Can’t the phone just die already?
Today on my to-do list was, “make follow-up calls for SS offers.” What that means is I had to make telephone calls to people who hadn’t responded to my email invitation for a free strategy session with one of my clients. Phone calls. In person. Can you imagine?
I mean, I fucking hate the phone. Hate it. I don’t know what it is; I’m totally terrified of using it. I hate to answer it, I hate to call anyone else, I even hate listening to voicemail. Seriously, I’ve been known to leave an un-listened-to voicemail in my inbox for months. I can’t even tell you how significantly my life was changed when I got to pick and choose whom to listen to with my iPhone. Finally I could stop ignoring all of my messages just because I was particularly afraid of one message that fell in the middle of the cue. Now I can be more precise about whose voice I avoid.
I’ve only got one scheduling client, so it’s not like I have to make these calls all the time, but it happens and I despise it. Today was particularly taxing because since we finally, finally, finally got a landline (the iPhone is great for voicemail surveillance, not so much for actual phone use), our caller ID comes up as Erica’s name so when I call, people can’t tell that it’s a marketing call, so they answer.
You see, most of the people I call are life coaches and they’re all waiting for potential clients to respond to their online webpages. And because my call comes up as a woman’s name, they answer. Then it turns out that it is a marketing call and frankly, it’s uncomfortable for all parties involved.
I stumble when I try to explain who I am and if they ask a question I kind of panic and sound like an idiot - probably not the best representation of a savvy Internet marketing company. When they figure out who I am then they stumble and kind of panic because they’re scared I’m going to try to make them buy something. It totally sucks for both of us.
But, you know, if they’d just check their email, we wouldn’t have this problem.
