Stop calling please. Stop calling to ask if my company needs insurance. Stop calling to see if my company needs office space. Stop calling to see if my company needs a business model. Stop calling to see if my company needs computer equipment, telephone services, BlackBerry’s, or anything else you might think I need.

Stop calling please.

Rove was featured in a recent daily Ottawa Citizen (found here) article and since then I’ve received dozens of calls from people trying to sell me all of the above. This is my formal plea to ask you all to update your business model and realize that EVERYONE in your business trolls the newspapers and calls the companies featured in them. This is NOT original, NOT helpful and shows, IMHO, purely passive (read: LAZY) sales.

This isn’t the first time this has happened but this has certainly resulted in the largest number of calls to date. The last time we were featured, some over zealous sales guy sent me a card with all the clippings I’ve ever been in — now that was just creepy.

One incident stuck with me. One of the last times we were featured in the Citizen (found here), a salesperson who sold me my first suit 15 years ago from one of my favorite stores (Harry Rosen) sent me a simple card congratulating us on our success. Simple, elegant and I am a lifelong Harry Rosen shopper as a result.

Who knows, use a little bit of TRUE effort and people may actually buy from you.