They do it because someone out there was too timid to call them on it. So they think they got away with it, and so go on to try again.

Posted by: Nathen B. on August 5, 2008 at 3:19 PM

A former independent sales representative of our company has joined another company which is in the same industry. We have discovered that this person is approaching our clients and has lied to some of them, by not letting them know he is no longer affiliated with us and has written “renewal business” ! How did we find out?
One of the customers called our office, asked for the representative because they wanted to add more info to their advertisement!!

Posted by: Carolyn B. on August 14, 2008 at 10:26 AM

Where I am finding this to be so true is from IMO’s who want agents to sign up under their hierarchy. And it is a real trend, and quite disturbing as they rob you of your time.

This follows one of two patterns. Either they actually mail something making representations far from the truth, or more commonly, someone working for them who is quite personable tells you how they screen the business, etc. where in reality the only thing they do is make certain that boxes are filled in and then add a layer to the process. It’s this layer that really represents the lie, because they do nothing after promising to do “the moon”. They don’t pass on requests from the underwriter and in fact, barely return phone calls. They got what they wanted (the agent under their umbrella) and after that the only thing you ever hear from them is another lie. I advise all agents to be very careful of which IMO’s they work with. I have had particular problems with IMO’s from the following states: Florida, New York, New Jersey, West Virginia and Texas. Apparently these states attract them for some reason.

Posted by: MichaelP on August 14, 2008 at 10:48 AM

I’m in the training industry and found an anytime learning session that actually PROMOTED this behavior, providing an example of a highly successful sales person who used such lies as “this is his doctor’s office” or “I’m calling about his child’s school”. This was from a reputable training solutions provider and I couldn’t believe my ears!

Posted by: Anne on August 14, 2008 at 10:50 AM

The number of that type of call will drop once the caller starts thinking of the Gatekeeper as a Gateopener… be honest with them, respect them and let them understand why its important that their superior should know of this approach… if its good for their business it will help their business grow and prosper… if it won’t help their business, maybe the salesperson shouldn’t call them at all.

Posted by: Jim on August 14, 2008 at 11:21 AM

I agree, we get calls all the time like this and nobody ever gets more than a few seconds on the phone.

Posted by: Quote Catcher Credit Card Processing on August 14, 2008 at 11:48 AM

Janet, You bring up a very interesting subject. In fact, one that I had written an article on at the request from a professor in India on why salespeople are looked down upon by both the public and management and why the lack of eithics. He also asked me what I thought the was the genesis of this attitude. Thus, I have a comment or two on your article

Could it be that you are blaming the victim and not the perpetrator of bad, poor, lying sales technique? No, I’m not speaking about you being the victim. I’m saying the salesperson is the victim … a victim of management’s policies that suggest and/or allow this type of selling to take place. Management’s attitude is that salespeople, not I, sell and what they do is of no concern other than the results of the salesperson’s efforts as they, themselves, do not want to be accused of dirty sales tactics. It is these very same people who would yell much louder than you if they were having to listen to such sales pitches.

Over the 50 years, between my retail sales and in my consulting business, I’ve read numerous books and articles concerning selling and sales. Inevitably, when it comes to “how to get past the gatekeeper, what you wrote about is one of the tactics that is put forth as a way to get to the so-called decision maker.

My solution or suggestion, and I have done this just a few times due to frustration from getting an eMail or letter with the false “follow up” premise, I have taken the time to look up the firm and wrote the President telling him that I resent that their policy is wrong and the salesperson should not be blamed for following instructions One did respond by saying that he did not know (yeh?) this was going on and would look into it.

This, of course, leads to another subject or subjects. If people find themselves having to resort to such tactics in order to meet their assigned goals, when they talk to family and friends about what they do, that conversation cannot be very positive. Hence, it is no wonder why so many people run the other way when it comes to be associated with selling.

Thank you for the thought provoking article. I will be interested in learning what others have to say.

Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling, Attitudes for Selling

Posted by: Alan J .Zell on August 14, 2008 at 12:15 PM

I think some do what they do because their ‘life’ (aka their paycheck) depended on it. Thus they do whatever they can to get to their goal.

Posted by: Joe on August 14, 2008 at 3:52 PM

This is a good article. I can not believe how stupid (sorry) the sales person can be when they ask me “the gatekeeper” “how do you know they don’t want to take my call” or “you don’t even know what the call is about”. Well don’t sales people think that the gatekeeper knows what his or her boss wants, what calls they will and won’t take and so on.

I don’t appreciate the abuse I have to take at times from the very rude people that call. When you have to get agressive with some they have cursed at me or start crank calling. A lot of times these numbers come up Private so you can not see where they call from. It is hard to know what company some call from when they say they are from some 3 letter business - “This is Steve from ABC company” or they say it really fast so you can’t understand where they said and if you ask them to repeat themselves they do just as fast as the first time but then with annoyance in their voice they add “is he in?”

I have some people calling saying that they repair the copiers in the office and that they need the model number off of the machine or something so obviously wrong, like I am not going to know they are lying.

Sales people end up in voice mail automatically and if they make me mad I simply tell the sales person to please hold and that is where they stay until they hang up. If they call back I tell them the person is not available or not interested. They don’t always call back and some that are put on hold hang up before you get back to them to tell them no one is interested. It is truly annoying to say the least. I don’t have enough time in the day to listen to all of them and to argue with them that their call is not getting through.

Posted by: Wendi on August 15, 2008 at 1:15 PM

We have seen a notable increase in this type of sales call over the past year. Why the increase? We speculate that it is a result of the increasing effectiveness of the “do not call” list available to home phones. The phone bank assets are being deployed on the business front.

Your question as to why they think this will work gets to the same question why junk-mailers think spam will work. Apparently a .5% response rate is enough to keep the scam going. P.T. Barnum was right.

Posted by: George on August 15, 2008 at 2:30 PM

I recently was helping this resturant manager in a different location. After the second time I have worked with him, and I have reliazied that what most of his employees says about him is true.

He was nothing, but all conceeded, care about his ego and his final numbers, and not employees.

No wonder he was unable to keep managers working for him. He would lie to them about why he can not do this or that to improve the resturant operation. He would blame them for having the
place going down hill. Wow. I am glad I no longer there to help him out. I feel sorry to those others that will be working for him in the future. I finally called and let the district manager know about this horrible sitaution, he now got transfered to another unit.

Posted by: Dan on August 16, 2008 at 1:24 PM

I make these calls and fortunately I am able to reach the individual directly without having to go through a gatekeeper in most cases. If other sales people are using deceptive tactics, it makes my calls that much more credible. I usually get rejected the first time around, but we have a follow up system and I attempt to create a relationship with the prospect to that the lead turns from cold to warm.

We all have to make a living and if your are honest in your approach and follow up with a prospect, you will yeild better results. But as stated above, its a numbers game and home companies are rating people based on the number of calls made, contacts, conversion, etc. Any system that pressures is bound to get undesirable results.

People buy people before they buy product and service. You must be people first to survive in this high tech, high touch world. That’s my two cents. I hope it helps.

Posted by: Angie on August 17, 2008 at 9:38 AM

What amuses me is that they are bypassing the most important person. The so called gatekeeper. This “gatekeeper” is your ticket to who you want to speak with so the bottom line is make them your friend. It works everytime. The honest,open and polite you are the further you’ll go.

I cold called the Director of Marketing for a 4.5 billion dollar company. Made friends with the “gatekeepers” and my call went through everytime. Closed the Business agreement in 3 months with signed contracts in place.

Posted by: valarie on August 20, 2008 at 10:20 AM

My company got a call from a magazine journalist (so she said) that wanted to feature our product. Any small business owner knows free press is the BEST press. After ten minutes of my time she actually told me she was calling about advertising and started to insult me with figures and numbers and how could I NOT advertise with them, I would be dumb. I was so irritated I actually hung up on her.

Posted by: Jamie R Lentzner on September 14, 2008 at 3:10 PM