Careers Hub | The receiving end of a sales call

As a recruitment agency that specialises in sales and marketing roles, we are constantly surrounded by top talent who are exceptional at one particular business skill…selling.

Normally, we are the ones selling. We sell our business to candidates, sell our business to clients, and we’re training our candidates to sell themselves during the interview stages. You get the idea; we love to sell.

However, on a daily basis, I am on the receiving end of the sales call. I get calls to upgrade our phones, improve our marketing, spend more here, spend more there… the list goes on. Usually I’m quick to hang up the phone and get back to my day, but one particular instance caught me right in my tracks and I couldn’t help but give in. Here’s what happened…

After saying my usual ‘Pulse Recruitment’ greeting on the phone, I was surprised by the friendly stranger on the other end that was excited to hear it was me, after all, it was me he was looking for. He then went on to introduce himself (from a business supplies company) – but before jumping into his 30 second elevator pitch, he pulled out a sneaky trick. Guess what guys, he did his research. He found something in common with me from looking at my LinkedIn profile and used that to make small talk, and began to build a relationship. He noticed I wasn’t from Australia (neither was he), and we had a quick chat about living abroad in Sydney.  From there, he asked me a few questions about our business supplies, hoping for me to admit where we have inefficiencies in our process. He confidently suggested he had solutions to our inefficiencies and that he’d love to drop by for a 10-minute chat the following day. I couldn’t help but say yes. After hanging up the phone, I just started laughing, “What just happened? He got me!” I quickly realised that it’s usually much easier to say “no” to a sales call when they barely make an effort to research who they’re talking to. On the flip side, if you feel like you’re talking to a friend who’s looking to help you, it is a lot harder to say “no”. From the receiving end of a sales call, it was a total game changer.

Of course, not everyone that he calls is going to be as impressed as I was, but I can certainly tell you that someone who does their research versus someone who asks for the ‘Business Owner’ will get a lot further in the long run.