I had an interesting sales experience last week. By interesting I really mean annoying. However, I can’t quit thinking about it and so I thought I would ask you what you think.
Here’s the situation. A salesperson from Yelp calls our office and leaves a message. I decide that this is a marketing decision so I forward the call over to Rosie. I’m basically checked out because I’m preparing to go on vacation. I don’t even think about the call after sending the voicemail to Rosie.
Fast forward to the next day (I think Friday). I’m really checked out by now and am in Fort Lauderdale visiting my friend JaNelda before leaving on a cruise with my sisters. This sales woman calls again, and leaves a message that I didn’t pick up until Saturday morning.
Her message hacks me off! She said something like, “This is Julie (not her real name), I left a message for you already…” I can’t even remember the rest of the message now but her tone was such that I felt like she was scolding me for not calling back.
I’m irritated now just thinking back. So I called her back on Saturday morning and left an equally scolding reply. I told her that I did not think we were planning to spend any marketing dollars on Yelp and that when Rosie Salas had a break in her calendar I was sure she would call her back but she did not need to call us anymore. I think I said something like, “when she became a high enough priority we might call her back! I was mad. Both messages, mine and hers were equally snippy.
This chick did call me back about an hour and a half later. I was on the phone but took the call because I was trying to be sure I tended to as many things as possible before heading out on vacation. When I realized it was this sales gal, I let her know that I had 10 seconds because I was on the other line. She started trying to qualify me. I don’t know what part of 10 seconds she misunderstood. I ended the call quickly.
Here’s my real confusion… The actions she took made me call her back. Isn’t that what we all want to have happen? I’ve been in sales all my life and have left thousands of messages that I know have gone unreturned. I’m confused because I think that she set the tone for the relationship to be adversarial from the beginning. However, I did pick up the phone and called her back. Now we did not and probably will not sign on for any services with Yelp. But this sales person got in position to talk with the decision maker.
I’d love to know from you how you think she could have handled the situation differently. Although the second message made me mad, it also made me call her back. Could there have been a conversation? Please click here and post your response on our blog.
I’m signing off now. I’ve got big decisions today about how much time I should spend on the Lido Deck. Yesterday’s snorkeling adventure at Trunk Bay on St. John’s created quite the sun glow (by glow I mean burn!). Maybe I’ll stay in the shade until they play the Cupid Shuffle and then off course I’ll have to get my dance on, sunburn or not!
