General Consultant Discussion

Funny call of the day. Maybe just of the morning because there could be more. Guy called a week or two ago. Hey I have a unique situation - we have a subsidiary where we want to obtain data without letting them know. <WARNING BELL ROTATING IN HEAD> Insert ""how do you know this guy isn't ripping off the data"" Insert lengthy discussion with person that they'd need to sign a disclaimer and that we could give them a price but only after that happened. Now this person apparently goes to take a long nap. Shows back up on VM. ""Would like to buy my time"" .. [Strike one] ""Need to get this done today"" [Strike two] I have no signed waiver -- an no intention of interrupting the three upgrades that I'm working on to create one for this guy when in all likelihood based on significant experience with people who ""want to buy my time"" the vast majority disappear never to be heard from again despite my having plowed 2 to 3 hours of admin time into ""quoting"" . Total waste of time... [Strike three]

Yep.

Great move. You seem to get a lot of these types of calls... You should put together a Sage Summit session with all of the examples. You could title it ""A Total Waste of Time"". It could run concurrently with Ed Kless's session ""A Complete Waste of Time"", which is informative as well as entertaining.

I've found this is 99% effective at providing the wake up call that people who want to ""buy some of your time"" need: http://www.s-consult.com/request-information/diagnosis/