{"id":1887,"date":"2021-03-17T11:30:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T03:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/professionalizeit.com\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2021-03-19T08:35:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T00:35:48","slug":"precall-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professionalizeit.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/17\/precall-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-call Planning Isn’t Just for Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pre-call Planning Isn’t Just for Sales<\/h1>\n

The Request<\/h3>\n

The other day I got a meeting request from a person who filled out my web form on my website. Simple enough. I used the power of Google<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and searched out who this person was and what his company was (they do eLearning development). My guess<\/em> was they were looking for an ID to help them.<\/p>\n

\n

Protip:<\/strong> Share a little more about you, your company, and how we can help each other.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I replied and we agreed on a time to meet. The person I was meeting with was late. OK. That happens. Back-to-back meetings make being on time a little tricky. He then started asking me if I had any questions. “Interesting” question. In our initial communication, he didn\u2019t provide any details of him, his company, or the need. At this stage, no, I didn\u2019t have any questions, aside from how I can help with his project needs.<\/p>\n

The Call Start<\/h3>\n

\"Rolls<\/p>\n

This is where it went a little sideways. The person started to tell me about his company but as he was talking, I could see him multi-tasking on his computer\u2014seriously totally distracted<\/strong><\/em>. He rambled on looking at his computer, (I assume) trying to pull up my website. I knew we weren’t a good fit.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Then he said,\u00a0\u201cOh yes, I see your website here. Let me see (eyes scan the screen<\/em>), oh you don\u2019t have a resume, but I do see your capabilities (reads from website). I also see you have a portfolio. I haven\u2019t looked at your portfolio.<\/em><\/strong> Can you\u00a0tell me, do you have actual samples of your work?<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Uh! What!<\/h3>\n

At this point, I looked at my clock, 11 minutes after, we started 5 minutes after the hour.\u00a0My reply was, \u201cYes, yes, I do, like any good instructional designer\/developer<\/a>. I\u2019m going to go ahead and end our conversation now instead of drag things along, as I can tell this isn’t a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shocked \u00a0His eyes popped out of his skull. We parted our ways. He tried to recover, but my hand was on the mouse ready to close the window.<\/p>\n

Why End the Call?<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s what made my blood boil (a little).<\/p>\n

First, he reached out to me<\/strong><\/em>, randomly. Do a little pre-call planning and be prepared to talk to your prospect. Second, if the information is public, you should know it<\/strong><\/em>. Period. Finally, if you\u2019re not going to invest the time to be prepared, what would it be like contracting you<\/strong><\/em>? Bleh! The proverbial handwriting on the wall.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Should I have lasted longer than 11 minutes and continued the conversation only to say no thank you later?<\/p>\n<\/div>

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