Teach your employees to engage me; not waste my time.
The other afternoon I picked up my phone and the voice on the other end introduced herself. She is a Virtual Assistant (VA). She was calling around to businesses in the community to see if I knew what VA’s were and if I might have a need.
Now first of all good for her. I hate cold calling. Would rather listen to heavy metal music (can’t stand it) all day long.
I told her I am familiar with VA’s and I do work with one from time to time. She thanked me and hung up.
Huh?
As I writing this post the phone rang……”Did you get your AT&T book?” I asked who this was and what they were talking about. She wanted to know if I had received my AT&T yellow page book. I told her I guess not. She asked if I wanted one. I said no. Okay bye, was her response.
Huh?
In both of these cases I did not end the conversation. I left it wide open for them to ask me questions like:
- Are you happy with your VA?
- What do you use your VA for?
- Thank me for using VA’s (after all a good VA is a member of his or her professional association and is also concerned about the brand/industry.
- Why don’t I want the book?
- Where do I look for information if I am not using the yellow pages?
I left the door wide open to engage me in conversation; perhaps to give them business ideas; or in the case of the first woman; to perhaps build a relationship should my situation change.
But as usual both of these people (as are most businesses) were just looking for the immediate kill.
Too bad. Especially since the VA I currently use just informed me of an upcoming rates increase.
