Cold calling ain't easy. First, you have to find the right person (the "Decision Maker") at an organization to talk to. Then, you have to briefly convince the Decision Maker (who is hardened to such Cold Calls) why she should even listen to you. And finally, you have to briefly give your sales pitch and hope that the Decision Maker is half-paying attention. Any mistake along the way runs the risk of not only losing the potential client, but tarnishing the brand and its reputation amongst the Decision Maker's peers, who generally are Decision Makers as well.

That said, it's pretty impressive to see someone strike out on all three aspects of the cold call. Shawn Miller experienced this first hand when he got a call from I---, an account executive at PCMall. With I---'s broken English, it took Shawn a little while to figure out why he was being called in the first place. I--- wanted Shawn to setup an account with PCMall to purchase hardware and software.

After fifteen minutes of politely trying to explain that he wasn't the Decision Maker and that now was a very bad time to call, Shawn had no choice but to had to hang up on I---. Several minutes later, the following email popped-up in Shawn's inbox:

 

From: I--- K-------
To: Shawn Miller
Subject: PCMall

Hi, gays, I just called you several minutes ago and I understand you are 
pretty busy and do not have time for a cold calls, especially,, being working 
with my horonable competitor.

Any way I prefer to send U my contact info, in order to ask U to include PCMall 
to your quoting opportunity. I would like to demonstrate my professional approach 
and unbeatable pricing model 
  
I--- K-------
Account Executive
Phone: 800-555-6255 ext ----
[email protected]
www.pcmall.com

Needless to say, this "professional approach" did not win Shawn over.

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