In the mid-1990’s I was doing a fund raising job raising money for a museum in Chicago. This was outbound calling to previous donors to the museum to ask for more money. The project was, ahem, interesting, because the database was outdated by about 50 years. Many calls went like this:
“Can I speak to ‘John Doe’ please?”
“Nope, he’s gone”
“Will he be home this evening?”
“Nope.”
“Tomorrow maybe?”
“Naw, he died in 1959. Who’s callin’”
After a month of that I was completely off guard when I called a certain person who cut me off in mid-sentence and flew into the most ridiculous tirade I’ve ever heard. He said that he was a database marketer himself and had offered to do this project for the museum and so on and he regaled me with stories of how he is the best in the country at fundraising and how he should have gotten the contract etc. For those of you who have never worked in the field, you aren;t allowed to just hang up on people, so I just sat there for about half the night listening to this guy rant. When he finally stopped to breathe I cut in and thanked him for his time.
