The other day I got an authorization request from someone I thought was with AT&T. I always like hooking up with big brands online. Damnit though, it was just someone soliciting their services… I get a lot of these. Don’t get me wrong, we have found A LOT of very good remote developers this way, which is why I keep my Skype public.
If this happens to you also, maybe you will find some of my responses useful. Especially my paste in bold below.
Authorization requested from Jeremy Schoemaker: Hi !! This is Karan from A&T Soft, we have come across your contact detail from skype directory. We work on website development, Mobile apps development and SEO.
11:08 AM
Authorization granted to KaranKaran 11/25/10 9:38 AM
Hello Jeremy
11/25/10 9:38 AM
How are you doing?
11/27/10 11:40 PM
Hi Jeremy
11/27/10 11:40 PM
How are you doing?Jeremy 10:11 AM
Hi, don’t have time for chit-chat please get to the point of contacting me.Karan 10:32 AM
Let us know if you have any projects regarding website development, mobile app development and SEO
10:33 AM
You there?Jeremy 10:45 AM
How we work with new people who solicit us is we give them a small task and then evaluate their work… and if it’s satisfactory we will hire them to do something more in-depth. If this is something you are interested in, let me know and I can have our team spec something simple out.
Karan 10:46 AM
okay as far as we get paid
10:46 AMJeremy 10:47 AM
We don’t pay for the initial trial. We would give you a very trivial task to evaluate your competency. You solicited me out of the blue. So you know who I am and what I can do for your company if you are any good. OR you have no clue who I am or what we do and you are just mass spamming people on skype. Either way, an initial trial of a simple task helps us sort out who is legit and who is not. It’s really a question of how much you believe in your work and if you think it’s good enough that we would want to work with you in the future. If you don’t believe in your own work then how can I ?Karan 10:47 AM
We know how to work and we work very well..We cannot work without getting paid
10:47 AM
sorryJeremy 10:47 AM
No worries, it took me less than 2 minutes to find out you have no confidence in the work you provide. Much better than paying you to do something and being out my time + money.
10:47 AM
Best of luck to you in the futureKaran 10:47 AM
thanks
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2424 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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If I could – starting over 
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d be interested to know what the trivial task would be. What trivial task would help you evaluate their competency?
Probably something simple… Like this company says they can build iPhone apps so maybe tell them to build me an app that uses the AzoogleAds api to give me my stats. (yes i know azoogle already has an iPhone app).
I am not a programer and have only made 2 iPhone apps dinking around but this would take me less than a half an hour to do. If that. For an iPhone dev should be extremely trivial.
For web stuff to evaluate competency we will usually have someone write something like build a facebook application that randomly chooses one of my friends and deletes them.
Again fairly trivial for anyone with any skill.
And yes rarely we will actually use any of this stuff… its just a way to sort out people.
They coulda have given you a sample of their work. If you talk for the first time to someone you should say some interesting things about you. The first impression matters.
I really don’t care about sample work… How do I know they did it? How do I know how long it actually took?
Its much easier to say “Make me this” and see exactly what they do and how long it takes them to do it.
You have a point here with the sample, but what if the company is so good and they have a lot of customers and no time for trial work. I think sometimes we hav eno option but to rely on samples.
So you have to keep this in context….
If I was seeking out a company to do work then yes, samples and references would be sufficient.
But I didn’t and I am not looking. However having another resource we can call on when we need something done is always nice.
Again this person is soliciting me, out of the blue. If they don’t have time to take 30 minutes or less to prove their competency then *I* do not have time for them. We get offers like this daily. And again to keep this in context I am not looking for someone to do work for us.
Clearly the person doesn’t know how to deal with potential customers. Spending 30 minutes on some work that could possibly bring business to the company isn’t something one should easily ignore.
if they are that good and don’t have time why are they doing cold calls/
Skype really seems to be full of these spammers trying to solicite people for work. Its funny how they hide behind their shield the moment they are called out on it. If this individual really knew who you were, I would think they would know that you have your own team and already rank well in Google. Granted, people like to outsource, but I really doubt that this person knew who you were.
99% of the people who solicite us for business have no idea what we actually do. They just want to know how we can “work together”.
But that 1% is the reason we actually try to respond to everyone. But if they don’t get to the point really fast then its time to move on.
He probably missed reading the “small task” part.
People who use Skype to promote their business or solicit for work should go straight to the point instead of making lame attempts at conversations. They should realize that not everyone has the time to chat with them.
That’s the downside of making it accessible to the public. But it’s also a great platform to find good quality service providers. You’ll just have to know when to end a conversation that’s going nowhere.
Hey Jeremy this is really interesting as I do a lot of outsourcing and have recently been thinking of having an iphone app developed. Where would you say would be the best place to find an iphone app developer?
Thanks man!
Chris
The only type of spam I get in my gmail account are these people who offer to do SEO services. I don’t think they know exactly who you are, but I agree with your methods.
He could’ve asked first what the task would be before saying they’d do the job as long as they’re paid.
I’m surprised they even got that much of your time.
How often is it that someone finds you and gets work out of you, compared to you knowing what you need and finding someone to get it done?
I was just thinking you’d never need to be solicited, since you probably either already know people that can do what you need, or know people that you trust that can recommend someone based on their own experience with them.
We are always looking for good developers. Always… Especially local ones. But sometimes remote ones can work out.
Some of the small companies I’ve worked with I discovered via Skype or social networking sites. Admittedly though, responding to some requests is taking too much of my time. That’s why my Skype’s no longer public.
There are actually less-known companies who offer excellent services. It’s sometimes much better to explore new partnerships with those who are just starting out. There may be a lot of potential there.
I have to say I really like the way you handle this type of request. I would have never thought to do what you did.
He (or she?) totally missed an opportunity there. I’d have grabbed the chance to do the trial thing if I were him.
Maybe they just don’t have the manpower or resources to take on tasks for free.
He probably would have accepted the challenge if he knew who he was talking to.
I know a few developers who’d willingly do a simple task to prove that they could do the job.
Not much of a pitch. Well, they must have tons of work to not agree on the test job.
I had some clients who learned about my business through the volunteer work I do for the community. I think it doesn’t hurt to do quality work for free. It’s a good way to leverage word-of-mouth marketing.
Goes to show that it’s easy to lose a good opportunity if you’re not willing to try something different.
I had one of those unsolicited messages but this one is through email. The difference is that this company is developing the small project I have requested and it makes a lot of difference when they do. It gives me confidence to engage with them as they produce the results.
Did they require a downpayment? The company we contracted asked for one. We agreed to pay after we checked out samples of their work.
A friend gave me an advice when I was looking for a web developer. She told me that if I find that I’m unable to communicate effectively with a candidate, it’s best to move on to the next one. Made sense to me. I wouldn’t want anyone on board who wouldn’t listen to my opinions or concerns and is in it only for the money. I don’t find any value in starting a business relationship with such types of service providers.
Good point. Developers should be flexible and willing to listen to clients’ comments or opinions. Flexibility doesn’t seem to be Karan’s strongest suit.
Well, the company must have a good reason for not accepting a non-paying job.
Epic fail.
This serves as a good reminder of the importance of first impressions and good communication. Most times, you won’t get 2 minutes to convince people to check out, much less try, your product or service.
Are they a new company? I couldn’t find much info about them on Google.
BAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my goodness… I needed a laugh this morning.
Genius. Mind if I borrow it?
So he came out of blue and shoemoney decided to get some thing free from him.
It is called risk reversal. Really no different than 30 day money back guarantee without the risk of handing over money to someone you do not know.
LOL Instead of her to go straight to the point. She was busy wasting your time.
Epic win. Great idea
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