I received this email yesterday;

Hi Jim:

XYZ, a  sales applications provider, is announcing a major new release of its Super Duper cool application.

One benefit of the app to ‘sales guys’ is that they will be able to save a lot of time preparing for the dreaded quarterly pipeline review.  The snapshot from each playbook is your deal status.  The app is easy to use and tightly integrated with salesforce.com

Please let me know if you would like more information or to view a demo of this dynamic sales application.

Best regards,

Sales Person

It’s clearly a form letter. I was just one of hundreds if not thousands it went out.

This was my reply;

Salesperson,

I’m a company of one . . . Your move!

//keenan

Their response;

Jim,

I like your blog/thinking a lot so I sent you our news mostly as an fyi.  A big issue we care about is trying to make the sales forecast process easier and more accurate.  Our CEO calls the current sales forecast system ‘the propagation of the lie.’

So maybe our app might be something you could recommend to your clients down the road or maybe there is another way we can help you out.

Thanks for the reply!

My response to that.

OK,

So that makes more sense.   Next time just say that.

The message you sent me was a waste of your time and mine.

If you want to show me what u have and why it might be of value to my clients, then “sell” me on that.

My two cents

Your move . . .

The sales person’s response

Thanks for the feedback.  I appreciate it.

End of string.

What would YOU have done in that situation?