[Eril-l] [EXT] Re: Policy for saying "polite no" to overzealous cold-calling/emailing sales reps, and random LibGuide recommendations?

Fri Nov 1 08:53:16 PDT 2019

For the record, I don’t think you need a “policy” to explain this to vendors. The amount of vendor cold-calls is overwhelming compared to the bandwidth of our collection development team. We simply don’t have time to respond to every pitch, ad, email or call. I find I rarely have to explain this to vendors. Successful vendors make a succinct, information-rich pitch in writing.

Internally, we came up with guidelines to help us set good boundaries with vendors. That includes screening all calls and corresponding solely by email unless there’s an emergency. I agree with Matthew that vendors learn quickly not to phone you if you don’t pick up the phone. We also limit in-person visits to a single hour, with a strict agenda. “Check-in” visits are allowed for current vendors once per year, additional visits are at our discretion if we’re interested in talking.

As for what we show the public and vendors, we have two documents:

·         UNT Libraries’ Vendor Manifesto https://library.unt.edu/collection-management/unt-manifesto-expectations-library-vendors/

·         See attached for the flyer we give to vendors at conferences and in-person meetings. We usually include a little bit of library swag with this. Vendors seem to love having clear expectations and guidelines for contacting us!

I also like Jill’s suggestion of giving the vendors feedback about their sales techniques—I have found this to be successful also.

Laurel Sammonds Crawford, MLIS
Head of Collection Development
University of North Texas Libraries
laurel.crawford at unt.edu<mailto:laurel.crawford at unt.edu>

[http://tartan.unt.edu/sites/all/themes/greenlight/images/tartan-a.jpg]

Preferred pronouns: she, her, and hers

From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> On Behalf Of Jill Emery
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 10:50 AM
Cc: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org; Diane Westerfield <dwesterfield at coloradocollege.edu>
Subject: [EXT] Re: [Eril-l] Policy for saying "polite no" to overzealous cold-calling/emailing sales reps, and random LibGuide recommendations?

Two strategies for this, 1. Thank them for their info and tell the sales folk you will be touch with them when there is interest in their products/services 2.  be as upfront as possible that constant/consistent sales calls will not result in a purchase

Sales folk often times have been given a set goal by their parent company/organization of making X calls, having y number of in person meetings, or sending X emails each month/quarter. Luckily, this is being seen as more old school approach and phased out by many organizations/companies. Flatly saying these approaches do not work for you give the sales folks the feedback needed for them to try to change the approaches their companies engage in.

On Nov 1, 2019, at 08:40, Beth M. Johns <bmjohns at svsu.edu<mailto:bmjohns at svsu.edu>> wrote:
Most of the time, ignoring works. Otherwise, I just state "we are not interested, please do not contact me again."

Then if by phone, I just hang up.

I seem to recall that about a year ago we were having a discussion about an overzealous company that went so far as to report a librarian to his or her dean???  I don't think that happens often though.

Beth

Beth M. Johns, MLIS

E-Resources Librarian

Saginaw Valley State University

Melvin J. Zahnow Library

pronouns: she/her/hers

________________________________
From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org>> on behalf of Diane Westerfield <dwesterfield at coloradocollege.edu<mailto:dwesterfield at coloradocollege.edu>>
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 11:22 AM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org> <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>>
Subject: [Eril-l] Policy for saying "polite no" to overzealous cold-calling/emailing sales reps, and random LibGuide recommendations?

Hi all,

Has anyone come up with a written policy that they send to overzealous sales reps of companies you don’t have any products from, and to the random people trying to get you to put their never-heard-of-before company on your LibGuides? Then you can send a polite “We’re not interested” and just spam them back every time with that policy. If they manage to get you on the phone, I suppose you could read them the policy, say “No thanks” and hang up.

Or do you just ignore them? That’s what I do, but sometimes they get overly persistent.

Thanks,

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian

Colorado College, Tutt Library

diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu<mailto:diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu>

(719) 389-6661
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