Sales Gone Awry

 I'm not a sales person. I would be a terrible in Sales. I always paint the full picture. If I was selling you a frog, you'd hear "This fellow has a great green and is a fabulous hopper, but he has quite a few warts and a habit of peeing on people who touch him." Not exactly an outstanding sales pitch, there.

I get a lot of unsolicited sales pitches at work from potential vendors. A lot. Per my junk email folder, 2,610 unwanted pitches since Jan 1. I am pretty aggressive at using 'unsubscribe', yet the junk continues. I filter anything I've seen before into a junk folder, but that doesn't always fix the problem. I don't know if it's the economy, or the fact that many people are under extra pressure, but I am getting more aggressive sales pitches this year.

One particular vendor, whose unsolicited email messages I've 'unsubscribed' from at least three times, has taken to having their sales guy call me repeatedly and send personalized email in addition to the boilerplate messages. This week alone he's left two voice messages, sent four personalized email (3 in one day) and two boilerplate messages. 

Does that actually work with anyone? Does anyone who has ignored a dozen email messages and two voicemail in two weeks, not to mention two or more messages a week for the last two years, suddenly answer the phone and say "Why, yes! I've been looking for a vendor just like you! Please, allow me to open an unlimited PO and start sending me bills! I have millions just waiting to be spent with your company!"? 

In case you can't tell, I find unsolicited pitches highly irritating. I'm busy and I don't feel like it should be my responsibility to repeatedly tell a vendor 'no', whether directly or via 'unsubscribe'. This is especially true given that I never expressed interest in any of these companies! Despite the fact that this behavior really grates on me, I'm usually polite.  Today, after the third voicemail this week, I snapped. I fired back an email. It might have used phrases like "Enough already!," "unwanted deluge of email," and "complete inability to respect my unsubscribe requests." It was not the height of professionalism or respectful behavior. It will probably return to bite me in the ass someday. At this moment, as long as he stops bloody contacting me, I'm willing to take the hit.

How can I be in a world where human contact is so limited, and yet be so annoyed by human contact? Something must be wrong with me.