An interesting post on B2B Sales Pipline:
Adam…asked a pricing question about an application component that could not be purchased alone…
…this question doesn’t pass the “Smell Test”…
Called him anyway…Cell Phone, with no company name provided…
…search Adam’s name in LinkedIn. Lo and behold – Adam works for a competitor. I called the competitors office, asked for Adam, and let him know that I would love to chat with him, since it’s always good for competitors to get to know each other. At the time of this posting, Adam has not called me back, and has likely joined the witness protection program.
This kind of amateurish nonsense passes for Competitive Intelligence far too often.
Which nonsense? The original ruse or the reply? Both seem too “cat and mouse” for me to feel good about endorsing either.
I agree this is an example of cheap and bush-league competitive intelligence. Maybe if you are lucky enough to get someone who doesn’t know better, you can get the desired details however if you get someone who is wise, chances are that they are ready to provide false but believable information.