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Another Cold Caller Defeated

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Rarely have I ever received a cold call that's done me any great favour, and I think many will concur. I say this as most of my calls are of a certain type, that by law of averages cannot match my desires at that precise time.
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I don't think anyone who works in Telesales would suggest that there are people out there who have the opposite experience i.e. they always get cold calls that are of interest to them.

I also put forward that 99% of cold callers are so off-target with what their selling, the chance of a sale is also slim. Forget the mass calling/numbers game stuff, it might work, but its a giant waste of phone bills and company time for the seller, imagine hitting all those uninterested parties - now thats got to be a huge demotivator for the sales guys hasnt it eg: the strong possibility of not landing your commission or sales - at least target your sales for heavens sake, but they dont!! - so no wonder the inbound calls are going to peeve you off.
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This simply demonstrates that you don't understand telesales. Surely empirical evidence demonstrates the exact opposite of your opinion? If telesales doesn't work why are there so many telesales teams? Why do most firms field telesales departments? If their expenses are more than their revenue they would quickly cease to exist ergo telesales is successful.

I'm self employed as a commission only sales rep'. I provide sales to small firms of 1-4 tradesmen and the odd national firm. I've generated 40k in sales in three weeks, predominantly going to small firms. in the last 6 months I've made £39k of sales for a one man band (which doesn't include the sales I am making for other firms too) and I make untargeted sales calls from a database (but then every firm in the country tends to need what I'm selling).
To try and force sales without matching the product to the need at that exact time, is where the problems start. Its lack of planning and research,
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Sure, that's infuriating if a rep' is trying to sell a niche product to you that you would never use (a tractor when you work in an office) but how exactly do you find out if a firm wants something you're selling without contacting them first to see if they are interested? Sure I can look on their website but if they're office based and I'm selling pens and paper the website still doesn't tell me that they'd be interested in buying from me.

plus why do telesales agents never give anything for free, I mean not once has Yahoo called and offered me free text links or Amazon given me a free dvd box-set for every 20 products I buy from them. Now thats something I'd want........ give people what they want or at least something that interests them, and nothing provokes interest more than a nice discount or freebie
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How do you know if you always turn down telesales calls? No firm gives anything away truly for free, there's always some form of catch. I bet you don't give stuff away for free either unless it leads to free advertising, added goodwill, have to buy your service to qualify etc.
 
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but I just can't fathom why you feel the need to come onto a sub forum of a business site, dedicated to helping people with Sales and Marketing, in order to make your opinion known why you don't like sales people?
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Ok I'll tell you why. There was no pressing need. I like to know what's going on in the sales and marketing forum so I have it on subscribe. If a post title catches my eye then I will have a look at it. If I feel like commenting on it I do. On this occasion the thread title was "Another Cold Caller Defeated". It caught my eye and I sympathised with the views expressed so had my say.Nothing new in that then, eh?

what disturbs me in here is that every time anyone raises this issue all of you cold callers get all upset and feel the need to try to justify what you do. Well the thing is the vast majority of the UK population don't like what you do. Live with it or consider another livelihood. If you are happy with what you are doing then just get on with it and leave us to our discussions.

The evidence of this is that nobody asked you to give it in the first place.
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The fact is that nobody asked anyone for an opinion on anything in this thread, not even you.

.
 
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bdw said:
If you are happy with what you are doing then just get on with it and leave us to our discussions.
.
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Would you prefer a one sided discussion were the only views expressed are one that you agree with?
 
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This is a sub forum for sales and marketing of a general forum dedicated to UK business. You are fully aware that this sub-forum is populated by a large number of sales and telesales professionals and to suggest otherwise would clearly be false.

Your comment made a sweeping generalisation about all telesales in a sales forum populated by telesales people when it's obvious that such a point is ludicrous.

Knowing this you still posted a comment that by implication insults all these sales professionals and when they've objected you play the wounded party as if they're the ones behaving unreasonably and you were simply voicing an innocent opinion.

Your original post brings nothing constructive to the conversation; it simply insults a profession in a thread populated by members of that profession.
 
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bdw said:
Well the thing is the vast majority of the UK population don't like what you do.
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Every industry has it's sordid nasty little end, not least Web Design /SEO. Judging by the number of people I know who've thrown money at SEO company's that failed to deliver, you (if you represent your 'industry') have no right to be taking the high road.

Thats what we don't like, the assertion that because we are telemarketers we somehow are associated with all that's bad in the industry. Perhaps I should associate your business with the numerous SEO sales emails I receive every day, nasty money grabbing spammers.
 
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Your original post brings nothing constructive to the conversation; it simply insults a profession in a thread populated by members of that profession.
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Oh really? Then why didn't you raise this issue with the OP? It wasn't me wot started it guv. :eek:

You're the one who sounds most upset..
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Not at all upset, I am really quite enjoying this. :D:D

Perhaps I should associate your business with the numerous SEO sales emails I receive every day, nasty money grabbing spammers.
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You are not paying attention. :rolleyes:

I have already said that I would welcome any discussion on this and I would actively contribute to it. There are hundreds of "SEO" companies who are just as bad as your lot. They are probably worse in fact and you won't get me trying to defend them (or justify them!) but then they don't really bother me, do they?

So just let me know when you start the discussion about unethical SEO companies and I will join in. ;)

.
 
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This simply demonstrates that you don't understand telesales.
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Er, let me guess - outbound sales via a telephone to a mass market, with the intent to build relationships by volume, that lead to sales and thus profit for a company.

I never felt it necessary to field my credentials on a forum before and wont do it, but lets just say, I could easily make you eat your words.


If telesales doesn't work why are there so many telesales teams?
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Ok, I'll tell you why - company owners dont want to do phone work themselves, as its boring, repetative, can be stressful and damn hard to make sales. Plus the fact they dont have time to do the lengthy sales thing when their time is required elsewhere - like running their own company for instance.

...........Also, people do telesales as its paid employment and everyone needs a job at some point in their lives. I doubt people do telesales out of love, more like survival and lets face it, sales jobs are in great supply.

I never said telesales didnt work, I said it's intrusive, many dont like it, although the grief depends on the amount of calls any company gets, so there are levels... I totally understand what must be a nightmare fighting off telesales reps all day long, the security reception, the gatekeepers of this world must get it all day long, its a constant battle - the sales team must make their targets and the companies pay professionals to keep them at bay!!

Just because sales is done, doesnt mean people will welcome it.
 
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I also put forward that 99% of cold callers are so off-target with what their selling, the chance of a sale is also slim. Forget the mass calling/numbers game stuff, it might work, but its a giant waste of phone bills and company time for the seller, imagine hitting all those uninterested parties - now thats got to be a huge demotivator for the sales guys hasnt it eg: the strong possibility of not landing your commission or sales - at least target your sales for heavens sake, but they dont!! - so no wonder the inbound calls are going to peeve you off.
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I never said telesales didnt work,
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I think you did :)

I never felt it necessary to field my credentials on a forum before and wont do it, but lets just say, I could easily make you eat your words.
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Easy to say!

Also, people do telesales as its paid employment and everyone needs a job at some point in their lives. I doubt people do telesales out of love, more like survival and lets face it, sales jobs are in great supply.
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I doubt many people work because they want to work. I think most of the populace are working because they have to and the reason sales jobs are in great supply is that the entire business community grinds to a halt and the economy completely tanks without them.
 
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Okay, lets put this all another way.

I am a commission only sales rep'. I put my money where my mouth is, quite literally :D If I don't sell for my clients I don't have a business.

Using me my clients don't have any expenses for generating sales. They add my cost onto their charges so they still earn whhat they would expect to earn and the end user pays my fee essentially.

My clients don't have to pay for data, telephone calls, daily rate, recruitment, holiday pay, sickness, underperformance, utilities, broadband, office expenses etc. I cover it all and then I charge a 10% fee on top of the sale.

Should one of these small firms decide that they want to employ their own sales rep' they're looking at a cost of 25-30k in their first year and that's without any certainty that the rep' will be able to do their job. The same cost paid to me would generate them 250-300k of sales, paid after they've done the work, which is significant considering most are one man bands or small firms. The point I'm making is it is more expensive for them to employ their own sales person than it is to outsource it to a third party.

So, if I could provide the same type of service to your business Eventdomain and bdw (I'm not touting for business by the way :) I'm happy with the partnerships I already have) where you have no investment and no risk to generate x amount of sales per month through telesales, you would turn it down on principle because you clearly don't agree with telesales as an industry?
 
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Easy to say!
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easy to prove as well! just visit my websites and take a look at my awards :D

I sell every day - just the telephone isnt my preferred 'tool' and I know what works best for my business, and it isnt telesales. Although, as a 'follow-up' strategy, its not too bad, but that depends on how its done, many factors involved to whether its successful or not eg: type of business/industry using it, the person making the call, targeted etc etc

I find telesales acceptance boils down to who you end up dealing with, how busy you are, are you doing something important at the time of the call, caught off guard, your in deep thought and suddenly the phone rings making you forget whatever - these are just a few of the things I control in my world, and what seems like an innocent call to the telesales guy can be a nightmare for the one being sold to... I wonder how many sales staff dont even consider their actions, but I guess its just another number to them.

Ok, maybe a tad extreme, but it is possible....
 
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I find telesales acceptance boils down to who you end up dealing with, how busy you are, are you doing something important at the time of the call, caught off guard, your in deep thought and suddenly the phone rings making you forget whatever - these are just a few of the things I control in my world, and what seems like an innocent call to the telesales guy can be a nightmare for the one being sold to...
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I agree :)

I wonder how many sales staff dont even consider their actions, but I guess its just another number to them.

Ok, maybe a tad extreme, but it is possible....
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I also concur with this statement :D I imagine Telemax does too! In any industry there are many bad examples, including telesales; it's just annoying being tarred with the same very generalised brush.

I work in telesales, I pride myself on only selling products I believe in, not working from scripts, not going for the hard sell, not harrassing people and if I can being helpful above and beyond my actual job, even to the point of advising people out of a sale if I don't think it is necessary. Being lumped together with the exact opposite behaviour by people with casual throwaway comments in forums such as these I think quite rightly deserves a response ::)
 
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In any industry there are many bad examples, including telesales; it's just annoying being tarred with the same very generalised brush.
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Your not being singlled out for being a salesperson, the industry has a bad reputation and that reputation automatically carries over - it exists already put there by others.

Yeah and if it all suddenly stopped they'd be a lot of out of work receptionists sitting at home watching Judge Judy all day.
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Thats a flippant and rediculous statement based on lack of knowledge of the inbound customer service sector (which is actually 'sales').

I was Head of Security for a merchant bank, and customer services was just part of why I was hired, and I doubt security specialists would be out of work, as there's always work in the industry, more than sales actually! There's ample salepeople to keep security gatekeepers in work for a long time..
 
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Your not being singlled out for being a salesperson, the industry has a bad reputation and that reputation automatically carries over - it exists already put there by others.
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Sure, I agree that the industry has a bad reputation but it doesn't mean that the entire industry is bad. This doesn't, however, stop people coming onto a sales forum and insulting sales staff by implication with highly generalised comments. I find the whole thing unreasonable and objectionable and for the same reason I don't berate every SEO company, customer service advisor, tradesperson etc because I've had a bad experience with representatives of that particular industry I don't expect people to do the same to me.

People complain about all manner of things and they're either constructive or negative. People are clearly entitled to their own opinion but where and how you express that opinion is what matters.

A lot of people may consider the police institutionally racist but I don't think a valid tactic to get your opinion across would be to look for a police officer in the middle of the street so that you can publicly berate them for the apparent ills of others. Neither would it be an acceptable tactic to join a police based forum in order to tell them why you don't like them.

On the other hand it's apparently fine to say in a sales forum that you don't like telesales reps because I've spoken to some and I didn't like them, you are all be the same and you need to be told!
 
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Eventdomain I checked out your site if it is your name plus .co.uk?

I see how it works but I was looking at the first page of the Direct Marketing listing and on the first page with 10 companies listed 9 of them are dead links i.e. the firms don't exist?

Do I have the wrong site?
 
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Being lumped together with the exact opposite behaviour by people with casual throwaway comments in forums such as these I think quite rightly deserves a response
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No one at any stage that I can remember accused any of the cold calling people in this thread of anything, You guys are the only ones who lumped yourselves together with the baddies by commenting. People are talking about bad experiences they have had with cold callers not with you personally (that we know of).

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but I don't think a valid tactic to get your opinion across would be to look for a police officer in the middle of the street so that you can publicly berate them
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Inaccurate analogy - Police officers take abuse like you dont know and wont know until you train as one! But you are correct in that its not the done thing to go and abuse a Copper, but I doubt many would as your likely to be arrested! so its not the same as being abusive over the phone.

You can hide behind a phone line, no face to face contact, so valid tactics dont apply to telesales people mainly as telling some sales dude to bugger off isnt a tort, and you cant be fined for it in Court.

I've no sympathy for people who put themselves in the firing line, and not be prepared to handle the abuse that by nature of the job, they are going to get :rolleyes: You cannot avoid it and you have no choice but to endure it, but I doubt the abuse is personal as you are just another sales bod, the person has to deal with and get rid of - they dont know you personally.

I'm not saying its right, I'm just saying it exists and you wont know why you just got the abuse you did, heck you could be jamming up someones enquiry line, their expecting a mega important call and they find themselves talking to some bod, unfortunately (at that time) your call isnt important, and thats life.
 
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I just sort of find it childish, in all honesty, if all I had to worry about is getting rid of a cold caller I would be laughing.
 
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I just sort of find it childish, in all honesty, if all I had to worry about is getting rid of a cold caller I would be laughing.
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Of course you do. You have a vested interest as do just about all of those who support cold calling. And it's not all I have to worry about, it's just the subject under discussion.

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Inaccurate analogy - Police officers take abuse like you dont know and wont know until you train as one! But you are correct in that its not the done thing to go and abuse a Copper, but I doubt many would as your likely to be arrested! so its not the same as being abusive over the phone.
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No I realise police get a lot of abuse off of drunk or angry people but a normal person wouldn't just decide to look for a police officer to berate them.

I've no sympathy for people who put themselves in the firing line, and not be prepared to handle the abuse that by nature of the job, they are going to get :rolleyes: You cannot avoid it and you have no choice but to endure it, but I doubt the abuse is personal as you are just another sales bod, the person has to deal with and get rid of - they dont know you personally.
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lol. By that definition as a businessman you have no cause for complaint about telesales as you have intentionally put yourself in the firing line because you're in a situation that atttracts telesales calls. You should be prepared to take the hassle without complaint and if you can't get out and do something else!

Never mind this is pointless. I'm just going to cold call 01389 758245 every day for a month and when I get a complaint say that it's the nature of the industry and if they don't like it don't be in business.
 
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Montaigne said:
Eventdomain I checked out your site if it is your name plus .co.uk?

I see how it works but I was looking at the first page of the Direct Marketing listing and on the first page with 10 companies listed 9 of them are dead links i.e. the firms don't exist?

Do I have the wrong site?
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Thats the one - the direct marketing companies have likely gone bust and were old clients anyway. I removed 70 last year, as they'd gone bust too - its the nature of the directory industry unfortunately.
 
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a normal person wouldn't just decide to look for a police officer to berate them.
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Your analogy is flawed. No one looks for cold callers to berate.

Never mind this is pointless. I'm just going to cold call XXXX XXXXXX every day for a month and when I get a complaint say that it's the nature of the industry and if they don't like it don't be in business.
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No, you are once again showing what you guys are like. You don't have the balls to publish your contact details, slag people off anonymously and now publish my phone number. Do you and your friend Katy think that is clever or acceptable?

.
 
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lol. By that definition as a businessman you have no cause for complaint about telesales as you have intentionally put yourself in the firing line because you're in a situation that atttracts telesales calls. You should be prepared to take the hassle without complaint and if you can't get out and do something else!
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I'm not so bothered about actual businesses being targeted with sales calls - thats just part of the game and business life - its telesales directed at homeowners that is wrong.



Not that I have to worry about that - my call blocker takes care of them ;)

If I didnt have my call blocker, then it would probably be different.
 
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I just had a cold caller call me with the following

CC: hi, could I speak the the person responsible for purchasing?
Me: speaking
CC: Can I have your name?
Me: No, what do you want?
CC: Okay, well I am calling because we noticed that the SSL on your site www.servwise.com was coming up for renewal and wanted to tell you about our SSL renewal offer.
Me: are you seriously calling our 0800 number costing us money to try to sell us something we actually sell ourselves. You are just one f*cking ar*ehole arn't you.
CC: umm, err, aaah
Me: hangup.

Man, that made me angry..
 
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Although I sympathise with you Sam about the CC not taking the time to evaluate you before calling and asking a crass question, the one thing I don't do is swear down the phone at them.

They might have asked the worlds dumbest question but they are still a person doing their job. I don't tolerate anyone swearing at me work wise so I don't dish it out either...
 
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