Be prepared!

Be prepared.  That was the motto used about 100 hundred years ago by Lord Baden Powell for the Scout movement and it still as pertinent today as it was then and so much more succinct than the 5 or 6 p’s so beloved by the motivational speakers and company trainers of today.  In case you aren’t familiar with the P’s they are; proper planning prevents p*** poor performance.

 

My wife and I run a Bed and breakfast business in the Limousin, it’s very hard work at times and will never make us a fortune but we enjoy doing it and we meet some lovely people who come to stay with us.   We have accommodated a Parisian orthopaedic surgeon who was aghast when he discovered that we had wifi.  His wife had deliberately failed to tell him as she knew that he wouldn’t have been able to resist bringing his laptop with him and checking his work e-mails over the week-end!

We had a two year old Dutch girl who chatted away to us for hours completely unconcerned that we didn’t understand a word she said.  Her parents, being Dutch of course spoke perfect English and no doubt she will soon.

 

Other notable professions that have been represented have included an American lawyer, school teachers, and university lecturers….All lovely people.

 

But I digress, so back to the annoying Brits who are definitely not lovely people.  They are the ones who phone me up and try and sell me advertising space in their magazine, the magazine I’ve never seen in Smiths and can never find on the internet or if I find anything it is a substandard website.   A recent one couldn’t even spell accommodation right!  The conversation usually goes something like this;

 

‘Hello I love your website, what a great place you have there.  I am phoning from ‘such and such magazine’ and we would love to do an editorial on your place’

 

Me, ‘An editorial wow, but I haven’t heard of you, where is it available?

 

‘In all good newsagents we have a circulation of, (insert your own ridiculous number here and make it more than most of the top monthly glossies) and a large subscription base.

 

Me ‘will it cost me anything?

 

‘No there is no charge but we would ask for a small donation towards our cost of (insert your own figure as it’s always different) and I can only make this offer now.  It won’t be available for long.’

 

It usually goes on with a bit more of a hard sell and they are obviously working from a script, and so here is my script  for dealing with these callers because as I mentioned at the beginning of this article it pays to be prepared.

 

Listen politely then say ‘sorry but I have spent or allocated my advertising budget for this year but if you will put all the details on an e-mail I will be happy to look at them and consider you for next year’.  If they persist after this I go for the put down ‘I never buy anything from an unsolicited phone call so please put the details on an e-mail for me to consider’

 

Funny thing though I have never yet received an e-mail from any of them !

 

 I run B&B Villechenoux in Haute Vienne with my wife Juley.

 
Posted by: Paul Steele on 18 June 2010