It’s Not Cool to “Drop By” Without an Appointment

If there’s one topic that riles print buyers, it’s asking them if it’s okay for printing sales reps to “drop by” to see them without an appointment. We asked that question in last week’s Print Buyers Online.com’s Print Buyer Quick Poll. Out of the 133 print buyer respondents, 71% said “No, it’s almost never okay – even with print suppliers that I often use. This really irritates me.”

Check out the full results of the survey, plus buyer commentary here: http://www.printbuyersonline.com/content.asp?id=3533 . Also, check out what printers said about this same topic in our Print Supplier Quick Poll: http://www.printbuyersonline.com/content.asp?id=3534

While most sales reps respectfully refrain from dropping by, there are still a few that will argue until they are blue in the face that even though print buyers say they don’t like it, the rep ends up getting business this way. As a former print buyer this frustrates me and reminds me of Peggy (real name!), a former print sales rep that used to call on me.

I liked Peggy and found her very attentive and knowledgeable. I gave her company a fair amount of work. However, I hated that Peggy would stop by the office at least once a week singing “Hi, I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by to see you!” I told Peggy three times that I’d be happy to see her, but that she needed to call first to make an appointment – that I couldn’t accommodate her if she just dropped by. Peggy didn’t honor that request and while I didn’t cut out her company altogether, I slowly moved work away from her company and gave it to sales reps from other companies who listened to me.

What has been your experience with this? If you’ve been in the industry for a while, have you noticed a change in the acceptance of drop bys from print buyers?