Answering the phone is not that bad.
Most of what you will find on my site will be observations to what I have seen small business owners do. I have noticed a trend with startup owners or in this case “Want-To-Be” startups. The trend I am speaking of is the lack of phone communication.
Often times this is caused by lack of organization. But if you cannot pick up the phone to take calls from possible leads, HOW IN THE HECK ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE MONEY?! You have to be available. You need to have a plan. You need to be organized! I was on the phone with someone yesterday who told me that they meant to contact me but they had been so inundated with telephone calls, so they just followed up with those who were persistent. This is not the first time I have heard this. I have to tell you, I really give a lot of credit to the person who said this because all of her calls were not set to high priority. Meaning, she picked the calls out of the bunch that were profitable. The truth of the matter is that she probably had no other choice and probably shutters at the fact that she has so many calls to return. That is what you are supposed to do, focus on what really matters and get rid of the rest as fast as you can.
How to answer calls
If you have asked for something and that’s the reason your getting calls, then pick up the phone don’t hide from the calls. If the person is wasting your time simply let them know you are not interested and that they need not call back. -CLICK-
If you have asked for a service remember these people are asking to take your money. So you can afford to be the curt customer. Just try not to make a habit of being rude unless the situation calls for it. I personally do not like rude people. I have been known to even fire clients who have a continual reputation for being rude. I recommend you do the same. Life is too short for nonsense.
TIME WASTERS!
Most of you who know me, know that there are people that I probably will never talk to again because I label them as time wasters. These are people who continually use you. They ask you question after question for their gain and do not look to help you in any way. Put a TW a the end of their name in your cell phone so when it rings it says ”John Doe-TW”. Then you know never to pick it up. Hey I just probably saved a year of your life! 
RETURN CALLS
If a guy is extremely persistent and your too lazy to pick up the phone you might want to talk to him. Obviously he has a certain character element in his makeup that you need. I have about 300 people that call me with their new business ideas and some of them are great ideas but the people running them are too lazy to pick up the phone to execute. If they are too lazy to accept new business then they cannot run a company. My time is better spent elsewhere.
Personally I have a system that allows me to keep track of when people call, what they want and when I can call them back. Everything is logged and managed. If I feel something needs to be reviewed I can write notes on the clients file and retrieve them later when needed.
CONCLUSION
I really need to wrap this up. The phone is your friend. Know how to use it, don’t let people steal your time and remember that people see you organized by how you return calls. There are a number of tools to help you get organized once you have defined a system. How do you handle calls? How do you follow up? What do you hate about talking on the phone? Let me know, I want to hear from you.
Thats an interesting article – your blog is really good i keep coming back here all the time keep it up!