This actually happened today

[burnunit]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:15 PM, [redacted sales guy] wrote:

Jon are you serious about moving forward with a [marketing service I inquired about]?  Are you wasting our time or did you have a serious need that we can help with.   

My response:

Woah [redacted sales guy], hold on a second with the  "wasting our time" bit. I thought when I filled out the get-a-quote form that I identified some of the things I was looking for.  I appreciate the clarity of purpose and firm resolve you demonstrate on your follow through, but maybe this is a little stronger worded than you need it to be for a potential customer. 

 

That said, I operate a small B2B business for other small businesses. I am scoping on behalf of my own clients who are a [business type]. And I want to know the following four items: 

• [four questions about their marketing services, delivery, cost and reporting methods]

That'll do it. Now is that serious enough or should I give my clients the quotes I have from your competitors plus my margin?

 

Regards,

 

Jon Olsen

 

Comments

[lexinatrix.livejournal.com]

It must be a full moon for customer service/sales types.

[sithlet.livejournal.com]

Nuh uh, I'm sweet as honey to my customers.

[lexinatrix.livejournal.com]

I believe it... the mute button and the post-call rants help, right?

No one believes it, but I used to get awards for my customer service when I worked tech support. I even became the escalations expert that dealt with all the screaming, raging assholes.

I actually liked the challenge of calming them down.

[sithlet.livejournal.com]

I wait until after my call usually. One of our techs used to rely very heavily on his mute button and one time it failed. I don't trust mute.

[sithlet.livejournal.com]

Seriously?! And they're trying to run a business? Wow.

[dangerdhotrod.livejournal.com]

Wow, I would have just responded with "no never mind it wasn't serious, sorry for wasting your time" and never deal with them again.

assholes bring business down FAST.

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

I have to agree.

Or say, "Well, it was serious, but since I don't like to work with people who are rude, I won't be needing your services."

[randomcub.livejournal.com]

Excellent response.

[ethel.livejournal.com]

Holy crap.

Excellent, classy response; I thinl it'll be much more effective than something flippant.

[r0ckc4ndy.livejournal.com]

PERFECT response!