No Excuses

During summer breaks in college, I held some interesting jobs. One year I sold season tickets for the-then New York Nets when they were part of the defunct American Basketball Association.

Another year I worked for a collection agency, calling delinquent customers to, well, pay up or face legal action. The latter taught me research skills and how to track people that would serve me well during my quarter-century as a journalist, while the former taught me the importance of being prepared to pitch a $1,000 ticket package. In other words, I had to know not only who I was talking to but a lot about the company I was pitching.

That is why today that my patience wears thin when I get cold-called about a pitch for a service or services which cannot possibly align with our company’s needs or on a personal level, my needs.

Years ago when I worked for a business newspaper that covered the restaurant industry a public relations person pitching a client actually asked and I quote, “so you guys like, um, write about restaurants?”

Click.

But more recently, a case in point, or more accurately, cases in point.

Last week I fielded three calls on my business line from people pitching their various specialties and how they could absolutely help our company.

Incredibly, two were from local CPA firms, who promised they could deliver their accounting services at a discounted price from what we were currently paying, while another was a start-up wireless carrier who was just breaking into the market.

I asked both CPA firms if they had done even a modicum of research on who we are and what we do and was met on the other end by a stony silence. One of the firms even admitted they had no idea that any companies existed who specialized in CPA firm mergers. I informed them that there were more than a few entities who do exactly that.

As for the wireless carrier I was a bit more subdued. I explained that our corporate office makes all the vendor decisions and to my knowledge are happy with our present provider.

Satisfied that I had hopefully guided each to be better prepared the next time they cold-called someone, the phone rang again and it was from a pool company that was booking their summer services and offering a “winter blitz” discount.

I thanked them but told them that sadly, I don’t have a pool.

Some days I find it’s better to take the afternoon off.