There is a breed of salesperson I can’t stand. They’re pushy, arrogant and simply won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
More often than not, they’re employed by share trading or make money through some sports betting scheme.
Barbara was on the receiving end of one of these ‘gentlemen’ the other day.
He’d called asking if we’d received a brochure on their share trading scheme. We hadn’t.
Barbara told him she wasn’t interested in share trading schemes.
His immediate response – “You haven’t seen the brochure so how would you know you’re not interested? Don’t you want to make money?”
Once again, “I’m not interested in what you have to offer.”
To no avail. He just wouldn’t take no for an answer, kept insisting that his program was the best thing since sliced bread and that Barbara really had to listen to him.
Eventually he got the message, gave up and hung up.
Honestly, people like this give telemarketers a bad name. No doubt he’d get some people over the line with his tactics – mainly people who can’t say ‘no’. But whether he’d get long term business from them is dubious.
So what should he have done instead?
Listening would be a good start. Was Barbara saying ‘no’ because she had a philosophical objection to this type of trading or simply didn’t know enough about it to make an informed decision?
Maybe she or someone she knew had had a bad experience in the past?
I would have probed for the truth. Was Barbara a real prospect that could be brought around if given the right information or did ‘no’ really mean ‘no’?
But these high pressure sales types are employed to do just that. Employ high pressure tactics to get as many sales as possible. And it doesn’t matter if they burn prospects in the meantime.
Ultimately they burn themselves. A dumb move on their part.
Rashid.
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