The other day, I was talking to a professional who deals with many different companies for his clients. All the various companies have their own sales reps and they try to schedule appointments though it is difficult with their busy schedule, although occasionally you want to meet with certain companies to see what they have going on at a certain time. She is involved in the financial planning sector.
When the salesperson calls, it’s always from the same line, and sometimes it’s his secretaries who call;
“I’ll be in your area on Tuesday, if we could sit down and chat about our latest asset allocation portfolio solutions.”
Prayed,
“Mr. Jones will be in your area on Thursday and has time between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
The funny thing about all this is that the financial planner has an area code that she used before she moved offices, and when they call they have no idea where her office is, yet they say they will be in the area. She told me that she had half an idea to say; “Oh really, and what area could it be?” You see, she knows they’re trying to set up a time to meet multiple people in one area on the same day, but when they call they don’t know what area you’re in. They are simply making an assumption.
In other words, in this profession, strict details are very important to serve your customers and clientele, but in this case the sales representatives who sell the various financial products or represent for your company are not being precise, in fact they do not know, as is a little ploy used in telemarketing to help set up meetings. In some respects, you might call this a little white lie, but it should also be a red flag that lets you know that a salesperson who doesn’t know anything about you is pretending to have information he doesn’t.
If someone is doing that in their phone sales tactics, then how can you trust them to give you sound advice and offer what is truly best for your customer and their financial affairs? The reality is that you can’t, and that could be something that sets off a red flag. In fact, I hope you’ll consider this if you’re a sales rep, or if you have someone trying to sell you something, you might want to question their integrity a bit more.