We were organizing a program on 30^th & 31^st  October in Mumbai and we received nominations from a HR manager from Bangalore for the same.  As both the customer and the vendor were from Bangalore, we asked the HR manager to send the payment directly to the Bangalore office before the commencement of the program in Mumbai. However, the manager refused to send the payment. Instead a cheque payable at Bangalore was handed over by the participants at the venue in Mumbai. The reason: the client must have thought it is better to send the payment with the participants and play safe rather than sending to the vendor directly. In case the program gets cancelled, it is easier for the company executives to carry back the cheque rather than try to retrieve the same from the vendor. This illustrates an implied lack of trust.

When you are making a cold call, particularly to a new prospect, you must have observed that the prospect is quite hesitant to grant you an appointment. Only after repeated calls, you may get an appointment and that too for about 5-10 minutes only. Why are customers reluctant to entertain unknown salespersons?

Some of the reasons from the customer’s perspective are:

a) He is a stranger. I do not know him.

b) He just wants to sell me something, which I do not need.

c) Why should I trust him to what he says?

d) Does he have credibility?

e) I have other priorities & my time may get unnecessarily wasted.