As the CEO of our company, I get a lot of calls from salespeople who want to sell me products and services. It's an interesting sidelight for me, (ok, it’s a diversion from real work, but don’t tell my staff) to watch these people to make their presentations and then coach them on how to pitch more effectively. In the end, I’ll buy (or not) what they're offering.

My daughter says "Dad, that's not nice! You let them think they'll get a sale and then sometimes you don't buy from them." I ask her if it's my fault they spent some of their valuable time pitching a prospect who wasn't suffering from the problem they claim to solve? Of course, she just rolls her eyes and walks away, but it raises an interesting point.

I've had it with salespeople who won't take the time to know my problems before calling me to arrange a meeting. As I pointed out my free 5-day course on Beating Your Competition, anyone can easily know what's important to a prospect.

If you’re familiar with the general state of the economy, you have a general understanding of my macro problems, or at least the general problems facing every CEO. If you look at the industry I’m in, you understand at a high level the sort of problems I am likely to be up against. If you are an expert on your solution, you have an understanding of who might be struggling. What makes you think it’s me?

I’m sorry, I just don't have any interest in educating every salesperson on my issues, I'm too busy dealing with my issues.

With just a teensy bit of research ahead of time, any good salesperson would call me and say "Chris, I know you publish the Marketing Strategies Newsletter. Can we get together to talk about some writing software that works at the speed of thought, makes no spelling errors, and always produces top quality results?"

I'd have that salesperson in my office immediately!