In the past I have written about my frustration with constant requests for surveys. But it is cold calls that are the bane of my existence.
Frankly, I only listen to voicemail about once a month. 90% of the voicemails that I get are cold calls and I have created a a game to see if I can delete them in the first second of the message. There are some key phrases that let me know when the voicemail is a cold call. Anything that starts with “Hello Mr. Weider” is a goner. Nobody that I know calls me Mr. Weider (except my daughters’ friends). People that call me “Bill” are also immediately deleted.
I love people that ask me to call them back without any reference to the subject. That is a technique that does not work with me.
I suppose that there are some worthwhile products and services in some of those cold calls. But, they are needles in a haystack and I don’t have time to search for them. Most of the voicemails are just plain bad. This voicemail is from someone purporting to be from IBM offering to connect me with a business partner that has a turnkey solution that will allow me to archive and access the information on my databases. Huh? Finally, I will be able to access all that information that I have been storing in my databases. I thought the day would never come. It seemed silly to be storing data for all these years without a way to access it.
I think bad cold calls could be a regular feature on my blog.
My heart sinks when I pick-up an incoming call, thinking it is someone that I am expecting, and it turns out to be a cold call. I feel obligated to let them finish their lengthy intro, before politely telling them that I don’t have time to take their call. I guess I am Midwestern nice.
Happy Father’s Day.
Candid CIO 
Will (NOT Mr. Weider or Bill): Great comments about Cold Calls. I am in sales, and I hate to do them and I hate to get them. Yet, I do have to reach potential clients to determine if our solution fits a need..usually with very little more upfront info than hearsay about an organizations needs.
So, my 2 part question is: How do you gain insight into what the marketplace can offer to you and how do you prefered to be contacted? Don’t worry, I won’t be contacting you anytime soon, but your feedback could save us all a lot of time and aggrevation.
Have a great day.
Rob
Will,
You should have agreed with the IBM guy and then watched what happened when you told him it was a Meditech database.
Joel
Very Funny Will. I am very interested as well as to how I can access all this data we have been saving. I guess once I know what it is I may even need to archive it.
You don’t have to be rude. Just set your phone down and let them talk to your desk. Eventually they’ll hang up on you.