Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
The Introductory Call: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly 3-25-24
Tue, 25 Mar 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker explores the dynamics of introductory calls—both the rewarding and the frustrating.
Chapter 1: What are the benefits of a good introductory call?
this is scott becker with the becker private equity and business podcast thank you for listening today's discussion is the introductory call the good the bad and the ugly so so here's the gist on introductory calls in any business you're in any life you're in you do a lot of introductory calls and i'm going to walk through very quickly what i think of as the good the bad and the ugly so the good introductory call is somebody sets you up to talk to somebody
And there's a specific purpose for it.
This could be someone whose son or daughter is looking for a job, somebody who's trying to network, somebody who's trying, has an interest in something you do, whatever it might be, somebody seeking thoughts about healthcare, media, law, whatever it is that you do, and they have an interest in it, and there's a genuine interest, and the person's a pleasure, and just, it is what it is.
Chapter 2: What constitutes a bad introductory call?
So that's the good intro call. The bad intro call is someone that is really setting a call to sell you something, but really hasn't told you that they're trying to sell you something, and you haven't really tried to figure it out, but they've got a specific purpose in mind that they're trying to get from you, And they've not been very upfront about it.
Chapter 3: How can one handle a disingenuous introductory call?
And you get stuck on the call and you don't know how to get off the call because it just feels sort of disingenuous and so forth. And you're not really interested in buying what they're selling. And you've got to find the polite way to get off the call and move forward without feeling too pressured and move on and live your life. So that's the bad. The ugly is as follows.
Chapter 4: What are the challenges of the ugly introductory calls?
And unfortunately, I've had a couple of these meetings and calls lately where somebody says they're really interested in talking to you about what you do. And they start off saying, so excited to talk about what you do. I'm so glad we got introduced. And then they literally go on for 20 to 30 minutes talking about what they do and how they do it and so forth.
And then at some point towards the end of the call, after kicking off with, oh my God, I'm so interested to hear what you do, asks you something like, we've got two minutes left. Tell me about you. Or, oh, we've got two minutes left. What can I do for you? And when somebody ever says to me that at the end of the call, what can I do for you?
It usually comes as they've asked me 13 times for something they want. And they say just almost a supply tip. What can I do for you? The thing that I think of when they say that is you can get off the damn phone. You're driving me crazy. And I say that half jokingly, but very truthfully, quite frankly, when people do that to me, we often call them charmingly arrogant.
They start off being very charming. We'd love to have a discussion with you. Want to hear what you have to say. And then they spend 20 minutes telling you about themselves. At the last minute, they ask you, now, what do you do or what can I do for you? And the answer to me inevitably at the end of the call is, what you could do for me is get off the phone. Thank you very, very much.
And hopefully I never have to talk to you again. In any event, I say this half jokingly, but those are the good, the bad, the ugly. The good, there's a natural desire to talk to each other. There's a natural need. You're trying to help somebody and they're not a taker. The bad is they're trying to sell something to you.
and they think they're the coolest thing on earth, and they haven't really explained to you up front what they're trying to sell to you, but you're really on there because they have something that they think is the greatest thing of all God's world, and they want to sell it to you. The ugly is they take up 30 minutes of your time, and you just want to get off the phone before you shoot yourself.
Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Thank you very much for joining us.
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