Close X
  • Home
  • Sales Gravy University
  • Sales Jobs
  • Sales Store
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
  • Jeb Blount
  • Sales EQ
  • Fanatical Prospecting
    • Main Menu
    • Sales Gravy Job Board
    • Sales Gravy Store
    • Free Sales Resources

    Sales Training

    Comprehensive customer sales training solutions. Online. Classroom. Workshops. Boot camps style.

    Sales Jobs

    Search thousands of sales jobs from top employers. Get a better sales job fast.

    Sales Onboarding

    Get your new salespeople ramped up and selling fast with new hire sales onboarding that works.

    Hiring Assessments

    Stop making costly mistakes with sales hiring and start identifying the sales rock stars that will help you build your dream team.

    Sales Store

    The Sales Store offers sales training programs, sales books, ebooks and sales audio programs from today's top sales trainers, speakers and experts.

    Free Resources

    Get thousands of free sales articles and advice for top sales experts on Sales Gravy.

    Search Jobs

    Browse sales job listings from thousands of top employers. Since 2006 we’ve helped more than a million sales professionals find better sales jobs.

    Post Jobs

    Need to find better salespeople fast? Post your sales jobs on Sales Gravy and reach the world’s largest sales talent community with one click.

    Post Your Resume

    Add your resume to the Sales Talent Community and get discovered by top employers and recruiters. Your next big career move could be one click away.

    Login

    Login to your Sales Gravy Job Board account here.

    Featured

    The Sales Store offers sales training programs, sales books, ebooks and sales audio programs from today's top sales trainers, speakers and experts.

    Sales eBooks

    Sales oriented eBooks available for download. A must for every sales professional.

    Sales Audio

    Instant download of audio programs from today's top sales experts.

    Sales Books

    The Sales Store offers books from today's best selling authors. We specialize in sales books, leadership books, career, sales training, and self help.

    Sales Meetings

    Products and Tools designed to help sales managers and leaders develop more effective sales team meetings.

    Sales Management

    Whether you are experienced or new to sales management, these Sales Store products are designed to help develop, coach, and lead great sales teams

    Sales Articles

    Get thousands of free sales articles and advice for top sales experts on Sales Gravy.

    JEB BLOUNT’S PODCAST

    Listen to the most downloaded sales podcast in the history of iTunes. New episodes weekly.

    FREE SALES PUBLICATIONS

    Download free reports, magazines, book excerpts, and white papers on sales and sales leadership.

    Submit an Article

    Sales Gravy is a great place to submit and publish articles on sales, selling, sales advice and leadership.

    WOMEN IN SALES

    Read the latest blog posts from the top women in sales.

  • SG University

  • Sales Jobs

  • Shop

  • Articles

  • Employer Login

  • JobSeeker Login

  • Contact

Sales Articles - Sales Videos - Sales Podcasts

Free sales training resources from the top sales experts, authors, and trainers
MAIN MENU
  • New Articles
  • All Articles
  • Sales Experts
  • Podcast
  • Videos
RSS FEED
ARTICLES MENU MAIN MENU
  • New Posts
  • All Posts
  • Sales Experts
  • Podcasts
  • Videos

FREE Sales Training Delivered to Your Inbox

More than 360,000 sales pros build their skills with Sales Gravy each week!

What's The Purpose of This Sales Call?

Written By: Barbara Giamanco Total Views: 4007
  • Communication
  • Sales Conversations
  • Sales Communication
  • Business Etiquette
  • Email

Mistakes happen. As human beings, that is an inevitable fact of life. How you handle the gaffe, I believe, is what makes the difference between turning an honest mistake into a positive outcome. 


A few years back, without thinking more carefully, I created a situation that resulted in an experience with me that was anything but wow.  It was a simple question, I thought.  I was wrong. That was a bummer because I’m a firm believer in the importance of creating great experiences with anyone who will interact with you and your employees regardless of their role. And, in this case, I was the one who blew it. 

Mistakes happen. As human beings, that is an inevitable fact of life. How you handle the gaffe, I believe, is what makes the difference between turning an honest mistake into a positive outcome. I think of my early days as a customer service representative. It was amazing to me how I could quickly diffuse an angry customer situation simply by listening, acknowledging their pain and apologizing for the problem that occurred.

But on this day… I wasn’t paying attention. Here’s the story.

I use a scheduling tool called TimeTrade. Hours of wasted time and hassle when scheduling meetings are mostly a thing of the past. When I agree to meet with someone, I simply send them a link to my calendar. They find an opening that works for them and book the time. My calendar is automatically updated and all is right with the world. That is until it isn’t.

As a general rule, I don’t post my calendar link publicly. I know that many of my colleagues do post a public link as a way of creating a CTA (call to action), but my biggest concern was that instead of potential clients booking time with me, I’d be inundated with calls from salespeople trying to sell me.

After thinking about it for a while, I decided to give it a try. I included my calendar link at the bottom of a newsletter with a few sentences that said if you’d like to have a conversation about our social selling services you can use the calendar link to book a meeting.

What ensued was some temporary chaos. What I thought might happen, did. More than one sales person used that as an opportunity to book time on my calendar. Their objective wasn’t to learn about our services, though. Their goal was to try and sell me on theirs. The lack of integrity among many salespeople still surprises me.

I learned a lesson, and honestly, it had been months since it happened. I had forgotten all about it.

Which leads me to my mistake.

Looking at my calendar one particular morning, I noticed that I was scheduled to have a meeting with someone I didn’t recognize. Not a personal contact, we are not connected on LinkedIn, and I do not recall ever meeting the individual. I think the problem is that I felt burned by the earlier experience which definitely caused an error in my judgment.  And the message in the schedule confirmation seemed suspicious.

Perhaps this was a classic example of seeing what you expect to see?

What to do?

I didn’t want to be a jerk, but I wasn’t about to waste my time either. Been there, done that. I sent a message to the person and asked them to clarify for me the purpose of the call. Without thinking, I went on to say that I typically know the people that I am meeting with and was curious to know how they booked time on my calendar.

I offended.

In the moment, asking for clarity about the call’s purpose made sense. After all, the message did not say that the meeting was to discuss our sales services. But that is irrelevant. Forgetting that we were the ones who made the link public was certainly my first mistake.

I compounded my mistake when I assumed that this individual’s intentions were less than honorable. As a result, I did not think more carefully about the words I used in my email, nor did I consider what the question would feel like to the person reading my message.

As it turns out, this was a legitimate buyer, who, judging by their response to me was offended by my question. I don’t blame them.

What’s the lesson?

Everyone makes mistakes, and I made a big one that day. What harm would it have done to take the call? If it was simply another salesperson, I could have ended the call right away. Or, if I’d stopped and thought more carefully before sending my email asking for clarification about the meeting, I wouldn’t have offended the individual who booked time with me.

That situation was a reminder to me that we should always stop and think before we act. Realizing my mistake, I offered a sincere apology. Though I never heard from that person again, I know I did the right thing by acknowledging my mistake and saying I was sorry. Sometimes, that’s all you can do.


Networking Know-How will give you all of the tools you need to build a dynamic and profitable network of contacts. Check it out now on the Sales Store.



Prev Next
About the author:

Related Articles:
  • Email Responses Can Come Back to Haunt You
  • Your Message Matters: Leveraging the C²ORE Framework
  • What is YOUR Most Powerful Sales Tool? 
  • How to Win Business With Great Stories That SELL
  • Sell Customers On Your Company, Not Just Its Products
  • 5 Lessons I Learned When I Lost My Voice
Articles by this Author:
View all articles by this author
About the author:

FREE Sales Training Delivered to Your Inbox

More than 360,000 sales pros build their skills with Sales Gravy each week!

About SalesGravy

Sales Gravy is a global leader in sales enablement solutions. We help our clients generate the highest possible return on sales headcount investment by helping them deploy actionable strategies for building high-performing sales teams fast.

View More

Contact Us

Sales Gravy, Inc.
115 East Hall St.
Thomson, GA 30824
Sales Hotline: 1-844-447-3737
Employers: 1-706-664-0810 x107
Job Seekers: 1-706-664-0810 x104
Main Line: 1-706-664-0810
    • Quick Links

    • Search Sales Jobs
    • Sales Gravy University
    • Sales Articles
    • Jeb Blount Podcast
    • Sales EQ Book
    • Fanatical Prospecting Book
    • Sales Store

    • Featured Products
    • Sales Books
    • Sales eBooks
    • Sales Audio CDs and MP3
    • Sales Management Resources
    • Sales Talent Sourcing & Recruiting

    • Post a Job
    • Employer Login
    • Full Service Sales Recruiting
    • Executive Recruiting
    • Sales Recruitment Outsourcing
    • Sales Gravy University

    • All Courses
    • Free Courses
    • Prospecting & Lead Gen
    • Sales Skills
    • Leadership
    • Live Remote Learning
    • All Access Pass
    • More Information

    • Advertising and Media Kit
    • About Sales Gravy
    • About Jeb Blount
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Statement
Better Salespeople, Fast™