How About We not Go Fishing

It's not my job to help you with your fishing expedition.

Being part of a small business means wearing many hats. As such I am constantly being solicited by sales reps trying to hawk their respective goods and services. Most of those solicitations follow a similar pattern:

Hi, this is so-and-so from such-and-such-company. We sell A, B and C products/services. Are you the person responsible for handling X? Do you have 20 minutes on some future day to sit down with me so I could introduce myself and see how our products/services might be able to help you?

My response:  Thanks, but I'm not interested.

There are so many things wrong with that approach that it makes it impossible for me to want to move with that person beyond the initial phone call.

We sell A, B and C products/services.

That's nice, but I don't buy products/services, I buy solutions. And buying a solution means having a problem that needs solving. You selling A, B, and C is meaningless to me. Offering up a common problem your products solve, like  "Product A has helped small businesses like yours save time doing a particular task" will help. While it may not be specific to my situation, it at least shows me you have some modicum of understanding of why people buy what you sell.

2. Are you the person responsible for handling X?

Do both of us a favor and take 5 minutes to acquire some background information on who you're calling. Starting with "Hi, I saw on your LinkedIn profile you manage the IT systems there, does that include X?" will certainly get my attention.

3. So I could introduce myself and see how our products/services might be able to help you.

There it is; that's the real reason you're calling. You want me to join you on a fishing expedition. You want an hour of my time -- you always say "no more than 20 minutes" -- to ask penetrating questions in order to sniff out any potential opportunities you can pursue further. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to go fishing with you.

Even if you do your homework and sharpen your pitch to be more applicable to me, I still may reject your request -- sometimes sales is as much about timing as anything else -- however I'll likely ask you to e-mail me your contact information and request you keep in touch. That at least keeps the door open for you, which is much more than you were going to get otherwise.