I had been working intensely doing some analysis for a client. My head was beginning to spin, and I needed a break. As fortune would have it, at just that moment, some poor SDR decided to call (or at least their power dialers decided to call).
Normally, I don’t answer these calls, but I needed a break……
“May I speak to the person in charge of …….” said the SDR.
“I suppose that would be me, I’m CEO of the company,” I replied.
The SDR sounded a little disappointed, he really wanted to talk to someone in our IT department, but he settled for me.
“I’d like to talk to you about your problems with [insert whatever you want],” said the SDR.
“Well, we really don’t have any problems or concerns with that area. It’s relatively unimportant to us and our business,” I replied.
“It’s really important that we talk to you about this, could I arrange a meeting for one of our people to discuss this with you?” responded the SDR.
“I said, that’s not really an issue or priority for us right now, thank you though,” I said.
“We think it’s important that you address this issue, can I arrange a meeting” insisted the SDR.
“I’m confused, we are knowledgeable about this area, it’s not a problem or concern. Do you know something about our operations that should cause me to be concerned?” At this point, I realized the SDR only was trying to get a meeting, but in my boredom, I was being a little sadistic in testing him.
“No, we don’t know that you have any problems or issues with this, but we’d really like to talk to you about it, anyway. When would it be convenient to meet?”
“Why do you want to waste your people’s time, not to mention mine on something that doesn’t seem to be an issue for us and in which I have no interest?” I asked (Yeah, I’m really being a jerk, but the SDR should be able to address these basic objections.)
“It’s really important for us to talk about this issue with you, when would it be convenient to meet?” insisted the SDR. I do have to give him credit for persistence, even if his listening and probing skills were seriously deficient. He probably was making a manger proud that he was staying on script.
“I’m confused,” I said (I really wasn’t), “Why should either of us invest time in talking about something that’s not a problem to us and in which we have no interest. What am I missing, why should I be concerned about this issue? Why should I meet?”
“Well that’s what we want to talk about in our meeting!”
“So you must know something about us and why it’s important to meet. What is it? What are we doing wrong, why is it so urgent to meet?” I replied.
“We don’t know that you have any problems or anything about your business. We just think this is an important issue for us to talk to you about, when can we meet?” replied the SDR.
Round and round and round…
I had enough of a break and had had my fun. I needed to get back to work.
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