Monday, February 15, 2010

An interesting take on telemarketing.

I was just on my way out the door and phone rang.

Eli:"Hello".
Telemarketer:"Hey Eli What's up"?
Eli: "Not too much, just on my way out the door. Who is this"?
Telemarketer: "This is Sarah, and I was just wondering if you would like to purchase our food rather than paying high prices at the grocery store"?
Eli: "You know what Sarah. I took a class on Direct Marketing and researching all forms of direct marketing, and I'll tell--you're the first telemarketer who kept me on the phone for more than 10 seconds. Thank you Sarah, but I'll pass".

The telemarketer was able to obtain my attention because for the first few seconds I felt like I was speaking to somebody I knew. You know those awkward moments when somebody calls and you feel bad for not recognizing the voice of your friend. That is exactly how I felt when speaking to Sarah.

Have these people not got the point already. People HATE telemarketers, ask one person who actually enjoys being interrupted by a telemarketer, especially at dinner time (which is when they seem to call 90% of the time). It's not the 50's anymore, people have call display and they can instantly suspect a telemarketer on the phone within the first two words the person speaks. Also, because of the internet, people are looking for products and don't need to be informed on their purchases as much as they used to. So why the hell are businesses still using this approach? Does it still work? It must, I would like to believe that decision makers of big corporations aren't stupid.

If you own a business and are thinking of using telemarketing as a sales strategy, you will probably gain more leads by personalizing your message. This means using your personal database and inform customers on up coming sales promotions or sales. Also, be sure to NEVER call between 4:30 and 6:30, this is when families are having supper, and you never want to anger your current customers.

Never preach to people, inform them on how you can help them.

1 comment:

  1. What if they did nothing else but tell you their website address? It may get you to go out of curiosity. Probably not get you to buy, but your traffic to their site alone would help with their SEO rankings, which would in turn get them more buyers (if the product was desirable that is). Combined with your opening example and with a short to the point purpose, I would feel confident in saying, although it's old school it would still work.

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