lie, like he got a flat tire.
3. The manager that tried to save the sale was arrogant and showed an even less value of my time by continuing to call me after this happened.
4. They tried to end around me and go straight to the GM that still is not 100% sold on Internet marketing. Of course I would need his buy in to sign up for a new service but ultimately if I don’t endorse the product it is not going to happen.

I understand follow up is the key to making sales especially on an intangible product, but this particular vendor would have been better off to place me in a future follow up file instead of trying to save the blown opportunity. Regardless of what direction my career as an ISM goes I will never recommend this product and if placed in a position where it is in place I will look for a replacement.

A vendor selling ILM tools should learn to use them before they try to sell them. It does not help your credibility to try to teach me or help me stay in touch with customers when you cannot do it properly yourself.

So for now I will continue to maximize what I have no matter how out dated or unintuitive it may be and develop my baseline and seek products that I wish to have in my arsenal.