Dirty Salesman Tricks

Last week I received an email from a guy I had never met or heard of. The full body of the email was as follows:

I had a note in my calendar to contact you in August. Are you still the appropriate contact for media relations?

Note his choice of words, clearly meant to suggest to me (or to the administrative assistant that might handle email in a larger firm) that a prior conversation had taken place.

I thought I smelled a Dirty Salesman Trick, and I was right. I replied to his email, noting that none of this rang a bell, and asking whether we had talked in the past. No, he confessed, he was simply trying to arrange a product demo.

I won't be responding, because our limited interaction to date indicates this guy can't be trusted.

Open the conversation any way you like. But open honestly.