Adam On…

Alan Shimel over at (big, big breath here) Still Secure, After All These Years (and exhale) has a post about a particular annoyance of mine, overeager, overzealous security sales individuals. While I’ve only been with my current company for a year, it didn’t take the sales calls to start rolling in. And roll in they have.

It is getting to the point where, like many security pros out there, I allow telephone calls from odd area codes/external numbers to go to voice mail. Alas, this doesn’t always save me. There are some vendors that call the main office and ask to be transferred. There are some vendors that call the main switchboard and ask to be put through.

There is even one vendor (I’m assuming since I never answer) that calls at least twice a day. Now the calls, while a bit excessive, can be understood. However, what is inexcusable is that the caller doesn’t hang up during my voice mail greeting. Instead the caller leaves 1-2 second blank voice mails causing my VM light to turn on and the message waiting sound to start chiming away happily… Oh to get a few moments alone with this thoughtful and persistent caller.

However, none of this compairs to the extreme annoyance of companies not returning phone calls or e-mail messages inquiring after products. We’ve all dealt with it. A company you were not interested in won’t leave you alone yet a bit later that same company ignores your inquiries when you are interested. It leads one to believe that there is something horribly wrong with the world when companies you will not give money never leave you alone, while companies you want to give money don’t seem to care.

Or perhaps it is something a bit worse. Perhaps these sales individuals are told to pitch X number of individuals per day/hour/month/week/etc. Perhaps the individuals you want to give money are too busy pitching others. Not because there is a better chance for a sale with these other potential customers, but because the company has outdated or, at the very least, broken sales procedures. Perhaps I have no idea what I am talking about.

One thing that I do know is that it is heartening to see companies like StillSecure reaching out to their customers and see how the company can attempt to address the problem many of us have with sales calls.