Digiday has a fantastic post this week featuring Brian Maynard, director of marketing for Jenn-Air at Whirlpool, on what he thinks of vendors pitching him all the time. It seems like every single vendor knows how to find him:
I can tell you that every day, every single day, I receive somewhere between 50-75 touches from someone wanting to sell me something. I get phone calls, emails; they even mail me letters. Of the 50-75, I maybe get to look at 25. They all say the same thing: “Can I get 30 minutes of your time?” If I did 10, I would not have time to do my job.
That sums up the challenge with the proliferation of vendors, especially since, as he notes, most aren't doing their homework.&0160;
My job&39;s a little different from his. I have to look at every single pitch – even if it&39;s a smaller number of pitches than he gets daily. I try to meet with as many as I can. But as someone who is looking out for my 450 colleagues and dozens of clients, I have to be judicious and wind up with little tolerance for vendors who are unprofessionally pushy, lazy, or tone deaf.&0160;
One of my biggest pet peeves lately: when a pitch isn&39;t relevant for me and I tell someone in sales who exactly at my agency they should reach out to, and then they keep responding to me either to try the pitch again or complain that a colleague isn&39;t getting back to them. If a colleague isn&39;t getting back to them, that&39;s because of their pitch, not me, and it only makes me think less of them. Often, I&39;ll put a note in their contact file that they whine and waste my time.
Read the rest of the post at Digiday. Again, it&39;s a great interview.
No Comments
Leave a comment Cancel