Saturday, August 21, 2010

Skill+ training = Education ?

Let's get serious this time.



I received random phone calls from marketing people lately. I guess once we put our number on the market –I mean, on the business cards that fly miles away- we really have to prepare for the consequences.

Like few days ago, credit cards marketer were lining up calling me on my mobile –yup, it's true, I'm not in a state of exaggerating right now- and I counted 6 phone calls on the same day from 6 different banks tried to hook me on their Master or Visa. Pity none of them offered me an Amex, black preferably –LOL-

I really don't mind to get those phone calls. After all, I'm a seller myself, and I do understand at some stage you need to talk to people to achieve your target. Talk in the good way, of course. And I notice, 2 out of 6 called me that day, can't really talk to me –means if you in persuade-way-kind of business, you had to have a real skill to make whoever you try to persuade got their interest on you. They use 'wrong' language, quite pushy, can't really answer my basic question about product they're selling. I feel like to put big red crossing mark in front of them. I wonder if they ever do any training before the press button number.

The other day, another phone call, a man politely asked to speak to me –Ayu Husodo, 'the' president director of Strawberry Patch…ok, hold on, I never ever put 'president director' on my business card- ; and ask me if he could sell his product to us –in consignment. I said no, of course, as we made our things our self. He kept talking and offering different products, kind of product we would never carry on our range. At some point he stop talking –he must've been trying to catch his breath after talking with no pause- I jumped to cut this conversation and hang up. Again, I wonder if he ever do any research before he contacted me, or he just try his luck by randomly calling anyone he had on his mind-I mean his collection of business cards, perhaps.

On latest occasion, another man called my mobile, he introduce me as a representative for big company in Japan who looking for supplier to fill up their ever expanding shops. I was in front of my screen so while he talked I googled his company and found not very impressive information about products they're selling. This man asked me to give him my company profile, so he could inform his headquarter about products we made and capacity we could bare. I gave him nothing. No, I did not think about scam. I asked him to email me instead, what kind of information he wanted from me, and in less than an hour, an e-mail came in. His e-mail impressed me no further. How am I supposed to trust him, let alone dealing business with him if he could not explain to me in business-mannerly way about what he need and what he purpose from it. I am nothing his friend, I am his future business partner –if I might say that- so talk and write clearly. Not in a language that you use in informal conversation –with mix up slang plus many abbreviation you would expect to see when you text message your friend wanting to go out for lunch-. Ouch, you out, mate!


So I really start to wonder if now many people got into their job without any proper training or skill. They just dive it and learning while doing it. If they succeed, it's purely luck, not skill. I observe it's kind of trend that happened lately in any different kind of working field. From –you might say- lower level job –like maid- to an office hour job. They never stay long enough on their job because they don't know what they do, and moving job is much much easier these days, so why stay?

Somehow I think this is the area that education plays most part, and it's failed. Who to blame?

What do you think?

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