About a month ago I got a cold call from a guy selling Web servers. He apparently got my name from
WhoIs directory of Internet domain names. As an Internet marketing consultant with several Web sites, I'm always interested in knowing what current market pricing is for hosting, so I let guy give me his pitch.
He asked me what kind of server configuration I needed, then told me he would send me a quote and some information about his company.
He made no attempt to qualify me at all -- other than knowing I had some Web sites. He eagerly offered to "send me something" without any idea of whether I was interested in changing hosts, what my budget was, or how soon I could make a decision, etc.
Then I received following email message from him about a month after he had called me: (Name changed to protect guilty.)
RE: company overview Hi Nick,
I just wanted to touch base with you. I haven't spoken to you in awhile, and I just wanted to see if you had any questions.
Please let me know, my contact information is below.
Best Regards,
Albert De Salvo
Enterprise Solutions Manager
Since I get email like this just about every day, and since this particular time I had a charitable urge to make a point with this person, I composed following reply:
Dear Albert, Thanks so much for writing!
Yes, I do distinctly remember last time we spoke. I don't get many calls so yours is indelibly etched in my mind.
In fact, your call was so important, I made a note of our conversation and put it in my tickler file as follows:
"Albert from toasterhoster.com called. He had no idea about my needs but that's okay. He works for a big company so I guess that should be enough to impress me.
