Postcard from Bishkek

From my regular scanning of the news sites on line, I came across an item reporting the results of a survey conducted in Britain … with the headlilne declaring that “Cold calls and spam emails top the list of ‘bugbears of modern life’“.

Although the list of the top 50 irritants did contain some interesting and mildly surprising items, those at the top of the list came as no surprise – to least, not to me.

The trouble is that cold calls and spam emails, (and for that matter, most of the items on the list), are not limited to Britain and are commonly found here as well.  It is as if in an attempt to learn from the West, people have adopted some of the less appealing aspects of the free market economy instead of applying  discerning approach and learning from our mistakes.

This last couple of weeks, for example, I have taken a number of calls from sales operatives, all of whom are convinced of the value of whatever it is they are offering – which is right and proper – but their attempts to put pressure on me to make an instant decision to buy does not go down very well … at least not with me – maybe they have more success with others.  The trouble is, I don’t respond well to high power, high pressure sales pitches – if anything they tend to turn me off.  I don’t like making “instant decisions” but like to consider the question from several angles, the possible alternatives, implications for the future, and so on …

Please don’t misunderstand me … it’s not the phone calls in themselves that I object to, per se.

After all, it represents just one form of advertising, one method for them to put their products or services before an audience of potential customers … and unlike most of the spam which I receive, could be considered as being relevant to my business in some way or another … whereas most of the spam I receive is totally irrelevant!.  The am of the “spam marketer” is simply to put their message in front of as many people as possible – after all, that’s what they are paid for – not converting those “sightings” into sales.

One of the advantages of the telephone call is that you are talking to a person – so there is some form of interaction … and it is a sign of commitment – there is cost, which is not inconsiderable when compared with that of sending out several thousand emails in a “blunderbuss approach”.

However, I have problems with the techniques employed by these cold calls.  I didn’t ask them to call and although I may be interested in what they have to offer, the first thing I need is information – so why is it they are reluctant to send me details … oh, no, they would rather talk to me on the phone – taking my time, (distracting me from what I was doing), and theirs … not to mention the cost of the phone call (… o.k., that might be minimal, for example, in the case of a call from here in Bishkek – but some people call from abroad – from Moscow or from London, for example).

Often, when the caller is from Bishkek, they say something like, “We would like to meet with you to explain our offer, when would that be possible?” … Hang on, hang on … you may well want to meet with me – but do I want to meet with you?   Give me a reason why I should … send me some information about what you are offering so that I can judge whether it is relevant for me and my business.

If it is relevant and seems appealing then you will have attracted my attention and I will follow up, call you back to ask for more information … and that’s when you try the “sales pitch”.

One of the reasons for requesting a meeting is that they happen to have a foreign “expert” visiting at the moment – and “he can explain far better and in more detail …” – or does that simply mean he’s more convincing – more technical – and more able to “pull the wool over my eyes” …

Then, concerning that meeting, “of curse, we can come to you, but it would be better if you could come to us …”.  Excuse me, but you are asking to see me … you want to see me … so you should come to me.  Why should I have to make special arrangements?  One salesman answered that by saying, “so that you can see that we are a solid well established company, and not a fly-by-night operation.”  Hmmm … maybe … but … we can deal with that later, when I have decided that I am interested and want to pursue your offer.

 

Perhaps the worst example I have come across recently was the attempt to sell me a course.  It took the form of three phone calls,  on three consecutive days …

In the first, the caller identified themselves and the firm they were working for – OK, that’s a good start.  She then said that they were conducting a survey about doing business here in Kyrgyzstan and started with a totally pen ended question : what problems do you face?  During the five minutes or so of conversation she kept trying to bring the conversation round from what I was saying to the question of sales and salesmanship … yes, I do think that is a problem – without sales there’s no business, but there are other more fundamental issues, I replied.  At the end of her allotted time she hurriedly thanked me for my time … OK, Good, and said that I had given her a lot of useful information and raised several important issues … and rapidly drew the conversation to a close.

It struck me as an odd phone call, and not like a survey … apart from the opening question she didn’t really have any others … just a general attempt to raise the question of the importance of making sales.

I didn’t think that much of it until the next day when she called again and thanked me for my “contribution” to the survey.  Her manager had given permission to approach me with a commercial offer which she thought might interest me … Aha!, I thought … now all is explained.  The commercial offer involved an upcoming course on sales and salesmanship which was being conducted by their consulting firm … and would be led by a “foreign expert” who had conducted several such courses and had already been to Kyrgyzstan … so, apparently. knew the situation here.

OK, I said, send me some details, and I will look at them.

She did.

I wasn’t impressed.

So when she called back the next day and started again to thank me for my contribution to the survey – and asked if I was interested in the course, I said No.

To my mind, that should have been the end of the conversation … but, no.  She asked “Oh, why no?”

I let the line go silent for five seconds before asking “Do I really have to explain the reason for my decision to you?”  This time, she let the line go silent for five seconds … so I said something like “I don’t have to explain my decision to you – but seeing as you have asked … IF this is an example of what I will learn on the course, then I am not interested … you phoned me pretending to be doing a survey …”.

“But we were conducting a survey,” she interrupted.

“Yes, you asked me a question, so I suppose we could say you were conducting a survey, but we both know that it was just the first step in an attempt to sell me a place on this course.  You didn’t have a series of questions but simply tried to, repeatedly, bring the subject back to this topic … then you called a second time to tell me that your manager had “given you permission” to offer me a place on this course – suggesting that it is something special and to be valued.  You sent me details which included the discounts available, (most of which it was to late for me to take advantage of), but didn’t include the price.  Then you call me back to get my answer … but don’t accept it as such, instead asking me to explain why. ”

“Sorry, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that is a good example of salesmanship.”

To be fair… she was very polite all the way through, unlike some telesales people that I have had the “pleasure” to come across, and the c0urse description did seem quite interesting … IF she had started with “we have conducted a survey and discovered that one of the main problems facing business in Kyrgyzstan today is …”, going on to outline the course as a way of addressing that issue, and asking “would I be interested in such a course?”, then she might, (I did say “might”), have gotten a different response from me.

 

Also, to be fair … I should point out that this is NOT the only example I have come across in the last few weeks … and I do hope that this is not indicative of a trend here in Kyrgyzstan … it strikes me as one of the aspects of Western culture that would be better left in the West.

 

Tags: Business, Expat, Marketing