When They Just Won't Return Your Calls

By Landy Chase

Everyone in sales can put together a personal "pet peeve" list of the most annoying things that buyers do. Some of the most common complaints that I hear include price-haggling, waiting until the last minute to order and then expecting miracles, or pitting one vendor against another, also known as "bidding". Like it or not, these are all legitimate customer behaviors, and buyers have every right to engage in them, regardless of how annoying they might be to the sales person.

There is one buyer behavior, however, that is utterly inexcusable. Individuals who exhibit this behavior represent the most unprofessional people in the workplace. That behavior is this:  the simple lack of common courtesy to return a legitimate phone call.

First of all, let me define "legitimate". I'm not talking here about buyers having an obligation to return prospecting or "cold" calls left in their voice mailboxes. My position on this is that buyers have no obligation of any kind to return such calls. In fact, those of you who leave these "pitch" messages on voice mail are, in my opinion, getting exactly what you deserve. Speaking for myself, I rarely, if ever, follow up to return the call of a sales person who leaves me a voice mail message pitching some product or service to me. Understand, it's nothing personal. It's just that you know nothing of my company and my business needs, and I'm way too busy to take the time to call you back and tell you that I'm not interested. It's simply a poor use of my time. Therefore, leaving such a message in my voice mail to start with is a poor use of your time. So stop doing that.

Now what makes me hot under the collar are those buyers out there who make salespeople work for free, and then show an utter lack of disregard for their time. These are the people who request a formal proposal from the sales person - and then, once the proposal is received, cannot bring themselves to extend the common courtesy to bring the issue to a conclusion. These individuals, truly, are worthy of being held in contempt by all who come into contact with them.

Those buyers who choose to avoid bringing proposals to closure in this manner are always a monumental waste of time. Case in point: this past year, I had a Canadian office products company to contact us regarding an interest in my services. The president of the company and I had a lengthy phone conversation which included training dates, fees, many other pertinent details, and a date for us  to follow up. This individual concluded our conversation with a request for our materials, which were promptly sent out.

Upon the agreed-upon date, I called the contact and (predictably) got their voice mail. I left the obligatory message with my phone number, and asked for a return call.

No response.

I called again a couple of days later, and left another voice mail message. This time, I simply asked for a return call regarding the status of the dates which we discussed.

No response again.

Attempt number 3: An email requesting the same.

No response to my email.

Attempt number 4 (final): I spoke directly with the President's secretary, who apologized profusely and assured me that my contact would promptly return my call.  I haven't heard a word from them since.

I subsequently discussed this situation with a worldly client of mine, who suggested that the Canadian-U.S. exchange rate probably made my fee structure out of their budget. Fair enough. Would it have been too much ask for a brief email response saying as much?

For those buyers who engage in this behavior - whom, I find, are usually in the habit of doing so regularly - the reminder of this article is for you. In an effort to improve both your professionalism - and, by association, your reputation, please take note of the following:

• Your sales person does not have "go-fer" included in their list of job responsibilities, nor are they encumbered with hours of thumb-twiddling free time. Your request for a proposal represents a significant opportunity cost to your sales person in terms of their work with other potential customers. Treat their time with the respect you give to your own.

• Nobody interprets your request for a proposal as a commitment to buy. However, everybody interprets your request as a commitment to make a timely and prompt business decision. Get with the program.

• By unnecessarily wasting your sales person's time in their efforts to follow up with you, you eradicate your credibility as it pertains to future purchasing needs. The next time that you ask for a proposal, you are likely to find your request at the bottom of your sales person's to-do list, rather than at the top, where it began.

A final note to my Canadian friend: if you are reading this article, please return the $40 video that you borrowed, as you initially stated to me that you would. I have other clients who would like to purchase it. We're still waiting.

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