One of the most important things I had to learn when I started my company was how to quickly get off the phone with people who wanted to waste my time. It seems trivial, but in an effort to be polite and not burn any bridges, I was wasting a lot of time. Plus, these sorts of conversations often left me feeling angry.
So I developed a system. Step one is to be clear with yourself about what you're looking for. We're not looking for funding and if we do, we will mine our own network for introductions to VC. We don't do partnerships unless the partner already has a customer who is asking specifically for us and who is willing to pay for any integration work. We never work with recruiters and haven't had any problems finding the people we need.
Step two, is to develop a script.
Here's an example, "I appreciate your call, but we don't work with recruiters and are happy with our current hiring practices. Pause. Have a nice day. Pause. Bye. Pause. Click."
If I only say nice things, then that leaves me in a good mood at the end of the call. My barber just hangs up on people without saying a word. But that doesn't work for me. Neither does yelling at them.
So I developed a system. Step one is to be clear with yourself about what you're looking for. We're not looking for funding and if we do, we will mine our own network for introductions to VC. We don't do partnerships unless the partner already has a customer who is asking specifically for us and who is willing to pay for any integration work. We never work with recruiters and haven't had any problems finding the people we need.
Step two, is to develop a script.
Here's an example, "I appreciate your call, but we don't work with recruiters and are happy with our current hiring practices. Pause. Have a nice day. Pause. Bye. Pause. Click."
If I only say nice things, then that leaves me in a good mood at the end of the call. My barber just hangs up on people without saying a word. But that doesn't work for me. Neither does yelling at them.