If you haven’t had the proverbial door slammed in your face (read: “Not interested!” Click!), you haven’t been selling long enough. Sooner or later, you will run across someone who is not just unwilling to speak with you but they’re mean—or worse— rude about it.
We’ve all gotten that unsolicited telemarketer call at home, the one with the obnoxious approach for selling timeshare or vinyl siding or foreign language lessons for your cat. Or, come to think of it, any call from Comcast. Hopefully, we have respectfully declined and ended the call. For them, it’s a part of the job. For us, too.
Except…
The prospects we call on have the right to respectfully decline and end the call. They do not, however, have the right to be a jerk about it.
You need to expect the quick “No, thanks” and not take it personally. But, you also need to know that no one has the right to be rude to you and you should not allow it. A phone call back to take that person to task for speaking unprofessionally is allowed. Do it. Stay calm. Speak your truth. Don’t say anything you might regret. If challenged, defend your words. YOU are not in the wrong here. They are. For example, live or in a voice mail: “I just called. Regarding the way you ended our conversation, you might think about the way your behavior reflects upon your company. A good vendor is as important as a good customer. I’m a good and valuable vendor. But thanks to your action, you’ll never know that.”
For more on this subject, go to PIWorld.com: Years ago, I wrote a column called, “Thank You for Hanging up on Me.” In it, I talked about how to handle these kinds of calls in a professional, direct way with a hint of, “screw you.” Enjoy!
