I’ve been doing a lot of business development work for the American Marketing Association lately to support the launch of AMA TV. Ok, “business development” is a fancy word for sales.

The point is that I’ve been on the phone. A lot. Calling. A lot of companies. In a weird way, it’s kind of fun.

In that time I’ve noticed a lot of bad habits. One in particular seems like a clearly missed opportunity.

At the moment, I’m calling through the AMA’s list of past advertisers and sponsors. Some of these companies no longer exist, many haven’t been contacted in a couple of years. No big deal, it just means that I often encounter a situation where I ask for a person who no longer works there.

Me – “Hi, can I speak with John Smith?”

Receptionist – “John hasn’t worked here for years” …  and silence.

Nothing illustrates "Who's there?" like a creepy eyeball picture.

There’s no follow up. No attempt to discover why somebody is calling and looking for a former employee.

I could be a past customer looking to start a new project. I could be a sales prospect who is finally looking to get started on a project.

Okay, I’m an sponsorship sales guy looking to sell stuff, but in the conversation above no one knows that yet. If I responded with, “Oh, thanks, goodbye” the receptionist would happily hang up the phone and go on with the day and have no idea whether a new customer just walked out the door.

Take the time to ask the next question.

“John actually isn’t with the firm anymore, but is there anything I can do to help you?”

It’s a simple question that will probably not yield anything useful 99 times out of 10. But it only takes an additional 2 seconds to ask it. You never know.