Wasting a marketer's time
When you spend your career listening to pitches over the phone and in person, it is inevitable that you will experience your share of great presentations. Conversely, you will also hear presentations that leave you scratching your head.
Usually, it's not the great presentations or even the head scratchers that raise the blood pressure of those of us on the buying side. To prove this point, ask any marketer at any event about which sales tactics drive them nuts. Once you ask the question, be prepared with a drink and a snack in hand because you're likely going to be in the conversation for quite a while.
Marketers are busy, and they place a premium on their time. Because most receive anywhere from five to 20 cold calls and pitch meetings each week, any tactic that hints at wasting marketers' time will make their blood boil whenever thinking about your company, service, or you individually. In this article, I'll discuss areas where you're likely to rub marketers the wrong way.
Everyone makes mistakes, and most have been guilty of the following examples at one time. The key is to understand the effect these approaches have on your audience. With this understanding, you can determine how to manage your time more effectively to better service your audience. The more you understand how to do this correctly, the more you'll be rewarded at the end of sales pitches.
