Business Cards [Sandy Vagina Rant] - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Business Cards [Sandy Vagina Rant] (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 8/25/2005 10:23:59 PM EDT

[#1]

Funny this topic was posted today.

I had a call from a very large potential customer that I have called on in the past. I setup an appointment and went to see them today.

They asked for a business card when I first got there and I have a new truck and, my dumbass forgot to put any in this truck. I could not believe I was so dumb.

The good news is this company uses my company at other locations, and was familiar with us and I closed the deal.

At the same time while we give ALOT of cards away per week, I also get 1000's, and it is hard to go through all I get to find who I need.

I believe that Email addy's are the wave of the future and need to expand my email address book.

Posted: 8/25/2005 10:44:52 PM EDT

[#2]

I finally just got mine after 11 months on the job, myth around here is you get your cards just before you get canned. (it's happened a few times)
Still employed though...

Posted: 8/25/2005 11:45:45 PM EDT

[#3]

My goal is to hand out 50 business cards per week.

Posted: 8/26/2005 3:51:00 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
My goal is to hand out 50 business cards per week.

While you're at it, get a Mr. Microphone and set up at a busy
street corner. Fifteen to thirty minutes of firey preachin' peppered
with "Ha! and some "Can I gets a witness?" You'll have
those cards handed out in no time.

Soon as you get the hang of it, you'll be handing out a hundred cards
a week. Work it right, and the sky's the limit; 500, a thousand; who knows?

Posted: 8/26/2005 3:55:55 AM EDT

[#5]

I always have cards on me, even when I'm not at work. I carry a few in my wallet to be sure.

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:11:23 AM EDT

[#6]

I'm in public service engineering. I have asked for new ones for over a year now..no luck.

I rarely have them with me as I don't usually take a binder with them in it and my wallet never has any. Don't meet too many that hand them out anymore (usually just vendors) and don't bother giving me one cause it will just go in the trash (more than likely..especially if I only met you briefly).

Don't know why but I just tell people I don't have any on me...and most other engineers I know don't carry them anyway.

Essayons

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:12:50 AM EDT

[#7]

You give someone your card and they don't return in kind, it simply means don't call me I will call you, no more and no less.

You have to remember you found them in first place and there is nothing keeping you from writing their name down.

Tj

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:31:31 AM EDT

[#8]

2000+ a year I hand out..

Depends all on your Job.

Sales, get them out. IT tech guy for a school district...leave them in the box in some box somewhere....

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:42:12 AM EDT

[#9]

I almost always forget to bring them to meetings. But then again, I'm ususally the one buying stuff and the salesman I'm meeting with has a much bigger incentive than I to get his/ her's handed out.

I've also intentionally not handed them out if the meetign is more of a courtesy and I know I won't be dealing with them on any level. Why give out 6 ways to contact me if I know the answer to every call is "No Thanks".

I get enough cold calls already. Hell, I got one the other day from someone selling precision scales and measuring devices. I had to listen to a continual wave of words for almost 2 minutes before I could finally say "I'm the Operations Manager for a technology company, not a manufacturing compnay". She still wanted my email address so she could send me collateral.

How much does that server weigh, I need to know to the thousanth of an ounce......

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:52:16 AM EDT

[#10]

I just hand them out to pretty chicks.....

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:56:05 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Quoted:
What are you guys paying for 500? I'm in the printing biz and might be able to save you some money.
I have no idea, but I think it's less than $12/500.

The last place I worked only provided 125 cards at a time to people. However, their printer in Detroit required a minimum order of 500. So, if you ran out, you had to wait until 3 other people needed cards to fulfill the minimum order. Like an idiot, I asked, "well, since I need more right away, why can't I just get 250, or 500 even?" The reply, "Because we need 4 people to get 125 to make 500, and if you got 500, then that would make the total order 875, and then we'd need another person to make 1000."

The place I work for did this to me - I waited darn near 8 months for cards to hand out, and the only thing I asked for during my first review was business cards.

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:57:15 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
I just hand them out to pretty chicks.....

In the late 90's we were doing op's out of Rota, Spain. The Navy gave us a few Conex Boxes to work out of. One of them had a field desk in it. We opened her up, found 4 boxes of business cards. Each box was for a different FBI agent out of VA.

I was one everynight we went out...."Hi! Ever come to VA, look me up, here is my card..."

Posted: 8/26/2005 5:14:37 AM EDT

[#13]

In my job I meet with a fair amount of vendors and there is nearly always a business card exchange. I usually carry about four or five in my wallet, and grab more out of my desk before I think about it.

I and another engineer are about the only ones who do, though. I've never seen my boss nor any other engineers hand out cards.

I don't do PDAs any more, they're too much work to keep up with and they're always having problems at all the wrong times. I've thrown away too many PDA-type gadgets to want to spend any real money on the latest and greatest.

Posted: 8/26/2005 5:36:54 AM EDT

[#14]

Sun Micorsystems has an automated orderign system. last Time I went to one of their labs to see some things in action the tech lead for the meeting title on his card was "Technical Philosopher".

Posted: 8/26/2005 5:38:15 AM EDT

[#15]

My asshat employer took my office number off of my cards and put on the 1800 number in the main office so that a computer can record and forward the messages to my laptop, when i connect, so that my laptop cannot play it becuase the software sucks.

We were forbidden to put our numbers on the card too. Like I listened to that, hah! So much for community policing. It must have been a fad for the last 100 years. Well that administration is being replaced. I'm waiting for my new cards that are supposed to have my home office number on them.

Posted: 8/26/2005 6:17:42 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
What are you guys paying for 500?..

How would I know? I don't pay for them... y'all do.

(Gov't employee)

Posted: 8/26/2005 6:51:38 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
You give someone your card and they don't return in kind, it simply means don't call me I will call you, no more and no less.

You have to remember you found them in first place and there is nothing keeping you from writing their name down.

Tj

The problem is that some of these companies have wicked foul email addresses. For instance, on guy's email address might be "[email protected]" and the next guy is "[email protected]" and another might be "[email protected]". Furthermore, at a lot of big companies with direct dial numbers for employees, if you don't know the person's number, chances are the phone operator in Bangalore who eventually answers "0" probably doesn't know either.

Of course, all these dolts want to be copied on all the email traffic, too. Uhhh, how's that gonna work, Sparky, if you won't give it up?

At the root of this syndrome is a general lack of understanding of common business communications. People come into meetings and do not introduce themselves, nor do the senior people running the meeting. The word "agenda" is completely foreign to most folks anymore. Meetings are constantly interrupted by phone calls, both business and personal. People come to meetings completely unprepared.

And they don't bring business cards.

Posted: 8/26/2005 7:22:29 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
enh ... enh ... waaaaahhhh.

OK, so I'm willing to wager than the majority of ARFCOM Keyboard Kommandos, inasmuch as many of us appear to have professional or skilled vocations, have business cards. I do. Most people who work for any size company and interact with the public or other folks do. My daughter's knindergarten teacher does. Cops do. Assistant managers at Wal*Mart do. Dog groomers do. They're chea and effective ways of cumminicating one's business affiliation.

So why don't people give them out?

I don't have any, and I work for a large company. OTOH, they keep me in a dark place (right next to the gimp) where I can't come into contact with humans, so I guess I don't need any.

Posted: 8/26/2005 9:05:57 AM EDT

[#19]

I have always passed out my cards like candy, even when i had to pay for them myself, before they were given to me.I have theories on why some of my peers don't pass theirs out, but nothing I can post openly about....................

Posted: 8/26/2005 10:02:16 AM EDT

[#20]

At trade shows, seminars, training classes and such (places where our peers roam), we (PCB designers/HW gurus) pass them out like halloween candy.

It never hurts to know someone employed by another company in this line of work - you might just be working with them someday.

Posted: 8/26/2005 10:19:54 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:

So why don't people give them out?

<snip>
<Namby-pamby whine mode terminated.>

I don't know, I give mine out. Sometimes peopel forget to carry them. I always keep a few in a plastic sheath in my wallet.

I just got promtoed to associate professor and I can't wait to get my new ones. My mother will be so proud when she sees it.

Posted: 8/26/2005 10:26:02 AM EDT

[#22]

I never have mine on me. Chalk me up as having poor inter-personal business skills.

Posted: 8/26/2005 11:13:40 AM EDT

[#23]

I keep most of the cards I get from people. I have cards from college professors, old friends that I've lost touch with, Bulgarian taxi drivers, and the business card from my first meeting with an Army recruiter in 1992. Looking through them brings back a lot of memories.

Posted: 8/26/2005 4:30:33 PM EDT

[#24]

My company has program managers to handle contact with the customer. If they need engineering help getting their circuit board built, they call the PM and the PM calls me in to help.

If they call me directly then *I* have to document all the contacts, time spent, and engineering expenses.

Fuck business cards. Use your "single point of contact" if you need me. It never takes more than 10 mins to get me on the line.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Business Cards [Sandy Vagina Rant] (Page 2 of 2)

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