Friday, February 15, 2008

Hello, let me sell you snake oil...

Today I had a sales call from someone trying to sell me a spot at an "exclusive" executive conference. The chap did all the normal sales patter and as I tried to cut to the quick with "how much" he said I needed to understand how exclusive this was and how it was the most exclusive event in Europe.

I laughed and said "well not really the most exclusive is it?"

"Yes" he said "its the most exclusive event in Europe"

"What more exclusive than Davos?" I laughingly asked

"Oh yes much more exclusive" the sales guy said

Seriously I know that IT is important but an IT event in Europe more important than the World Economic Forum? Over selling doesn't make me want to go more.


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4 comments:

girlgeek said...

You and I know what Davos is, but I wonder, did he?

Antoine Toulmé said...

He should have turned around the question:
"If you come, it will be certainly more important than Davos !".

With that you have no clue if he knows what he is talking about, and you got flattered.

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should have cited the well-known paradox attributed to Groucho Marx: "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members."

Richard Veryard said...

Exclusive doesn't necessarily mean important or desirable. Exclusivity is defined in terms of who is NOT going to be there. Therefore if we don't go to these executive events they become EVEN MORE EXCLUSIVE.