Corporate Junk #14

One afternoon, I received a call on my mobile from a number I'm not familiar with. When I answered the phone, the woman (let's call her lady C) on the other end started getting friendly with me, as if we've known each other for a while. She told me she was referred to me by my 'good friend' J. In reality, I don't know J well. I only met him when I did a presentation to him about my company's product few years back.

I hate J for making false claims and giving my mobile number to complete strangers without my permission. This is really uncalled for when I don't really know J at all. His 'referrals' only bring problems. After J's promise of steep discounts, potential clients will expect us to give steep discounts which we can't and won't give. Because of this, we can never close deals with his 'referrals' as the clients will come with wrong expectations and end up being disappointed.

This is the fifth time I've received calls from strangers claiming they've been referred by J and saying that if they were referred by J, I would give them a very good discount because J knows me very well.

J belongs to a group of people I detest. He is the type where he would like to boast that he is well-connected and networked. He would claim that he knows who's who in the industry when in fact, he may only have their name card.

Lady C wanted to purchase our product and kept emphasizing she was referred by J and ask me how much discount can we give her. I replied to her in a firm but courteous tone that our price is fixed and no discounts are given. She would then plead, "Can lah, sure can one. J says he very close to you and say you will give us discount when we mention his name."

I was adamant in not giving her any discount and this continued for 30 minutes before she gave up very unhappily.

About a month later, my staff called me saying a female staff (let's call her lady P) of lady C wanted to talk to me directly. My staff had been on the phone with lady P for over an hour prior to calling me. P had kept haggling for discount for the past hour and when my staff refused to give discount, she wanted to speak to my staff's boss - me. Lady P was also very confident that she would be able to persuade me to give discount. She told my staff just ask me to call her, she would surely convince me to give them discount.

I really wondered why she was so sure of herself. What possibly can she provide to convince me?

I was not about to waste one hour of my time just to say no to her request for discounts. It was really inappropriate of her to think she could convince me. If I gave in to lady P's request, I would actually make her boss, lady C, look bad and incompetent - her staff can convince me while she can't. No way I was going to do that. Even if we clinch the deal, we would have a difficult working relationship in future.

Personally, I think lady P had breached an unwritten protocol. Her boss didn't give her my number thus implying lady C also felt that it was inappropriate for her to call me directly.

I told my staff to relay my message to lady P that "my staff is fully able to make decisions regarding this matter on my behalf. It wasn't necessary for her to speak with me directly."

Obviously, lady P was not pleased. In her parting shot, she said to my staff sacarstically, "Wah, good lor. You must be very capable hor, for your boss to trust you so much. He really very lucky to have such a good staff like you."

Then she slammed down the phone.

P.S. A few days ago, my staff received a call from them ordering our products. :p