Handling Vendor Cold Calls

With a smaller volume than you are handling, then it's a simpler matyter of spending 5 minutes to determine if the service is even remotely relevant. If not, a polite "No thanks" as I hang up pretty much does the trick. Otherwise, I let the poor sapsend me some colour brochures. Odds are, there will be some turn-over at that company, and I won't hear back from them for at least 18 months.

However, you (and/or your admin) talk about handling half dozen per day! At that point, or for anytime I these calls when I'm WAY TOO BUSY, I interrupt the call right near the beginning. Sometimes you know that the service is irrelevant. Just politely tell them so, and hang up (nicely). If there;s the slightest possibility that what they are suggesting has anything to do with what you do, then invite them to EMAIL their info. I like that, as it confuses, and in my mind weeds out, a lot of suspect suppliers. I figure if they can't send me the info by email (either a nicely formatted email, PDF file, or at least some decent links to their website) then I likely don't want much to do with them.

Maybe in your specific case, FAX or SNAIL mail is more appropriate to your decision making process.

I also resist all attempts at providing too much information. Again, a polite "well, gotta run" and nicely hang up.

If they get too pushy, well I push back, and all that politeness mentioned before, well it gets toned down a notch. Or two.

I generally find out what they are trying to sell, and then tell them we are not thinking of implementing that system in the near future, tell them we have recently upgraded our system and everythoing is fine or say we have no plans at the moment but if the need arises, I will contact them.
If you ask for brochures, you then get bombarded with calls asking "if you had recieved the brochures?" & "were they helpful?". It never stops.

I research products for my company and I am on a lot of mailing and phone lists.
I have two phone numbers. One that is public and one that is internal to the company. I let voice mail handle most of my call filtering on the public side.
I also have multiple e-mail addresses. One that I route all vendors to and another for regular buisness.

I have no qualms about interrupting a saleman one minute into his pitch if I realize we will never use their product. I tell them flat out that I don't think we will ever have a need for what they are selling but if they want to they can e-mail some information or send some literature.

I feel that by interrupting and telling them the truth that no one's time gets wasted. He can then go on tothe next caller rather and possibly make a sale, as opposed to wasting time on a pitch to you that will go nowhere.

Remember that some people will never take no for an answer. I once took some sales training where they told me the buyer will sayno at least six times before a sale can be made. I have to be rude to some people. They just don't stop even when I have said no three or four times. These people have to be hung up on.