“Who is Randy and why is he calling me?” was all I could think of as I retrieved my voicemail. He left no reason for calling, just “Hey Dave, it’s Randy! Call me!” and his phone number. Despite the fact that I don’t have any colleagues, clients, or friends named Randy, I still got the sense from the message that I should know him.
I felt there was a good chance he was someone whom I met through networking. So, I checked my database of contacts and my stack of recently acquired business cards with no luck. I Googled the number he left and the number that showed up on caller ID. I found out he called from the XYZ cleaning company. This tidbit of information confirmed that I did not know Randy, but still thinking someone referred him to me and intrigued by his cryptic message, I dialed the number.
After only 10 seconds on the phone, I realized that I definitely did not know Randy, he did not know me and I was just another name on his call list. As he immediately went into his canned sales pitch, I knew I would never be doing business with Randy or XYZ Cleaning Company. Like so many telemarketers, Randy had tricked me into talking to him and could care less if I truly needed his products or services. No matter how I objected to what he was saying, he countered with his scripted pitch and was insisting that I had to meet with his sales guy “who happened to be coming to my area.”
Why do companies let this type of situation destroy their brand’s image? In a matter of seconds, Randy had ruined the credibility of XYZ cleaning company and ensured that even if I needed a new corporate cleaning company, I would never use their services. The trick he was using got me to call him back and even got me to listen to his pitch, but his tactics, like so many other sales systems, ended up eroding the integrity of the company’s brand.
A company’s brand is shaped by everything that each employee in an organization says and does. Therefore, companies often try to preserve their brand by controlling all aspects of workers’ action with systems and rigid scripts. But instead of having a positive effect, they are producing experiences that are less that extraordinary for the potential customer. Then corporate leadership can’t understand why the company doesn’t achieve the desired results and their brands are losing dominance in the marketplace.
So what should Randy have done differently? First, he should have never tricked me into calling him back. Second, once he got me on the phone, he should have asked me if this was a good time to talk. If the answer was “NO”, he should have thanked me for my time and hung up with no further questions. This would have impressed me and added to the credibility of the brand.
If I did want to talk, he should have talked to me like a normal human being, not a robot programmed to counter my every objection and to make me agree to a meeting as early in the conversation as possible. This normal conversation would have allowed him to qualify me as a prospect and create a favorable experience for me.
Randy was the first person to begin my relationship with this company. If he had created an extraordinary initial experience, he could have moved me one step closer to being an advocate for this company’s brand. Instead, he resorted to dishonest sales tricks to fill his calling quota and used a canned script which did little to peak my interest in XYZ’s services. His overall tactics reflected poorly on the company’s brand and should leave XYZ’s leadership asking, “Does anyone know why Randy left this message?”© 2005 IMAGE identity, LTD, All rights reserved.
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