Question: “What should I say to a company representative that keeps calling? My boss isn’t interested in the company’s product but I have to deal with this guy’s persistent calls.” -- Brenda
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I find most of these answers disheartening, remember that your sales reps are doing the same thing and helping to improve your current company. I just always tell my admins if sales reps come in treat them as how you want our reps to be treated.
Who knows who they actually may know or what advantages they may be able to provide
Remember, whatever your company is selling, someone out there is buying. Sometimes we go out to look what we need at times so these unannounced sales calls can be annoying but they are just doing their jobs. The original feedback is what I do, which is ask the caller to email their information and details and either I or my boss will call them back if interested. If they follow up with a call, I will usually let them know that we are not in the market at the current time for thier service or product and will keep their information on file if the need arises in the future. Very seldom did we ever go back and look but there have been a few times. Remember, be nice and honest!
I’ve experienced the new “your boss & I are old buddies” routine, and often stumble through a response. It makes it much more difficult that my boss is well known & very involved in the local community. Thanks for the good ideas on how to combat this! Very helpful feedback to the question!
One tactic we sometimes use is to ask the solicitor if they would like to use our services / buy our product (in our case, “Would you like to buy a garage door?”) They often hang up after that.
Calling your boss, or the CEO by their first name even if they never met seems to be the trend lately, which is unfortunate because it is very sad that they try to lie to you to talk to your boss. Another sad fact is that, by being so persistant they can even break a “deal in the making”. People often get turned off by such rudeness and persistance. I wonder who tells these sales man that all these tactics are ok and they get you places…
For solicitors, I ask them to send me their information (email or mail) and tell that that I’ll share it with my boss. I do make a point in calling them back to tell them that we are not interested. They usually appreciate the followup. This keeps them happy and my name good with their company as well. You never know who your future employer may be or the services you’ll need in the future.
I had a guy call several times asking to meet with my boss, this guy was looking for a mentor and my boss is really well known in the community. He called every 3 months for about a year, the last phone call he stated that he might stop by my bosses home and see if he had time to meet with him. I told him that would be considered stalking and that I was reporting this to the police. He ended up stopping by our reception area and dropped off a package for my boss with a letter stating that I was not doing my job relaying the message and the purpose of meeting with him. He included a personal card with his phone number and home address. Our security team called the local Sheriff and they visited his home asking him not contact my boss or our place of business again. That seemed to do the trick, I haven’t heard from him in years. This has only happened once in my lifetime but I’m glad I asked for help from our security team and they got law enforcement involved. This is definitely an extreme case but we are the point of contact for our employers and we have to be cautious. I’ve learned NOT to share, with callers, if my boss is in a meeting or traveling, I simply say, “he’s unavailable.”
We have one company that keeps calling us about capital equipment financing. I would sometimes get 3 or 4 calls in one week from different people. What irks me the most is that they call my boss by his first name and act like they are old friends. I tell them every time that we do not do any equipment financing and of course they don’t think I know what I’m talking about. I periodically ask my boss if there is any change in that decision. The last time he told me that in 17 years he has not done any equipment financing and has no intention of ever doing so. I repeated that to them and they still don’t believe me. We asked them to remove us from their call list and they kept calling. We finally got their supervisors name and called him and told him we did not want any more calls and if we still received them we would be calling him directly. We have since received a couple more calls and I got the callers name, told him to talk to his supervisor. They seem to have finally given up.
I log all incoming calls, so I have said things such as, “You asked me about this on September 19 at 11:30 a.m. and June 10 at 2:53 p.m. and I said we were not interested. To prevent both of us from wasting time, we’d appreciate it if you didn’t keep calling. If we change our mind, we have your name and number.” It is bluntly direct, but yet not rude.
Like Maisy, I will tell them we are not interested, but they can send something in the mail and I will hold it on file in case things change in the future. If they say they will follow up, I tell them it is not necessary unless they hear from us. Usually that does the trick.
I’m at a university where new policies were implemented last year and ALL reps must register, in a different area (specified desk/person @ the front door), and ask for an appointment – it does not mean they will get an appointment. They must be invited back for an appointment. They can no longer drop in whenever they feel like it. They would pop into the clinic areas where it is considered a HIPAA violation for the privacy of the patient(s) and also considered a possible suggested bias to use their product. I can send a copy of the policy if you’d like and your company can maybe tailor it for their use. If they call me directly I ask them to send me the information and I e-mail them the policy. They have no choice but to respect the company policy. I do show their info to my boss & let them know if he is interested or not. What Sunshine & Anon2 give are nice diplomatic answers to give them so you’re not so uncomfortable telling them no.
When a similarly agressive rep intimated that he doubted I was even delivering the message to my boss, I put my foot down and said politely but firmly, “While Mr. X’s calls all go through me, you can rest assured that I deliver every message — it’s my job. Mr. X would have called you if he was interested in your services. I would appreciate it if you would hold further calls to this office unless you hear back from him directly.”
I never heard from that rep again and he got the message that being rude to me wasn’t going to get him any closer to my boss.
For less rude but also persistant reps, I’ll tell them that if they’d like to send more information via snail mail, I’d gladly pass that along too, but unless I called back, future phone calls were unnecessary.
hang up on him…he’ll get the hint…
Sorry….that should have been… severe budget cuts…
I typically tell the caller that I would be happy to take down the information and pass it along. I also state that if my boss is interested, he will definately call back. I often times will also tell them that we have had sever budget cuts and are not in the market to purchase a new product at this time.
The next time he calls say “our Director is not interested in your product if he does become interested I will call and schedule an apointment at that time for you two to talk”. This normally works and I don’t receive additional calls. I would not lie or beat around the bush if you are straight forward in your approach they will understand.
Be straight forward with the rep by telling him that your company is not interested in their services. I know that being the one to relay the message may make you feel bad, but its best to tell him/her so that the calls stop. But do tell them that you will keep their info handy in case there is a change of heart.