Ok, could someone tell me why I received a call today from a telemarketer for muscatel wines (they didn’t even say the company’s name before they hung up on me, just blurted out the product they were hawking when I asked)?
First of all, I vaguely remember a No Call List that I am on. Over the years though I think aggressive ‘marketers’, otherwise known as cold-calling closers, have started to ignore this a bit more. Second, I don’t drink alcohol so there is no threat of being a customer in the past 90 days (unless my kids are hitting the sauce behind my back, hmmmm). And third, it was obviously a boiler room environment that the call came from with all the requisite ‘selling noise’ in the background. What is this, 1980? Maybe this economy has truly hit rock bottom as companies try techniques that were last effective (and barely at that) during the last major recession.
I have said it before and will say it again. The days of the cold call are dead and gone. Too much information and too little time have made the already intrusive practice now just plan ridiculous. I mean let’s face it. If you have a business problem do you sit around and wait for someone to call you out of the blue with the perfect solution? No. You do your research / due diligence and YOU control the process. That means you are getting the best shot at a product or service that will meet your needs and not something that you need be ‘closed’ on.
My reaction to this is even more visceral today because I have just started writing for the HubSpot blog. These people get it. They help companies large and small generate inbound requests for services. As a result, the phone call that is made by a rep of the company is expected and maybe even anticipated. You can’t do that when you call someone and interrupt their work day and then use every trick you can to ‘make them interested’ and ‘keep them on the line’ so you can eventually manipulate them into ‘buying’. Wake up you law of large numbers types. It’s over. Finished.
Oh and to the kid who I talked with on the phone trying to sell wine to the non-drinker. Once I have expressed NO interest in your product do you really think it is a good time to ask me if I knew of anyone else he could call and pester? Are you kidding me? What was your name again, Willy Loman?
Want to know how the call ended? After he hit me with the age old ‘referral request’ I simply said “Please stop selling.” His response? He hung up. I guess his hack sales manager taught him well not to waste too much time with someone who was not qualified to be called and would end up disliking you because of your lack of sales acumen.
Stop selling please. Create interest. Drive traffic to your site. Empower people with information then help them to ask for help with simple and strong calls to action. Your conversations will be a dialogue and not a monologue like this call today.
Happy selling?
