I know it's lean times in IT, and product / services vendors are all beating the bushes. Some interesting patterns have emerged over the last few months ...
My Boss Is In Town: This is far and away the #1 meme / structure of incoming cold calls; I get a (very) brief synopsis of services/value add, the caller and pushes for some face time with "their manager". Did some newsletter or web site suggest this novel approach last summer? I pinged a consultant friend for an opinion, and they said it might have to do with my title, but I don't think so - this seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
LinkedIn Surfers: Using the Who's Viewed My Profile feature, I typically only see names of companies. For the unfamiliar names, one or two clicks will tell me if they are software or services firms; at this point, I'll lay 1:2 odds that they will be calling or eMailing within a week. Not that this is bad - just predictable.
Never be Rude: In all of these conversations, I do try to be polite and listen to the conversation / "pitch" for just a few minutes. I think it's all about karma - the folks on the phone are just doing their job, and I'll give them as polite a response as I can muster, in complete sentences, etc. I'm not turning down face-time requests because I don't like these folks; the reality for most buy-side firms (I would think) is that [we] have limited time and attention span for new professional relationships, and limited resources for additional projects. If the product or service you are pitching is not on my close-in radar screen, I probably won't be interested - so let's just jump to the end game ...
Never say Never: However, I do like to exchange contact information, and I'll always ask for a short electronic synopsis of a firm and their skills / product offerings. Electronic - because I hate moving paper. Plus, I keep my conversations in a contact database, and index my hard drive for stuff like text-searchable PDFs, office documents, etc. When I do have a need, I will typically search my electronic resources to find out who (among those I have connected with) might have a certain set of competencies.
A Perfect World: Here's a thought: some really innovative firm could publish contact information and competencies in some structured text, or maybe make it electronically discoverable on their corporate web site - can you say semantic web?. Then I search & find by competencies when I have a true need. Of course, guys like me would love a spec and a how-to document to do the same for our departmental IT profile (key technologies, typical use of third party firms, IT procurement processes for Preferred / Approved Vendors, etc.). You know, if some firm out there defined, implemented, and popularized such a spec / standard, they'd really be showing me that they knew what they were talking about ...
Real World Chicago: Of course, my professional career has been centered in Chicago, and have built excellent networks and rapport with the folks I know, have spent face time with - so I do appreciate the value of that whole relationship thing. Still, please don't be offended when I keep the conversation terse.
Of course, all the best sales people get two orders every day,
right? Get out and stay out!
(apologies to TQ, he always hated that joke).