The sales rep began her call to me with, I'm ____ with _____. I'm wondering if you received the fax I sent to you yesterday?

I dunno. I get lots of faxes.

It was about mailing lists.

If I didn't request it, and it didn't look interesting, I probably threw it away.

Oh, well let me fax you another one.

No, just tell me what it is.

(flustered) Well, we sell very responsive mailing lists that would work well for you.

Oh, really? How do you know?

These are very responsive lists?

What are they?

She went on to describe several different lists, none of which would be worth the investment for me. And I told her so.

Oh, but they're responsive, she argued.

Look, how can you say they'd work for me when you haven't asked me what I mail, who I target, and what type of return I need?

We know these lists are responsive. They're lists of businesses that have just undergone some type of major change.

That's not what I'm looking for.

Well, the lists work well for printers, people selling exhibit space . . .

I ended the call. Couldn't take it anymore.

Analysis Where do I begin? This woman was the poster child for bad calls. Let's examine why.

Unsolicited, Untargeted Faxed Material. First, sending seven pages of unsolicited stuff via fax, all of which was irrelevant, was a mistake. People get annoyed with junk faxing because not only are they not interested in the message, but they have to pay for the paper! She could have called in advance, spoke with my assistant, Tricia, found out what we do and who we mail to, and then, perhaps have tailored one page of info targeting my specific interests.

The Opening. Beginning with a reactive question about whether someone received anything you sent invites disaster. Even if you do send something in advance, don't make that the basis for your call. Do ensure that it piques enough curiosity so they'll remember something about it during your opening.

For example, I'm Pat Davis with ABC Lists. My purpose for calling is that we specialize in helping mailers get profitable results by providing responsive lists for their offers. I understand you target inside sales departments and specifically look for proven sales training product and service buyers, is that right? If I caught you at a good time, I'd like to ask a few questions to see what lists we might be able to recommend that would work well for you.

Presenting Without Questioning. As is usually the case, presenting without knowing anything about the listener means you're simply pitching what you want to talk about. It's like junk mail mass-spewed to Occupants, contrasted with handwritten notes to a dear friend.

Even though I dropped hints in a futile effort to get this caller to question me, she didn't get it. For example, when I told her that the lists she mentioned wouldn't work for me; she didn't ask what would work for me.

When I specifically said, That's not what I'm looking for, she didn't respond with, What are you looking for? This one question could have given her virtually everything she would need in order to get a clear understanding of the types of lists I desire.

Arguing. As I always say, salespeople create more objections than were there previously by talking too much. That's what she did. And then she tried to actually justify the value of her lists, which was laughable, since she knew nothing about me! Further, her efforts made me confrontational-not the state of mind you want a prospect in.

The best thing I can say about this call is that it gave me great material for a list brokerage client I conducted training for.