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| Ways of doing business: The Cold Call | Started by: Sledge-Hammer on Dec 27, '07 13:36 |
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Sledge-Hammer stood up straight, black-gloved hands clasped behind him like an Admiral on the top deck, viewing over his assembled fleet perhaps. On this occasion however he was overlooking a river. It looked icy cold. The low temperature brought a theme to his mind. If he were on radio, he'd be seamless. I want to have a brief word about what I describe as cold calling. Recently I was accosted by a chap who got straight to the point. He was offering me a new suit. I was intrigued. I always appreciate initiative or ingenuity of any kind in matters of business. But I do not appreciate self-serving individuals or those who ask me to pay visit to their bar or soapbox to hear them speak. So that said, I was torn. I made a quick decision to allow this chap the opportunity to make his pitch. But as our brief conversation unfolded, I became less than impressed with the element of aggression hidden just beneath the surface of the salesman, nor his abrupt nature. I began to see his pitch for what it was. A get rich quick scheme. He had no interest in delivering quality or workmanship to the customer. I should have known this from the fact that he was cold-calling me and saved myself some time. This has left an impression with me, namely that those who are impatient enough to approach people they do not know are in many cases best ignored. The example also applies to drug prices. I can't understand why people ask for them. I will nearly always supply a price if asked, to keep the market ticking over. But ask for one myself? Never. I can recount on one hand the amount of times I ever felt like asking even a close friend, much less a stranger. My contacts at the FBN are usually reliable. When they are not, often I simply fly into a new city and many times this results in a profit. My own earnings stand as evidence of the fact that business does not need to be conducted in full view of the masses in order to attain a profit. I am an Earner after all. The culture of unsolicited mail and barged interruptions into coffee shops to enquire after prices in the pharmaceutical market is nothing new, but do others share my feelings that sales pitched at random and drug enquiries contain an element of disrespect when no effort is made to identify with the potential customer/ informant? |
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I've always had the same opinion about this sort of thing, and it isn't good. We are supposedly men of honour, prostituting ourselves in such a way is extremely unbecoming for people in positions such as this. I had always thought it was a lack of these lowly activities that set us apart from the common scum, perhaps, after all this time I'm a tad mistaken. |
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| Reply by: Octavius at Dec 27, '07 14:22 | |
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I agree on one end, and disagree on the other. People who cold-call for service matters--new suit, crackdowns for hire, visit my bar and the like all remind me of ambulance-chasing attorneys. If your business really was that great, I would seek you out for it. If you are that desperate that you have to send a message out to everyone awake, it does not reflect well on your business. However, drug networking has and does work. My father discovered this process, and parlayed it into record earnings for his family. Along the way, several people who had been strangers became friends. In the event that nobody around can help me out in terms of drug prices I, too, have my contacts within the government. But those slime like to have their palms greased, while a fellow Mafioso requires nothing more than mutual cooperation in drug networking. But that's just me. |
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| Reply by: SotallyTober at Dec 27, '07 14:26 | |
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At first agreed full heartdly on your views of the abrupt and aggresive salesmen but then I stopped and thought for a moment. This things of ours is ran on money and the threat of violence, so it could be said that some sort of aggresion should be tolerated and understood. After all these budding mafioso have spent all day making withdrawls from 7-11's and dealings with sometimes high, paranoid and unpredictable drug dealers! So as long as the proper respect is shown, no outright threats are made and the tone is not to aggressive I would let them carry on with their pitch drawing them into a false hope before packing them on thier way!! After all I believe that the best tailors are the ones you find rather than the ones that find you and I can highly recommend my tailor, it is one of the finest suits I have worn or seen around these parts! As for the telephone calls and telegraphs to close friends and family members if I can maximise my money making and my close circle of friends and family members then all the better for me and them. Why make a journey with minimum profits when you can make one for maximum profits? After all our friend in the FBN doesn't always carry information about the particular pharmaceutical I am peddling. |
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| Reply by: RonJeremy at Dec 27, '07 14:40 | |
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Sotally I would subscribe to the theory that your father was a different type of man in the drugs industry. I still recall the first contact I had with him and I am pleased that your recollections match mine. He was pleasant, informative and most importantly, he treated me like an individual and not a goddam clothes store dummy. He took that little extra time to be polite in his business and made it clear that he was offering a business relationship and not simply shaking me down for a price and then disappearing into the night. His success in the market could definitely be attributed to knowing how to work the people within that market. As far as I'm concerned, my comments don't apply to such people. Ron I would in fact appreciate you sharing with me the name of this tailor. I have for a time now been considering upgrading my black coat to something a little more black-tie friendly. Perhaps this merchant has a business card? To what you say, I agree and yet disagree in some ways. IO personally don't feel the need to keep in touch with the market to make a living. Perhaps I'm lazy, perhaps I like living on the edge. Either way, it doesn't make me a record earner and yet it doesn't make me a bum either. I'd say I'm at the top end of the scale as far as our family goes. In terms of aggression, I like this. But sometimes people forget who they are talking to. Call me old-fashioned but as Right Hand Man to a Boss of one of the six families, I expect a budding seller to at least have the common sense not to imply that my own suit is threadbare. And when this implication is addressed, even slightly, I expect more than the one question I got: "Do you want one, yes or no?" It was a tad abrupt for my tastes. Perhaps if the seller had bought me a coffee or genuinely sampled my interest in his wares instead of treating me like a mark, I might have partaken of his pitch. |
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| Reply by: Sledge-Hammer at Dec 27, '07 14:51 | |
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| I shall mail you the details now, he is a very exclusive tailor perfect for the discerning right hand man and I haven't many anyone yet who has been disatisfied with his finished product. | |
| Reply by: RonJeremy at Dec 27, '07 14:59 | |
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| Sorry must remember to stop running ahead with my words! I meant to say I havent met anyone not many! | |
| Reply by: RonJeremy at Dec 27, '07 15:02 | |
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