The end of this month will mark three years since I started my first ‘real’ job working at Musketeer Records. I have been fortunate enough to work with every aspect of the record industry but irrespective of my title; I have always been a salesman.
I have sold physical stock into stores, products to sales reps, ideas to bands, contracts to service providers, singles to radio stations, stories to the press, videos to television, performances to venues, brands to sponsors… The point is that as long as you are doing business money needs to be made, so you need to sell something. I can’t imagine an industry where this isn’t the case.
The problem with being a salesman is that people don’t like talking to you unless you have something they want to buy. I have experienced this ad nauseum in the last three years. If it weren’t for my experience with Seether I’d take the disinterest personally.
The most frustrating part of my career has been dealing with people that are just plain rude. They’re always friendly and polite when I finally corner them into a conversation, but that is on the rare occasion that they’re not ignoring me. It is incredibly offensive and fortunately I can take comfort in the fact that a lot of my peers complain about the same lack of respect.
I find myself with two results 1) They ignore you and don’t support you
2) They are so sick of your persistence that they don’t support you
Either way – not a desirable response
I just have to wonder what these people are hired to do. If it is your job to handle relationships, how does ignoring people help that relationship? I understand and sympathise with people that are busy, but at some point common decency and manners kick in. I don’t mind being told that a song, album or artist is absolute shite, as long as that is an honest response… hell any response is better than none at all.
This is my favourite example. * Emails are ignored
* I call the switchboard
* Switchboard transfers me to the person’s office
* The phone rings and rings
* I then get the option to transfer to the person’s cell phone
* The cell phone diverts me back to the person’s office
There’s no option to leave a message because your call won’t be returned anyway.
I know that this isn’t restricted to the music industry. I really fail to understand how professionals can just ignore emails and messages. I can sympathise because we get a lot of emails from artists wanting record deals. It is very appealing to just ignore them, but generally I’ll give them some kind of response, even if it is just a reply to say “leave us alone!”
I’d love to hear from anyone else that has to deal with this kind of rudeness.
Please also share your methods for dealing with this.
Ignoring the Salesman
September 10, 2008The end of this month will mark three years since I started my first ‘real’ job working at Musketeer Records. I have been fortunate enough to work with every aspect of the record industry but irrespective of my title; I have always been a salesman.
I have sold physical stock into stores, products to sales reps, ideas to bands, contracts to service providers, singles to radio stations, stories to the press, videos to television, performances to venues, brands to sponsors… The point is that as long as you are doing business money needs to be made, so you need to sell something. I can’t imagine an industry where this isn’t the case.
The problem with being a salesman is that people don’t like talking to you unless you have something they want to buy. I have experienced this ad nauseum in the last three years. If it weren’t for my experience with Seether I’d take the disinterest personally.
The most frustrating part of my career has been dealing with people that are just plain rude. They’re always friendly and polite when I finally corner them into a conversation, but that is on the rare occasion that they’re not ignoring me. It is incredibly offensive and fortunately I can take comfort in the fact that a lot of my peers complain about the same lack of respect.
I find myself with two results
1) They ignore you and don’t support you
2) They are so sick of your persistence that they don’t support you
Either way – not a desirable response
I just have to wonder what these people are hired to do. If it is your job to handle relationships, how does ignoring people help that relationship? I understand and sympathise with people that are busy, but at some point common decency and manners kick in. I don’t mind being told that a song, album or artist is absolute shite, as long as that is an honest response… hell any response is better than none at all.
This is my favourite example.
* Emails are ignored
* I call the switchboard
* Switchboard transfers me to the person’s office
* The phone rings and rings
* I then get the option to transfer to the person’s cell phone
* The cell phone diverts me back to the person’s office
There’s no option to leave a message because your call won’t be returned anyway.
I know that this isn’t restricted to the music industry. I really fail to understand how professionals can just ignore emails and messages. I can sympathise because we get a lot of emails from artists wanting record deals. It is very appealing to just ignore them, but generally I’ll give them some kind of response, even if it is just a reply to say “leave us alone!”
I’d love to hear from anyone else that has to deal with this kind of rudeness.
Please also share your methods for dealing with this.
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Life in General
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