Page 115 - James Caan - The Real Deal

11 · Pall Mall

got returned. It was understandable: no one had ever heard of me,
the company didn’t have a brand or a track record to trade on.
Nevertheless, it was fairly soul-destroying, and after a couple of
hours of knock-backs I just had to get out of that broom cupboard.
Working in a room without a window made it much tougher, and
my need to escape was intense.
Around 11 a.m. I’d take a walk up Pall Mall, go up to the Ritz,
past Fortnum & Mason, and maybe dip down into the park. It
took about twenty-five minutes, but the fresh air got my brain
working again, and the grand buildings and buzzing atmosphere
built up my confidence, and I’d get back on the phone until lunch,
when I’d repeat the walk and take a detour to pick up a sandwich.
In the afternoon I’d take another break so that at any one time it
was never more than a couple of hours until I took a breather. It
was much easier to look at the clock and think I just had to keep
going until 3.30 p.m. rather than see the rejections stretch out until
6 p.m.
‘Hi, my name’s James Caan, I’m calling from Alexander Mann.
We’re specialists in financial recruitment and we can help you find
the right people. I was wondering if you had any vacancies at the
moment that I can help you fill . . .’ I got bored with the sound of
my own voice and whatever I was saying to them wasn’t getting
the right response. Still, I recognised that it would have been worse
if I had been sitting there saying, ‘Hi, I’m James Caan from James
Caan Associates’ and having the phone put down on me. Having
the boss doing the cold-calling would have told the world that I
was just a one-man operation, and I took some comfort from the
fact that I hadn’t named the company after myself. However, after
a week of having the phone put down on me I was finding it tough.
I tried to change my patter, and when that didn’t work after
another week I changed it again. But when that didn’t produce
results I had to concede that my pitch wasn’t working. Someone
once told me that the definition of insanity is to do more of the

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