Kevin & Johna .com

I posted an article on my “professional blog” about this topic. In short: I get TONS of calls from people when I’m at work that want to sell me something or stop by to tell me about their wonderful product/service/company. I simply don’t have time to listen to all of them or call them all back. After all, I get paid to get things done, not to listen to sales people all day.

I decided to keep track of all of the things I say to these people for one week. I have a bunch of them in my head and thought I’d be fun to write it down and publish it for others. Check out the “work” version of this posting on my DominoKeys Blog.

But … there’s another half to this. Telemarketers who call at home. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you my “home” version of how to handle these people:

• Tell them you need to give the phone to someone else in the house who can best help them. Then give the phone to your kids.
• Tell them you need to give the phone to someone else and ask them to hold for a second. Put the phone down on the counter and walk away until you hear the telephone company beeping at you.
• Say: “I’m really busy right now. How about you give me your home phone number and I’ll call you back when I have some time to talk about this.” (aka ‘The Seinfeld Method)
• Say: “I’m unemployed.”
• Say: “I’m going through a nasty divorce right now … this is a bad time for this kinda crap!”
• Say: “I’d love to apply for that credit card, but I don’t think the courts will let me. I’ve kinda been in collections … a lot … in the last 2 months.”
• Say: “I’m actually housesitting for these people.” (if they ask when they’ll be back, say “Dunno.”)

Enjoy. What are your favorites?