Vendors - why they can be frustrating

 Today, I received a phone call from a vendor that I met at a trade show a few years ago. I had wanted to find out what they did, and through my investigation I figured out that they weren’t a match for our business. Not every vendor that I talk to ends up being someone that I want to work with moving forward.

After that show, I received several phone calls from this vendor, and they kept telling me how great their product what and I should consider working with them. I very nicely said that it wasn’t a match for our business and would they please remove me from their call list. Some vendors are great about removing you from their list, and then there are the ones that don’t seem to understand the please don’t call me again.

Today the business phone rang, and it was this vendor again. I was trying to be very nice to the person, but it started to get frustrating, especially when he said that he had looked at our site, and he wanted to know what type of consulting that we did. Of course, it says within the first line of our website that we are an IT Consulting firm. He then continued to ask me questions about what type of work we did and were we getting into working with Cloud products. I did say yes, and he immediately asked who we were working with, and I said it was none of his business.

During the call today, he told me that I should look at their company because I need to know more about them. Of course, I have continued to look at their company, and it still doesn’t meet our needs or our focus. By this time, I was getting very frustrated, and I finally said that I had asked to be removed from their call list quite a few times. The guy said, “Well, when was the last time someone called you from here.” I don’t keep track of all the vendor phone calls that we get, as it would be rather long. I said I didn’t know, and he said it was in 2021. He at least knew when they had lasted called, but what he didn’t respect was I said, “do not call me, I will call you if I need more information about the company.”

I ended the call today, letting him know that they were to remove me from the call list effective immediately. Yes, vendors can be very frustrating, and they have to respect that if someone says “Do not call me, I will call you.”