Monday, October 8, 2007

Conversations with Dead People

I hate doing sponsorship work/marketing/whatever you call it. It's bad enough that the activity is brain-addlingly "passive" (for lack of a better term) and so blah, but you also have to put up with really annoying secretaries and assistants who will keep telling you to follow up gas.

Hey big time boss, does it take so much of your time to approve a proposal from someone who just asks money from you? I mean, it's not a proposal to fire the finance EOs or merge with a much bigger firm. We just want your money in exchange for your logos in our posters and if you don't want to give us a cent of your profit, then JUST TELL US you don't want to. Hey, we know our place in the world, that's why we're asking for some dough. But we hope you have even the most basic courtesy to tell us upfront when you decide against giving. Hindi yung ipapa-follow up mo ng ipapa-follow up tapos wala ka namang ginagawa. Anak ng.

And don't give me that "that's how it works" or "we're too busy" crap. As far as I know, courtesy is still being taught in our schools (unlike good communications and science). And what does it say of your competence (or lack of it) if you can't respond to matters brought up with you? You're too busy to deal? Maybe we should've actually sent a proposal to fire you. We don't need your corporate angas. Angasin nyo'ng mukha nyo.

I can take rejections, even angry ones, but please don't keep me hanging.

And when you give telephone numbers or names of people to follow up, please make sure that the phone will be picked up, or that the person is reachable. You can't imagine the amount of time I've wasted calling numbers that just keep ringing everyday for a week. Your bosses should know that you are not attending to phone calls which could've been from the Sultan of Brunei.

Or at the very least, please make sure they exist?

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