Not so polite time saving tips that work from Bob Parsons

Hot Points %u2013 A blog by Go Daddy founder and president Bob Parsons

Wow, Bob hit it on the head. Years ago, such practices were what my phone skills evolved to. While I had a receptionist that killed off the boiler room scams, the rest of the calls I wanted to handle personally.

My concern for doing so was not to miss something really useful (it occured generally 4x/year), but also to get real feedback from customers, and potential customers. In retrospect, I always felt I was a little rude in asking them to get to the point. However, Bob really put this to light. By going down the standard BS path, they are not only wasting my time, but theirs as well. So the abrupt method I used for phone activities actually was a benefit.

More than a few times it threw people off their scripts. I don’t want a script, I want meaningful communication, and from there I can make a judgement to continue or to get back to work, thus keeping unproductive calls to an absolute minimum. I applied the same scenario to in person cold calls. Some days we just about had to throw obnoxious sales guys out the door, and other times, someone would walk in with the exact solution to a problem we were working on.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Bob’s methods not so polite, they really are polite to both the caller, and the callee from a big picture point of view. What they are really is unexpected, and a little off the mainstream. Since Parson’s Technology, one of Bob’s earlier businesses was located in Iowa, just as I was years back, perhaps his tips are part of that states mentality. Get to the point, or get off the horn, we have work to do!

Anyhow, right on Bob!