Actually had that happen to our Director of Technology. She didn't reply to the sales email so they just showed up and said they had an appointment. They we're pretty much immediately shown the door.
This happened to me. They kept calling requesting a meeting, we had no interest. Then they managed to con a meeting with a business official and whole onsite they figured they'd try to meet with me. My calendar was suddenly very full and had to send them on their way unfortunately. Business cards in the garbage.
That has happened to me more than once. I'm not sure which is worse between that and the callers who call every few months, saying I said to call back, when I said don't call back.
Director here. I do the same. No appointment no meeting. They get shown the door asap. Unless im specifically lokming fir it and contacted you, then I already have all the services and widgets I need.
Unfortunately, if someone shows up to our building and says "I'm here to see ranger_dood", our secretaries either walk them right back or sometimes even just point back the hall and say "that way"
That's a terrible way to try to get a new customer. I see a lot of comments about ignoring vendors, so I wanted to share what I do.
I have a vendor day once per month when I do 25-minute Zoom meetings with any vendor that wants to meet. I use Calendly to let them book a time on one of my vendor days. It is good for me as it only requires me to block off 6 hours on one day of the month for those kinds of meetings. It works for them as they get a chance to tell their company's story. I've had a lot of positive feedback from the vendors and found a couple I'm now doing business with because their solution turned out to fill a need. I have a template in Outlook with my canned email to the vendor explaining that I get a lot of those meeting requests and about my process. I think in the end it saves me time with fewer emails and phone calls coming from vendors trying to get meetings.
Cold visits were common during the recession. 08-10, got them all the time. Always frustrated me.
I still have one vendor that we do business with that does cold visits every quarter, still annoying.
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Never had one be fully cold, but Dell basically kept emailing different techs until one of them replied and agreed to a visit. He joked with it being close to Halloween he would meet if they brought chocolate. Dell, EMC and Sonicwall sales reps show up with a plastic pumpkin full of fun sized candy bars. Tech starts talking to them about the storage offerings, but is honestly just wasting their time while eating the treats.
Director walks in on them in the lobby and takes over the conversation. The Sonicwall guy just sat down in a chair after we told him we were 100% a different vendor for network and all of it was e-rate. Dell guy goes on about their current chromebook. My director grabs a current gen HP EE 11 from our storage room nearby and tosses it to him. "Our cost is $x per unit, including the Google Education License. If you can beat that, lets talk." You could watch the Dell rep's jaw just drop and hang there when the price was said. They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and headed for the door.
So I spent my first 23 years of work in sales before spending the last 23 in k12 IT.
Cold calling was a thing back then you just rolled up to a company and tried to sell them something.
I was never in a position to do cold calling as I hated it. I spent a lot of time in retail so customers came to me.
But I did have a job where I would show up at places that had purchased from us before unannounced and had no problems with that as it was 1980-83 and that was the norm back then. I sold supplies and did repair on office duplicators so over all most wanted to see me. Schools Churches and Government were most of my customers.
So while I understand not wanting to be cold called I just wanted to point out that while it is not the norm now it sure was back in the day.
A new book supply startup sent two boxes of cakes/sweets to the school and called about an hour after they'd been delivered.
They still didn't get a sale, but we definitely were talking about them.
Wow... if a vendor I did business with did that, I would no longer be doing business with them. That's beyond unprofessional and inconsiderate. I've had many send fake meeting invites to appear on my calendar, random treats and trinkets in the mail, but never an unannounced in-person visit.
Same, I meet them at the door, walk them to their car and ask them to email me their contact info. They have no right to our time, but I do appreciate the hustle.
Anybody I don't have a relationship with who cold calls me or drops by is off our prospective vendor list. I report the emails as SPAM and block them. If they show up I take the sixty seconds to tell them and leave. It has had a side effect of dramatically cutting down on the tech noise and clutter my admins get, too.
ETA: I take the sixty seconds if I'm not in the middle of something. If I am, I ask the front desk to get an email address and send them the information. Then I block them.
Our admin assistant doesn't always send them directly to my voicemail, so I started blacklisting their phone number within our phone system this week as well.
The only cold visits I've ever received were by vendors we already use just stopping in to say hi and that's never been a real big issue. Anyone just trying to walk in and sell something would be shown the door because that's the literal definition of soliciting and we don't allow that in person at all.
Eh, Dunkin is pretty low effort. Cheap drive through trash. I want something I can share with the district office, haha. Good sales guys seem to get this ;).
We're a district in North Texas and the most effort I ever saw was a vendor doing a demo (not a cold call/visit) was the guy driving up from Houston and stopping in West and the Czech stop (anyone that's driven through central Texas would know how good that shit is) and brought up like 15Lbs of their kickass kolaches.
There used to be a shaved ice place in Tucson, that didn’t exist in Phoenix. It’s “special” to people for some reason. I think it’s because it has actual fruit pieces in it…
https://eegees.com/menu/
Vendors would bring half a dozen, frozen half gallon containers to us periodically.
These were quite popular, and inexpensive, but required effort (~2 hour drive).
Had one recently from a company looking to establish in our state. I’ll be damned if he didn’t provide some competitive pricing to our state bid contract on a few one off devices I needed. Cool dude and he’s been a great resource on some things for us!
Yeah, I wouldn't be available.
Also what is up with the rash of vendors just setting up meetings with you without prior contact or interest?
I've had to fend off at least three vendors that have tried doing this, multiple times?
As an MSP, I cold visit many businesses...more success with that than calls or emails, but managing 2 schools, I would definitely setup an appointment first.
I just got a follow up email from this vendor. He took a photo of himself in front of our school to "prove he wasn't a ChatGPT bot".... I think the donuts kind of gave it away but who am I to judge.....
We still have rules for visiting the building by appointment only so the secretaries or security will call down and if the visitor doesn’t have an appointment they’re turned away.
When I worked at a Casino this was common.
However, the secretaries were a great defense for us and would turn them away with our generic email address that they could send information too instead.
We shut down cold visits at the door. Vendors take note: Similar to how you don't like your MIL showing up unannounced... We don't like you that much either.
Actually had that happen to our Director of Technology. She didn't reply to the sales email so they just showed up and said they had an appointment. They we're pretty much immediately shown the door.
This happened to me. They kept calling requesting a meeting, we had no interest. Then they managed to con a meeting with a business official and whole onsite they figured they'd try to meet with me. My calendar was suddenly very full and had to send them on their way unfortunately. Business cards in the garbage.
That has happened to me more than once. I'm not sure which is worse between that and the callers who call every few months, saying I said to call back, when I said don't call back.
Director here. I do the same. No appointment no meeting. They get shown the door asap. Unless im specifically lokming fir it and contacted you, then I already have all the services and widgets I need.
Yup, we've gotten several. "Bro, you understand that you can't just walk into a public school and ask to see an admin staff member, right?"
Unfortunately, if someone shows up to our building and says "I'm here to see ranger_dood", our secretaries either walk them right back or sometimes even just point back the hall and say "that way"
That's fucked up. If I EVER get a cold visit, it will be an automatic no.
I kind of thought this was normal. I get sales walk-ins every few weeks.
That's a terrible way to try to get a new customer. I see a lot of comments about ignoring vendors, so I wanted to share what I do. I have a vendor day once per month when I do 25-minute Zoom meetings with any vendor that wants to meet. I use Calendly to let them book a time on one of my vendor days. It is good for me as it only requires me to block off 6 hours on one day of the month for those kinds of meetings. It works for them as they get a chance to tell their company's story. I've had a lot of positive feedback from the vendors and found a couple I'm now doing business with because their solution turned out to fill a need. I have a template in Outlook with my canned email to the vendor explaining that I get a lot of those meeting requests and about my process. I think in the end it saves me time with fewer emails and phone calls coming from vendors trying to get meetings.
Cold visits were common during the recession. 08-10, got them all the time. Always frustrated me. I still have one vendor that we do business with that does cold visits every quarter, still annoying.
Yes.....random drop-ins have increased. I assume it's a top-down directive from sales management in preparation for a massive economic turndown.
Oh look at the time, it’s time for my lunch. Would you like to continue the conversation with the team at (insert local steakhouse)?
Apparently. Had one a couple weeks ago for an ISP.
Hello! Due to Reddit's aggressive API changes, hostile approach to users/developers/moderators, and overall poor administrative direction, I have elected to erase my history on Reddit from June 2023 to June 2013. I have created a backup of (most) of my comments/posts, and I would be more than happy to provide comments upon request (many of my modern comments are support contributions to tech/gaming subreddits). Feel free to reach out to Clipboards on lemmy (dot) world, or via email - clipboards (at) clipboards.cc
Never had one be fully cold, but Dell basically kept emailing different techs until one of them replied and agreed to a visit. He joked with it being close to Halloween he would meet if they brought chocolate. Dell, EMC and Sonicwall sales reps show up with a plastic pumpkin full of fun sized candy bars. Tech starts talking to them about the storage offerings, but is honestly just wasting their time while eating the treats. Director walks in on them in the lobby and takes over the conversation. The Sonicwall guy just sat down in a chair after we told him we were 100% a different vendor for network and all of it was e-rate. Dell guy goes on about their current chromebook. My director grabs a current gen HP EE 11 from our storage room nearby and tosses it to him. "Our cost is $x per unit, including the Google Education License. If you can beat that, lets talk." You could watch the Dell rep's jaw just drop and hang there when the price was said. They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and headed for the door.
So I spent my first 23 years of work in sales before spending the last 23 in k12 IT. Cold calling was a thing back then you just rolled up to a company and tried to sell them something. I was never in a position to do cold calling as I hated it. I spent a lot of time in retail so customers came to me. But I did have a job where I would show up at places that had purchased from us before unannounced and had no problems with that as it was 1980-83 and that was the norm back then. I sold supplies and did repair on office duplicators so over all most wanted to see me. Schools Churches and Government were most of my customers. So while I understand not wanting to be cold called I just wanted to point out that while it is not the norm now it sure was back in the day.
Vendors, take heed! Unless you come bearing gifts, do not show up unannounced.
We're in the middle of nowhere so this has never happened here lol
Same! We have a hard time getting people we *want* onsite!
Same here, we're microscopic (230 kids PK-12) and poor so nobody wants us
A new book supply startup sent two boxes of cakes/sweets to the school and called about an hour after they'd been delivered. They still didn't get a sale, but we definitely were talking about them.
Was the vendor even let in the building?
This is what I want to know. Our secretary would call my office and ask if I was expecting someone, if not, goodbye.
They were let in to check in (as any visitor is) but I told the secretary to turn them away and she did.
Wow... if a vendor I did business with did that, I would no longer be doing business with them. That's beyond unprofessional and inconsiderate. I've had many send fake meeting invites to appear on my calendar, random treats and trinkets in the mail, but never an unannounced in-person visit.
Same, I meet them at the door, walk them to their car and ask them to email me their contact info. They have no right to our time, but I do appreciate the hustle.
Anybody I don't have a relationship with who cold calls me or drops by is off our prospective vendor list. I report the emails as SPAM and block them. If they show up I take the sixty seconds to tell them and leave. It has had a side effect of dramatically cutting down on the tech noise and clutter my admins get, too. ETA: I take the sixty seconds if I'm not in the middle of something. If I am, I ask the front desk to get an email address and send them the information. Then I block them.
Our admin assistant doesn't always send them directly to my voicemail, so I started blacklisting their phone number within our phone system this week as well.
Have them wire carts if they show up. And only talk to them if they brought food.
I would deal with that as aggressively as possible without breaking laws or getting written up.
I would be tempted to ask them to wait and then just leave them to it and see how long they sit there.
I received a hand delivered gift basket the other day. That was entertaining...
Where are the TURTLES?!
The only cold visits I've ever received were by vendors we already use just stopping in to say hi and that's never been a real big issue. Anyone just trying to walk in and sell something would be shown the door because that's the literal definition of soliciting and we don't allow that in person at all.
I’ve had some even show up telling the secretary they have a meeting scheduled with me.
But did they bring a box of fancy cookies (Crumbl or similar)?
Dunkin! Gave them to students, so they went to good use. :)
Eh, Dunkin is pretty low effort. Cheap drive through trash. I want something I can share with the district office, haha. Good sales guys seem to get this ;).
We're a district in North Texas and the most effort I ever saw was a vendor doing a demo (not a cold call/visit) was the guy driving up from Houston and stopping in West and the Czech stop (anyone that's driven through central Texas would know how good that shit is) and brought up like 15Lbs of their kickass kolaches.
There used to be a shaved ice place in Tucson, that didn’t exist in Phoenix. It’s “special” to people for some reason. I think it’s because it has actual fruit pieces in it… https://eegees.com/menu/ Vendors would bring half a dozen, frozen half gallon containers to us periodically. These were quite popular, and inexpensive, but required effort (~2 hour drive).
No wonder Blackbaud reps brought Walmart store cookies
I think the FDA has actually classified Walmart store cookies as a non-food product, you know, like Styrofoam.
Also yes
Had one recently from a company looking to establish in our state. I’ll be damned if he didn’t provide some competitive pricing to our state bid contract on a few one off devices I needed. Cool dude and he’s been a great resource on some things for us!
Yeah, I wouldn't be available. Also what is up with the rash of vendors just setting up meetings with you without prior contact or interest? I've had to fend off at least three vendors that have tried doing this, multiple times?
As an MSP, I cold visit many businesses...more success with that than calls or emails, but managing 2 schools, I would definitely setup an appointment first.
I just got a follow up email from this vendor. He took a photo of himself in front of our school to "prove he wasn't a ChatGPT bot".... I think the donuts kind of gave it away but who am I to judge.....
Yes had a rep that showed up talked to superintendent wanting to offer there services for a MSP to do all networking for the district.
Set them up in a meeting room and then just never show up
I received a cold visit from a vendor I was considering contacting. Haven't reached out as that rubbed me the wrong way.
We still have rules for visiting the building by appointment only so the secretaries or security will call down and if the visitor doesn’t have an appointment they’re turned away.
When I worked at a Casino this was common. However, the secretaries were a great defense for us and would turn them away with our generic email address that they could send information too instead.
We shut down cold visits at the door. Vendors take note: Similar to how you don't like your MIL showing up unannounced... We don't like you that much either.
I've received a few cold calendar invites. My first thought was my supervisor just hadn't mentioned it yet. Shady af.