I was in a friends restaurant yesterday, when he received a tele marketing call from one of the many salespeople, who target his industry with cold calls. The call was made during lunchtime, on a Friday afternoon – a VERY busy time for city-based restaurants; as they deal with not only a large volume of diners, but diners, who need to get back to work quickly.
You would think that people selling to the industry would have the common sense to avoid making cold calls, during these super-busy times.
Not only are they seldom going to speak with the decision maker (he or she’s too busy) but the caller actually positions themselves to the person receiving their unwanted interruption, as a nuisance or pest. That’s not a great way to start of a relationship or a sales negotiation.
So, why do these kind of poorly timed tele-marketing calls get made?
In my experience, many tele-marketing companies believe that although they will probably be seen as a pest to 99% of the people they call during that peek time, maybe 1% might speak with them. That’s a limited and short-sighted mindset! It’s a mindset that says it’s fine to be seen as a pest by 99% of your prospective marketplace. This is a VERY short-term strategy and quickly sees those use operate from it, running out of people to call; as their reputation sinks lower and lower and their phone numbers get barred.
The thing with marketing is this: Just because you CAN do something, does not mean you SHOULD do something
Whether it’s cold calling people, when they clearly don’t want to be called or adding people to your newsletter list, when they never asked to subscribe (do you get that too?), it’s a bad idea to do anything that will almost certainly anger or alienate 99% of your prospective clients. None of us need that kind of reputation.
I would be interested to know, which types of marketing “interruptions” you see as most annoying. Share your experiences, below.
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Great post Jim! It would seem the tele marketing caller has been reading the advice which says they may have better luck reaching decision makers outside of office hours! Just a shame, as you say, they didn’t apply common sense and realise lunchtime would be the WORST time to call anyone in the restaurant business….
My most annoying tele marketing ‘interruptions’ are any calls after 6pm or at weekends (especially Sundays). Thank goodness for caller display
.-= LouiseBJ´s last blog ..What would you write about? =-.
The crazy thing, Louise, is that the telemarketing company sell exclusively to restaurants – they knew it was a really bad time.
In many cases, the telemarketers are given a set number of calls a day to make by their bosses and thus make a set number of calls per hour – regardless. A very 1980′s approach (which worked just as poorly then.)
Thanks for the comment.
We often get tele-communication companies door knocking, yes door-knocking in our neighbourhood bang on dinner time. Big, blue-chip companies using tired old, poorly timed ‘street tactics’.
I guess they must get some kind of result because they keep doing it.
Best, Robin
.-= Robin Dickinson´s last blog ..How technology is changing people =-.
It’s a funny old world, Robin.
It’s amazing how many people use a particular form of marketing, because they assume that as others are doing it, it must work.
I wrote about it a while ago.
http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2010/02/16/why-copycat-marketing-can-hurt-your-business/
Thanks for the comment sir!
Good day Jim,
Just got this one and remind Me of an older post You wrote about E-mail sending..
The whole thing boiled down too.. Tracking Your target and trying to make it convenient for them.. NOT for US!
Meaning, if it’s lunch time for You.
Most definite it would be for them!
Thank You Jim Connolly for the reminder though. ‘not much of a phone guy.’
Norman Flecha
Straight Talk
.-= STRAIGHTALK´s last blog ..Your Designer Will Fire You, for these 5 things! =-.
I returned a dell computer only to have the sales person call me to get angry I did not call him.. instead I followed the instructions on dells website.
Floroqueen which was a kickass flower delivery site kept sending me reminders of how I sent so and so flowers last year.. do I want to send her more.. problem was we broke up… so they got a few blog posts of me telling them to fuck off cause it was that frustrating..to get them to stop..
sunwing.ca sold me a vacation package which was suppose to be on the beach.. It was next to a hotel on the beach.. and now they keep spaming me.. problem is they take a month to answer email.. and I know they are going to make me do a video on youtube of me running through the hotel looking for the dam beach… they have gotten some good hate blogs because the travel industry really needs to shape up..Don’t spam someone that hates you..
I could go on.. I yell at websites often.. on their fanpages, #twitter them.. blog, copy their meta data and try to match my blog to their SEO terms..
.-= Tommy Terrets´s last blog ..how do you turn an FB friend into ain in person relationship… secret is start slowly.. don’t tell the girl your life story.. insecure people give away too much too soon. You have to sell that your worth it.. which is why don’t sleep with a guy right away.. be worth more that a piece of ass..and be strong enough to say see yah to any guy.. happiness is about you.. liking you.. =-.
It’s amazing Tommy, when the vendor gets angry.
No matter what you were “supposed” to do with their website, you are the customer and as such, demand and expect great service.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Hi Jim, good call!
I’m being ‘pestered’ on twitter at the moment by someone who insists I must check out his stuff. It feels a bit like an old fashioned cold call…
.-= Su Butcher´s last blog ..Screencast – Twitter: Why Some People Give Up =-.
What amazes me Su, is that this person actually believes the way to get what HE wants, is to become a pain in the…
Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, when you think about it, he’s got it ALL wrong!
.-= Su Butcher´s last blog ..Screencast – Twitter: Why Some People Give Up =-.
Sometimes Pestering gets so bad..I told someone, from a telemarketing company this past week that coworker had died and she would no longer be able to take this particular company’s calls. My coworker thought it was a little harsh, but she thanked me for finally getting this company off her back for a magazine subscription. I would not recommend this technique, but maybe you need to come up with a company policy that after the third or fourth time, some type of canned response may be worthwhile.
.-= Brent Pohlman´s last blog ..Listening =-.
That’s a ‘little’ severe there Brent.
That said, people often feel forced into extreme measures, when people like that idiot, pursue them.
Hope he’s got the message!
Good call Jim, and Louise, and Su!
As you say, those kind of tactics belong back in the 80′s, why oh why have such “marketing” companies not learned the lesson by now?
Anyone ringing you on your mobile should always ask if it’s convenient to talk – just common courtesy isn’t it? Same applies to these landline calls too – reason they don’t is they’re afraid to be told NO!
Same misuse is becoming prolific on Twitter now too – people following you simply for the reason that they want to “pitch” at you at some stage soon! So clearly obvious when you look at their TStream to find plenty of “blurt”, maybe with a few RT’s, and absolutely no @ replies to be seen!
Even today it still seems to be a numbers game to these folks, and unfortunately, while some keep falling for it, they’ll keep doing it!
I’m not the slightest bit reluctant to use the Block or Unfriend buttons nowadays.
I’m quite a simple chap really – I just want connections I can learn from, chat to, and even “meet, like, know, trust” and do business with.
Not too much to ask is it?
Keep “em coming Jim!
.-= Howard Moorey´s last blog ..iPhone 3G + o2 Internet Tethering =-.
I agree, Howard.
There’s just too much PUSHING still out there. Just comes across as desperate and unprofessional, to most people.
Thanks for the feedback.
[...] you contact, to reach that 0.1%, who may listen to or read your message. That post was about cold calls from unprofessional tele-marketers, but the same applies to other forms of impersonal, mass produced junk marketing [...]
Last Wednesday morning I received a call from a US-based website to see if I’d like to buy some coaching from them. It was Tuesday evening for them; 1.30am for me. They got an earful, but won’t get my business.
.-= CJ Fitzsimons´s last blog ..Ask the Enneagram Coach, Part 3 =-.
Some people, CJ, have a REAL problem with the idea that we live in an international marketplace.
Even today, I get people who feel compelled to tell me “it’s night time here” when I say good morning on Twitter!
It’s like these guys have been asleep for the past 20 years.
Thanks for the feedback CJ!
Hi Jim,
By the way there were some interesting comments on a post I wrote on Cold Calling in January – http://www.justpractising.com/uncategorized/how-i-deal-with-cold-calls/
A couple of cold-calling specialists got in a bit of a spat, and having a go at making it seem OK. I’m not convinced though!
.-= Su Butcher´s last blog ..Guest Blog Post: How to charge what you are worth by Sean Sidney =-.
Hi Jim
I just chanced upon your blog and have been reading through your posts and just have to say a lot of it is actually really helpful and to the point. So Kudos!
I was overseas (In India) and got a cold call from the same insurance company 4 days in a row at 3 in the afternoon and despite getting increasingly frustrated each day, I kept my cool but on the fourth day when I politely told the lady I did not have time to listen to her pitch, she started questioning and even berating me! As if she was doing me a favour by calling me in the first place! Needless to say, I blew my top that day and did not get another call from the same company again(whew!).
.-= Roohbir Singh´s last blog ..Racism in Oz: The big hoo haa. =-.