So it went - back and forth, until we settled on a time and date that worked for both of us. On the day of the phone call, I heard the phone ring, went to answer it... and it stopped. I looked at the caller ID, saw an unfamiliar number and shrugged. Someone obviously realized they had dialed the wrong number, I surmised. As I was preparing for a client call, I went about my business and in half an hour, I called the client.

The client call took longer than expected. During that time, the referral person emailed me this message, "Are we talking or not? I tried calling but I can't get through. What's a better number?"

Hmmm... I thought. Was that her on the earlier call? Why didn't she wait for me to pick up? Oh well, technology is not always my friend.

"I'll call you when I'm done with this client call," I emailed her, surreptitiously - as quietly as possible, so as not to disturb my current call. 

"Ok," she wrote back.

Fifteen minutes later, she wrote, "Are you calling me or not?"

Hmmm... I thought. But, I concluded my client call and dialed her number. She answered and what ensued was a less than pleasant conversation.

"What do you know about me?" I asked... after listening to her tell me all about her, which I didn't mind - even though I had already looked her up on the net, previously.

"Oh, nothing," she answered. "I haven't had time to look at your website."

Hmmmm........   "Well," I said, and proceeded to tell her a bit about me and my work. "How can I help you?" I concluded.

"I don't know," she said. "I am so busy, I get so many emails... I can't do the social media thing. I really need someone to just share my company news."

"Ok," I said. "Could you just connect with folks on Facebook and get to know them - so they can feel comfortable sharing?"

"Oh, I don't have time for that!" she answered. "I'm much too busy."

Hmmmm..... "What do you have time for?" I asked, beginning to think I didn't have time, either...

"Nothing," she answered. "Maybe one of my team can do that - I'll check with her. Maybe you should read this article, it was written by <blogger I know> - this can show you what we need."

"I know her," I said. "I don't need you to send me the link to her article. I already have it."

"It's no trouble," and... the article arrived in my email box within a few minutes.

"Did you get it?"

"Yes. But, I already have it. You didn't neet to send it."

"Ok. I'll check with my team on the social media stuff. Thanks for talking with me today."

End ... of... conversation.

Moral of the story - the 3 things you shouldn't do, ever are:

1. Ask to talk to someone about your company without any knowledge of who they are and how they can help you. This person was all about herself - and I know it's easy to do - but, she could have at least visited the website for one minute... instead of acting like she was doing ME a favor just taking my call.

2. Act like your time is more important than my time. I was pretty surprised at how many times this person said she was "too busy"... obviously too busy to be even a little bit polite. Not recognizing that I, too, am busy, was a big turnoff for me.

3. Send information the caller (me) already has, and tells you she already has. Sigh.

In the end, I don't know that this person is a good fit. Her work is a fit, but... she - not so much.  

And now, because I'm busy, I have to hang up and go about my business. It was nice chatting with you, readers. I hope you appreciated my time. Thank you.