Four ways to better manage IT sales calls

Dealing with a steady stream of pitches from IT vendors can begin to feel like a waste of time after awhile. However, avoiding these pitches altogether can mean losing out on important opportunities, cautions Jonathan Feldman, director of IT services at a municipality in North Carolina. The trick, Feldman advises in a post at InformationWeek, is effective vendor call management.

The first way to better manage time taken up by vendors is to set forth the guidelines in advance. How should employees respond to vendor solicitations? Should someone on your team always take a call? Employees need some general parameters to begin with.

Second, let vendors know the correct channels for contacting your organization. "My organization's website clearly states where product and service calls should go. Similarly, my voice mail also spells out a number that vendors should call if they want assistance. Congratulations for Googling my personal line, but I'm not calling you back if you don't follow directions," Feldman writes.

Third, take charge of a call if you do pick up the phone when a vendor rings. Let the salesperson know you have very limited time so the pitch should be quick and concise.

Finally, control the timing of sales pitches by keeping appointment calls to less than a half hour. "You need to explore different technologies and technology approaches, but you also need to sift through a lot of noise to decide which pitches merit action," Feldman writes. "Make the commitment this year to do so efficiently."

For more:
- see Jonathan Feldman's post at InformationWeek

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