SEO Cold Callers

[RevaxMedia]

I've had a couple of rants before about cold callers but only recently I have had a surge in SEO companies calling me of all people to sell SEO. They are literally on my website looking at the services we offer and then trying to sell me PPC.

I've had some pretty bad cringing moments when listening to their pitch the latest one was;

'We would like to get you to the top of Google and how this works is Google actually sells us the top spots of Google when people retire or take their website offline and then we sell them on to fortunate companies like you''

So it got to the stage where we were sick to death of these calls so from then on I forwarded all the withheld numbers to our sales director and wrote him a script to sell our products back to them. As most of them are offering a PPC campaign I thought they would benefit from our 'we manage your account for 30 days give you £75 credit and set it up for free' promotion along with our whitelabel seo and we have actually had some bites.

Anyone else get these calls or know of a good way to stop them? seems they are buying the data from directories like yell.

 

[StokedSEO]

Just start laughing uncontrollably down the phone at them, they soon hang up. It works for me.

 

[RevaxMedia]

Just start laughing uncontrollably down the phone at them, they soon hang up. It works for me.

I'll try that tomorrow, may invest in some phone recording software start my own comedy Youtube channel for a bit extra PR or tutorial on how not to sell SEO

 

[maxine]

haha.. We could all chip in with bad SEO cold calling recordings.

I love the ones that start "I work for google" followed with me saying "Hang on, stop there, can you confirm you are an actual employee of google?"

 

[RevaxMedia]

haha.. We could all chip in with bad SEO cold calling recordings.

I love the ones that start "I work for google" followed with me saying "Hang on, stop there, can you confirm you are an actual employee of google?"

'I work for Google' with a follow up email from @bigdaveseoservices.com.

 

[maxine]

No, it's [email protected]

 

[WJP]

No, it's [email protected]

Now come on guys, that's clearly a reputable, well established company who we, as business owners, should definitely give a lot of money to. I mean, if they're buying the top spots on Google from Google themselves, then it's a no-brainer really!

Gosh, some of you are so cynical.

 

[captaincloser]

Thank goodness....another cold callling thread.

I was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms.

 

[Mike tells it like it is]

Would anyone like my opinion ?

 

[S-Marketing]

Would anyone like my opinion ?

Will it be of the usual standard? If so, ill pass.

 

[Prestige-SEO]

Yell is one of my favourites.

Sales Guy " luke did you know hundreds of people search for SEO services in your area per week?"

Me " Ok, how did you get this data and if you can show me proof, ill sign up for 12 months and pay today"

Sales Guy "Well luke we cant actually show you that data becuase we dont have it, but it does get searched alot and this will generate you alot of great business"

thats how the convo went on for about a hour. Very Funny.

 

[MartCactus]

Haven't had one of these call for a while.

I always do a search on google for "seo services" and then ask them if they are the company at the top. Or second? Third?

At this point they generally tell me they are too busy to work on seo on their own site.

"if you're too busy, why are you calling me for more work?"

 

[TotallySport]

I string them along for an hour or so while I am running round the warehouse or doing something else, and discuss the points in fine detail, then when the 60th time they ask do you want our service i say no, the hang up disgust of having wasted so much time.

I have pretended to put them on hold and just left them, the longest they stay on for is 15mins.

Facebook pages are the new one at the moment.

 

[seobob]

Try this one,

"Did I ever tell you about my recent experience with God"

Bound to get them to hang up fast

 

[RevaxMedia]

Thank goodness....another cold callling thread.

I was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms.

I had to hold back the shakes when I was typing it.

 

[cis_paul]

I've just read this thread with interest. I used to have someone screen these callers from me, but after starting up on my own I don't have this luxury anymore.

A few months back the desperation set in.

These calls disrupt my day and when I'm basically "it" it's significantly annoying since I have to treat all calls as potential clients.

I've now set our PBX to play a message for folk who withhold numbers indicating we need the CLI to accept the call (in 3 months no clients have complained about this since they don't do it) and then when a cold caller calls in I'm only caught once and then I ban the number.

I've be quite interested if someone is interested in collaborating on maintaining a list of nuisance callers?

 

[WebTrust]

No worse than the SEOs on here who keep trying to push their service to everyone who posts looking for any kind of advice.

 

[The Secret Campaigner]

I had someone call me from Scotland yesterday out of the blue, mentioned it was snowing....Is that a cold call?

 

[The Secret Campaigner]

Yell is one of my favourites.

Sales Guy " luke did you know hundreds of people search for SEO services in your area per week?"

Me " Ok, how did you get this data and if you can show me proof, ill sign up for 12 months and pay today"

Sales Guy "Well luke we cant actually show you that data becuase we dont have it, but it does get searched alot and this will generate you alot of great business"

thats how the convo went on for about a hour. Very Funny.

What they dont tell you is 70% of people who search are trying to sell you something and not customers at all.

 

[Salt&Pepper]

just hang up on them, hate time wasters.

 

[matt.chatterley]

just hang up on them, hate time wasters.

Thats what I do now - we get quite a lot (not generally SEO; we tend to get the "hello-are-you-being-wanting-to-be-outsourcing-your-development?" type) - and after going through a period of getting angry, trying to waste their time in return, etc, I now hang up as soon as I've clocked that it's a junk call.

Better things to do. It is funny to read about other peoples experiences though - particularly people who have the patience to react in a wittier way than I do!

 

[Professional SEO Ltd.]

'We would like to get you to the top of Google and how this works is Google actually sells us the top spots of Google when people retire or take their website offline and then we sell them on to fortunate companies like you''

Sound's pretty good, can you give me those guys numbers ? I'd like to buy spots for over 150's keywords Did they propose you maybe 3rd position ? ;P

Come one how can they calling to SEO company and try to sell that story ???

 

[Professional SEO Ltd.]

Thats what I do now - we get quite a lot (not generally SEO; we tend to get the "hello-are-you-being-wanting-to-be-outsourcing-your-development?" type) - and after going through a period of getting angry, trying to waste their time in return, etc, I now hang up as soon as I've clocked that it's a junk call.

Better things to do. It is funny to read about other peoples experiences though - particularly people who have the patience to react in a wittier way than I do!

Well I getting a lot of Skype calls/invitations from foreign SEO companies. At Sunday (I have often turned on my Skype (I have Three network)) like around 5am I got message from guy which warned me that if I won't reply he will remove me from his contact list :>

BUT laugh as first thing in the morning is good for my health

 

[quikshop]

You ask "is this a sales call?". After their momentary pause the vast majority will say "yes". You then say "then I am not interested, thank you." and end the call.

I've not had a single cold call go beyond 30 seconds.

As for SEO calls, when challenged how the cold caller had found our website they answered "I found it on page 1 of Google"

 

[jimmyjimmerson]

Many moons ago I used to be a cold caller and the best one I had was I got told I was getting put through and got put through to this hold line.

It said something along the lines of:

"thank you for your call, we are very busy and will probably not even asnwer this call, in fact we have no intention what so ever"

It was in a very welcoming 1980s game show voice with lively music in the background.

Funny and a decent way to fend off nuisance callers

 

[RevaxMedia]

Many moons ago I used to be a cold caller and the best one I had was I got told I was getting put through and got put through to this hold line.

It said something along the lines of:

"thank you for your call, we are very busy and will probably not even asnwer this call, in fact we have no intention what so ever"

It was in a very welcoming 1980s game show voice with lively music in the background.

Funny and a decent way to fend off nuisance callers

HA, I like it!

 

[ITsoldUK]

Well I getting a lot of Skype calls/invitations from foreign SEO companies. At Sunday (I have often turned on my Skype (I have Three network)) like around 5am I got message from guy which warned me that if I won't reply he will remove me from his contact list :>

BUT laugh as first thing in the morning is good for my health

Are you foreign me old china? It certainly reads that way....

I love all threads like this because you can guarantee the less initiated (as above) will add their own unique SEO themed username and post drivel in the faint hope of positive exposure...

As for the SEO cold callers, as already mentioned, I say...

"just two secs, you want the head of marketing. Can I take your name, number and company name and I will put you thru...."

Oddly enough, many hang up, those that don't I drop the hand set onto the desk and go make a coffee.

 

[Working First Aid]

Personally I've enjoyed every one of his posts, and am shaking with excitement to see what nugget of gold he is eventually going to link to...



Side note, I like the idea of a humerous 'on hold' message - I may have to go for something similar!

 

[marketingquotes]

Yeh - ah well, back to the topic.

We do not get that many calls, but the spammy e-mails 'my dearest, greetings of the day...' numbering around 7 per day from India.

Do you guys get these e-mails?

 

[RevaxMedia]

oh most certainly, It's either lonely foreign 'women' or 'bob' the bank manager from Uganda trying to give me millions.....such a good life.

 

[Pocket_Version]

Reputable call centres in the UK are in the business of handling calls and cleansing data. The call handlers are trained to disposition call data for future use. It doesn't matter how many times you give a smart Alec answer or hang up they will still continue to call. Calls are usually made over a two week period until the data set has been stripped and cleansed into new data sets, ready for future targeted use. To stop getting these calls the magic sentence is "can you remove you from your data list". They have to do this as per ofcom regulations. Secondly, register your numbers with the TPS, so you don't get anymore. If you still get called then find out who is calling and report it to the TPS. UK call centres are heavily regulated by ofcom who do hand out hefty fines. If the caller is some random chancer who's taken your number from the phone book, report the nuisance calls to your service provider.

 

[bdw]

I had someone call me from Scotland yesterday out of the blue, mentioned it was snowing

Hello dear, they were lying about that too then.

.

 

[Spock]

I'm going to try this next time - tell them I'll put them through to the manager and then put the phone to the computer and have a conversation using this

http://www.soundboardarchive.com/game/111/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-3.html

There are other celebrity soundboards on that site too. I'm gonna have so much fun!

 

[Pocket_Version]

I used to work in outbounds sales, we used to love when we get calls like that. What it means in the call centre is that the call handler gets a break, because they are not allowed to hang up, you get put on silence, and the call handler sits yacking to their mates until the person on the other end of the phone gets fed up. I've handle calls like this that have lasted 20 minutes. Now here is the fun bit because the call handlers talk time has now increased the systems now thinks that he has been pitching, so it gives him better quality of calls instead of sending answer machines.
On the flip side of this, if you hang up the system will just ring you back every 2-4 hours. If the call handler gets loads of hang-ups then the system will direct loads of answer machine to them. Which means to handler doesn't have to keep saying the first 2 lines of the script over and over again. Working in a call centre is so mind numbingly boring that anything will pass for sport!

 

[jimmyjimmerson]

I used to work in outbounds sales, we used to love when we get calls like that. What it means in the call centre is that the call handler gets a break, because they are not allowed to hang up, you get put on silence, and the call handler sits yacking to their mates until the person on the other end of the phone gets fed up. I've handle calls like this that have lasted 20 minutes. Now here is the fun bit because the call handlers talk time has now increased the systems now thinks that he has been pitching, so it gives him better quality of calls instead of sending answer machines.
On the flip side of this, if you hang up the system will just ring you back every 2-4 hours. If the call handler gets loads of hang-ups then the system will direct loads of answer machine to them. Which means to handler doesn't have to keep saying the first 2 lines of the script over and over again. Working in a call centre is so mind numbingly boring that anything will pass for sport!

But then as a salesperson you will be making no money for yourself and your business and ultimately you will lose your job.

I used to work with a sales person who had a "list" of places like that to boost their call times, they got found out and lost their job.

A salesperson with that attitude is not a salesperson in my eyes

 

[Pocket_Version]

Luckily I worked in a call centre where they paid a decent wage. Let's face it the golden days of the call centre bonus are long gone, the companies know it, the employees know it, and the people who hire the call centres services know it. Anyone who has ever worked in a call centre cold calling knows how demoralizing it is. That's why I now work for myself. At least i can now reap the benefits of my stresses!

 

[stopcoldcalls]

SEO just got a whole lot harder so the poor little muppets that though meta tags were the be all and end all have no choice but to lie, steal and make people who really provides SEO services very difficult. PM me if you want a free years worth of my service that deals with sales calls to your business

 

[captaincloser]

PM me if you want a free years worth of my service that deals with sales calls to your business

Classic ! Have you tried cold calling to sell this service ?

 

[stopcoldcalls]

Classic ! Have you tried cold calling to sell this service ?

Of course thats how we are going to sell it Captain closer. That and a national advertising campaign. I have been in sales for ten years and the only thing people want over the phone is for us lot to sod off. The decent ethical salespeople have been overshadowed by phone monkeys and the days of telemarketing are over. From now on its up to the customer to choose who they do business with. If you find yourself struggling then then I will will more than happy to offer you a job

BTW on a thread about the general hatred of cold calls somebody by the name of captiancloser sticks out worse than a bacon slicer at a bar mitzvah x

 

[captaincloser]

I have been in sales for ten years and the only thing people want over the phone is for us lot to sod off. The decent ethical salespeople have been overshadowed by phone monkeys and the days of telemarketing are over. From now on its up to the customer to choose who they do business with. If you find yourself struggling then then I will will more than happy to offer you a job

I think you will find one man's phone monkey is another mans supplier so don't get too carried away. Try marketing this in the city of London where 90% of all UK phone deals are transacted and you'll get a few fleas in your ear.

Interesting the only thing you found in your ten years on the phone was everyone wanting you to *** off as you say...you sound a bit like the phone monkey you describe...not very good...hence the new venture.

'The days of telemarketing are over'...yes they probably are for you but some of us have made an extremely good living and will continue to do so until the phones are disconnected across the globe, and maintain successful business relationships.

I dont need your job offer as I have my own business on the right side of the fence and have done almost since time began in comparison to your unhappy 10 years.

Didnt understand the Jewish reference/JOKE ? as I am RC but feel sure it was tongue in cheek as was my original post.

You'll need to lighten up to get a business like this going...