Saturday, August 22, 2009

Time to Call it Quits?

I called the CEO and he said to call her. I did.

Over a period of a month I have made nine phone calls and sent two emails, all by request. The most recent phone call scheduled today at 2pm failed because of another emergency; I am re-scheduled for Monday 9:30, but am not optimistic.

This is an awful lot of time and effort being spent to arrange for me to deliver a free 15-minute demonstration at my expense.

What Are My Options?

(1) Abandon the effort to break into this firm. The CEO has sent me off to a dead-end contact who is not capable of making an agreement and sticking to it, who is rarely at the phone. My time would be better spent establishing prospects who are open to ideas.

(2) Call the CEO back and ask if there is another person I could deal with; offer to send him a link to the testimonials page; let him see that other people rave about it. If she is being recalcitrant, it's his job to get her moving, not mine.

(3) Call the CEO back and express regrets that I was not able to schedule a meeting with his staff. I get the satisfaction of shaking free, and he will never know what his company has missed.

(4) Stop offering free demos; prospects don't value them unless they have asked for them, in which case the onus is on them to schedule me, not me to chase them.

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