Comments on: I Am Not a Good Lead

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:10:57 +0000

I <3 that idea. I may have to borrow it.

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:10:31 +0000

Anonymity and privacy are delusion if you have a computer and it's ever touched the 'tubes.

By: John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:51:12 +0000

Mark, I like the idea of a voice mail message declaring our spending freeze, purchasing freeze, project freeze. However, the most effective solution might be, “Hello, we're undergoing layoffs. Please leave your contact information so I can send you a resume.” Soliciting them back will stop the messages entirely.

By: John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:48:04 +0000

It's surprising how much information can get out on the tubes. Even when I was trying to remain pseudononymous, I'd attend some meeting or another, and the sign-up sheet would be posted online.

In addition, I have an account associated with my church that maps to my personal e-mail account. That church account gets a lot of spam targeting churches.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:02:08 +0000

Good tip. I may have to change my name to Jake “I have no budget for your service/product/offering/solution” Kuramoto.

I like how you've produced a measurable loss in productivity due to telling them no. That's a pretty compelling argument. That may change my approach to a more aggressive no to save time.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:57:22 +0000

Yeah, I don't use that as a my lead though, since “I have no budget” works really well.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:06:51 +0000

I thought WE were the Web 2.0 company?

Anyway, I've gotten those kinds of calls too, and I have less authority than you do Jake. I swear all of the calls end with, “Do you know PHP?”

By: Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:08:46 +0000

Hi Jake,
I'm the Operations Manager for my company so I've noticed a big uptick in calls. I added it up one day and after 10 cold calls and the obligatory “what's your environment and what's going on” to only tell them we weren't interested, I had spent an hour and a half on the phone fielding calls. Since I'm also the DBA and the unix admin in addition to my management duties, I couldn't deal with that. I changed my voice mail to include a message declaring our spending freeze, purchasing freeze, project freeze and started letting every call go to voice mail.
Best move I've made so far. I hated to do it because I know those guys are just trying to make a living too, but any work that doesn't get done during the day gets done from home at night. Have to sleep sometime.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:59:56 +0000

I'm about the same. Lots of email, from here and direct, but the calls are new for me, especially to my cell phone. I don't really care (yet), since I get more calls from that factory warranty bot than anyone else. Still, where did he get that number?

Anyway, I chalk it up to being a semi-public persona. I do think they're increasing in frequency though.

By: John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:42:08 +0000

I have not noticed an uptick in cold calls, but my name is (quite literally) not out on the tubes to a great degree, and when it is, it's not necessarily connected to my day job.

Most of my cold calls come via email and snail mail. I did have one person who called me once a month to pitch his consulting service, but he eventually gave up when he realized that I am just a small cog in a Fortune 500 company and can only provide the bureaucratic response (contact headquarters and get on the approved outside vendor list).