Twas the summer of ‘03, and sales numbers were lean,
The economy was slow and competition was mean.
Marketing was asked to create leads from thin air,
Salespeople were pulling out tufts of our hair.
The Internet provided company listings for free,
but who sells to buildings, not you and not me.
We sales types needed contacts or prospects to call,
or we’d find ourselves working at Wendy’s by fall.
Hoovers and One source tried to provide what was needed,
But thousands of C-Level calls went unheeded.
Doing the Admin shuffle was the industry norm,
Or guessing at emails and spamming – bad form!
When out on the web scene there arose some good chatter,
The Wisdom of Crowds in a website that mattered.
Could Jigsaw.com glean good leads from the masses,
Or was it two sales guys talking out of their asses?
The economy was slow and competition was mean.
Marketing was asked to create leads from thin air,
Salespeople were pulling out tufts of our hair.
The Internet provided company listings for free,
but who sells to buildings, not you and not me.
We sales types needed contacts or prospects to call,
or we’d find ourselves working at Wendy’s by fall.
Hoovers and One source tried to provide what was needed,
But thousands of C-Level calls went unheeded.
Doing the Admin shuffle was the industry norm,
Or guessing at emails and spamming – bad form!
When out on the web scene there arose some good chatter,
The Wisdom of Crowds in a website that mattered.
Could Jigsaw.com glean good leads from the masses,
Or was it two sales guys talking out of their asses?
I decided to check on what was probably a ruse,
in my position I really had nothing to lose.
I noticed their branding was old Scooby Do,
All puzzles and dead links in bold pansy blue.
With a skeptic’s distrust I started to search,
(Seeing my own dead on biz card evoked a slight lurch).
But what came next made me jump up and smile,
Every contact had email-and no way, direct dial!
The revenue model didn’t immediately click,
I figured at first that it must be a trick.
How could I trade the card of my brother-in-law Joe,
for that of the most elusive target C-I-O?
When a follow up call signaled time for a pitch,
I prepared all my standard excuses to ditch.
but the voice on the phone caused me to stutter and flounder,
For who had called me to chat was the CEO Founder!
He was earnest but friendly, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I heard him, in spite of myself!
His personal demo from the top of his head,
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He showed me how Jigsaw would allow me to skip,
all those “networking” events that aren’t worth the trip.
Now I fill up my pipeline with ease and with haste,
And don’t call on randoms whose time I might waste.
As he made to move on to the next happy member
I asked if there was something I could do in December.
He said “spread the word, Jigsaw fills your lead bucket,”
And then added blithely “Hey Arrington, suck it!”
