Telemarketers

[Shizzle12345]

This is kinda offtopic, but since its about telemarketing, what the hell.
Iv had some other ones about pple fking with telemarketeers, but this one is the best:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=un_PjRXV5l8

[dogdrool]

[ QUOTE ]
I sold The Arizona Republic newspaper for about 6 days. Straight cold-calling.

Not much to add to this post except that it sucked, which is why I only worked there for a few days.

I sold inbound products for ~1 year and killed it, but eventually I burned out and moved on.

[/ QUOTE ]

I telemarketed, making cold outbound calls selling newspapers and vacation packages for two years, ~10 years ago, when I was in high school. I was very good at it -- I made $50k in the summer before college, for example. (And this was before the days all the poker ballas).

Here's how I'd sum it up:

1) probably 95% of my calls went nowhere. A parent wouldn't be home, they'd hang up immediately, etc.

2) I would *never* end the call until the person actually hung up the phone. No amount of "I don't want it, no thank you, bye" would end the call. They had to hang up.

3) Obtaining the financial information was the biggest challenge. People would say "okay, I'll give it a shot" but then stumble over forking over a credit card number. At least 30% of the time their CC# was for a card that was over its limit.

4) In many ways the job sucked. Most people only lasted a few days. It also tended to be a fairly low brow crowd -- I was a high school kid, and most of my workers were basically white trash people in their upper 20s.

5) That said, the only people who made it had a special knack for it. And those lucky people (like myself) raked in the cash.

6) I think things have changed now because there are new laws, such as the do not call list. I'm not sure about that though.

[HeroInBlack]

Since we have a few former telemarketers in the thread, can one of you help me with this: I had one company that called me at least 4 consecutive days, maybe more. Every time, I had just hung up the phone on them without saying anything. Finally the 5th day or so, I told the guy they had called me 4 consecutive days and to quit calling me. He said that since I hadn't told anyone I wasn't interested, they didn't know I wasn't, and that's why they kept calling.

Is that a standard practice? Just keep calling until you are told not to?

On a side note, even after arguing with this guy for a couple minutes, they company kept calling for another week or so, so maybe they were just especially stupid or unorganized.

[oddjob]

i used to telemarket in high school. most were outright sales. but free quotes on their insurance and stuff like that. there people defintily intrested in hearing what you say if it's "free" and could save you money.

our expectation wasn't very high.

[FlyWf]

James Boston- I used to call for a debt negotiation place, and pretty much all of our leads were off those forms people fill out to win free Xboxes or whatever. Somebody sold them your number, if you want to minimize telemarketing calls give places that you don't think absolutely need your number a fake one.


HeroInBlack- Eh, I'm guess the dude intentionally did not remove you to be a dick.

Most places you want to close a deal or kill a lead ASAP. "Bad" leads(e.g. you consolidate debt, lead has no debt) can sometimes be returned to the vendor for a partial refund. You absolutely do not want to waste your time.

[dogdrool]

[ QUOTE ]

My advice: Just hang up the phone. Don't listen or answer their questions, everything they say is scripted and designed by smart people to manipulate you, get your money and keep you on the phone...just hang up.

[/ QUOTE ]

With the new laws the best advice is now probably to say, "Please put me on your do not call list. I do not want you to ever call me again." Then immediately hang up.

And actually, telemarketers *prefer* that you hang up. If you want to jerk them around, just stay on the phone. You don't even have to say much. Just keep saying "hey, can you hang on one second?"

[SlowHabit]

The following conversation took place last week. I never thought there comes a day where a telemarketer hang up on me.

Telemarketer [with Indian accent]: Hello. Are you xx xx?

Me: No; that's my brother. Can I take a message?

Telemarketer: My name is blah; I'm from Wal-Mart. Congrats, you might have a chance to win 1 millions dollar!

Me: Cool. What do I have to do?

Telemarketer: Are you 21?

Me: No.

Telemarketer: Huh? You're not? Anyone 21 or over in your house?

Me: No. Why?

Telemarketer [talking gibberish]: Thank-you-very-much-sir. You-have-a-nice-day. I'll-call-you-back-later. *dial tone*

['Chair]

[ QUOTE ]
Who are the people who are actually responding to telemarketers?

[/ QUOTE ]

the same ppl who make online advertising profitable.