Desperate Sales People

Today’s economy is really bad. Companies and the people that make them run are having a tough time staying afloat… these are things I understand. With that being said, I am tired of hearing from every sales rep in a two hundred mile radius looking to score a sale on something using an economical sob story or strong arm sales tactics promising me to save me more money.

If I don’t – I must be a total idiot. Haven’t you noticed the economy!? Why don’t you want to replace your stuff with our cheaper stuff so you save more money?

Here’s an email I received this morning… verbatim except for proper nouns have been included exactly as I got it.

Hey Jason:

This is (sales person x)  from (CompanyX). I left you a voice message earlier but figured this

Would be a less intrusive route to take.

I’ve attached a new promo we have running for 3 FREE month’s of PRI service.

Also, we have many new products your are probably not aware of yet.

Allot has changed in the last couple of years with our company.

I have worked with all the (A Local Company) buildings in (my city). I Also have delivered (another local company) Corp. Ethernet handoff

To their doorstep with an MPLS Network system.

We now have Data P2P’s for under $300.00 as well as up to 45MB circuits available.

If given the opportunity… I’m 99.999% sure I can save Blackhawk a significant amount

Of money as well as upgrade the services. (Given I was a Graphic Designer for 10 years…)

Please let me know if Wednesday or Thursday around 10:00am would work for you next week.

I will look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

So I listen to the voice mail waiting for me, it’s almost as challenging to listen to as reading this email. I also deleted the cold call from an IBM sales rep, and someone else trying to sell me something I already have.

My day was already busy as hell and I have way too much going on to coddle a graphic artist that should have had a copy writer editing her emails… so my reply was short and polite.

Hello [sales rep’s first name],

Thank you for the email follow up to your voice mail message.

However, we are not interested in changing our telecommunication services providers.

Best regards,
[my standard signature]

But that wasn’t the last I’d hear from her. At 5:00pm tonight, my Blackberry buzzes with the following reply:

Jason:

Im just asking for an opportunity to show you that you have options.

With the economy the way it is… Your telling me your not at all interested

In looking at cutting you costs?

There’s a part of me that is pissed off that sales person x would use the economy to sell me CLEC services. 2,000 people in my town just lost their job and now I have to be the bad guy by not buying her wares.

There’s another part of me that feels sorry for this person. Maybe this is a last job of desperation to make ends meet. If I don’t meet with X, they’ll lose their job.

I haven’t decided if or how I can reply to this without sounding like a complete jerk or going off on a rant.