Postcard from Bishkek

The other day I had the occasion to write a letter of complaint … the following is a slightly redacted version of it.  I think that it speaks for itself … so I won’t spend time “setting the scene” except to say that those people who know me well, will vouch for the fact that I do not respond well to “telesales” or attempts to deliver “high pressurized” sales pitches.

To whom it may concern …

About a month ago I received a phone call from one of your offices  and was asked if they could send me some literature. I said that they could send me if they so wished but I thought it was a waste of time because I was not interested in following the stock market.

About ten days ago the brochure arrived and I perused it.

I then received a phone call from one of your brokers where a particular stock was mentioned and an offer to buy shares was put to me. In all the conversation the caller was very polite … but persistent. He kept using my first name as if we were “old pals” – presumably in an attempt to establish a rapport … and he seemed to have a habit of ending sentences at “crucial” points in the conversation with a question – which I understood to be attempts at creating a “call to action”.

Several times throughout the conversation, however, I repeated the point that I was not interested in following the stock market. In the end, he seemed to accept this position – at least, at the time, I got the impression that he did – especially when he said that he “understood and respected” my point of view.

Today, I received another phone call from another of your brokers who tried once again to interest me in the same deal, asking if I had been following the news and that the share price had already shown a significant growth. I said, once again, that I was not interested in following the stock market … but he continued to outline the deal and ended with: “that will involve a commitment of around ten dollars, I am sure you can handle that, can’t you?”

I pointed out that this was now the third time that I had told a representative of the company that I was not interested.

It was at that point that he said, “There is no need to get angry,” I don’t think I was, I was simply pointing out that this was the third time that I had told a representative of your company that I was not interested in following the Stock market.

He then went on to say that “he would not waste his valuable time” talking to me any further and hung up … Oh, to be fair, he did wish me a good day.

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Can I point out that:

• I took three “cold calls”, (I hadn’t requested them, I wasn’t expecting them, and they had interrupted me in the course of my working day when I was attending to other business);

• Two of the calls were quite lengthy;

• That in the course of each I tried to explain that I am not interested in following the stock market and that

• Apart from, (at the very last moment), they all attempted to prolong the discussion and persisted in trying to persuade me otherwise.

• The final caller, in my opinion, spoke to me rudely – not just curtly – and seemed not to respect my “valuable” time.

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I am not going to mention names of the individuals concerned – although they all identified themselves at the beginning of the calls, I didn’t make notes, or keep the notes that I did make. If you are interested I presume they keep records and that you can find out.

Personally, I am not certain that cold calls like this are a good way for you to generate business … oh, it obviously works or else you wouldn’t waste your “valuable” time and do it … but I am not sure that making a decision under, what appeared to be an attempted “high powered pressure” telephone sales call … by operators/brokers/whatever who don’t listen to what their potential clients are telling them.

If they are indeed successful in generating business for you, then can I ask you to at least train your staff better.

• I suggest you tell them, for example, to avoid challenging the potential client with phrases like “I’m sure you can manage that, can’t you?” Apart from the rudeness of the approach, if they “fall for it”, are such people going to be “good” clients? the sort of clients that you want to encourage?

• Above all, can I ask you to tell them to listen to the person at the other of the telephone – whom they have just called and interrupted, and who may not think that the great “deal” that they are being offered is necessarily the right thing for them.

• As is often said in another context “No means No”. I do accept that, in the initial call I was asked by the caller if she could send me some the literature … and I suppose that it might have been better if I had said outright “No – don’t bother”. I am sure, however, that you will be aware that “No” is a very strong word, it is “Final” and as such is to be used sparingly … and that many cultures have ways to avoid using it. Train them to recognize “No” in its different forms.

• Remind them that although their time may be valuable, to them – that our time is also valuable, to us.

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Incidentally, I haven’t yet mentioned the fact that the last two callers both referred to what I think could be considered “privileged information”, concerning a contract that had been signed which would “drive the price up” once “it was made public” … leaving me with a nagging doubt about the possibility of “insider dealing”. However, I accept that as I am not interested in following the stock market, (as I have already said three times to three different people in three different phone calls – this is now the fourth occasion when I say it), that my understanding of the phrase, (and what the legal implications might be), could well be at fault.

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Finally, please can you take note that I am not interested in following the stock market – and remove my name from whatever lists of potential clients that you maintain.

 

Obviously one of the things that wrankled with me was the way the last caller said that he wouldn’t waste any more of his “valuable time”.   If he had said that he wouldn’t “take any more of your valuable time”, (that is, MY time), then it would have come across as a normal courtesy or etiquette – and the worst it could have been interpreted as, would have been sarcasm.

 

 There were, however, a couple of other points about the conversations that struck me:

There was a marked difference in approach between the last two callers … While both could be said to be appealing to natural human greed, (stressing the impressive rate of return on the investment), the first took a fair amount of time trying to persuade me that he was offering me a good deal explaining that he was interested in forming “a long term relationship”.  The last caller, on the other hand, was almost “aggressive” in his questioning … and it wasn’t just the “I am sure you can handle that, can’t you?”

 

The thing that struck me as most odd about the whole situation, however, is that they seemed to be targeting successful businessmen and yet seemed to make no allowances for this in their approach.

They had certainly done some homework, (or at the very least they had a bought a list of people who might  be potential clients), because they not only knew my name but also quoted details about the company.

And, they weren’t talking about small sums of money, (ten thousand dollars was not the smallest sum mentioned in the conversations – but then, neither was it the largest).

Despite all this, they didn’t seem to consider that we might also have read the same training manuals, or attended similar courses in marketing and sales.

Tags: Business, Marketing