# To my customers, who seem unclear on how to treat telemarketers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275 "2015-04-10T00:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/21 "2015-04-13T20:03:37Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Yes, you can. And it’s amazing how easy it can be. Be friendly and confident. Act like you do this all the time. (It helps that I do.) Be honest about who you are and why you are calling. Many of these guys like truthful moxie. You aren’t always going to get the big boss, but you’ll get his assistant. Many companies have fully automated systems so you plug in the name and get the boss’ voicemail. Again, it’s likely that only an assistant will listen, but maybe they’ll pass it along. > > Middle management is harder to talk to, often because they are more harried or don’t have the confidence of the boss so they default to disagreeable. And some have risen to the level of their incompetence, like that boss of mine I mentioned. > > ETA: And it really, REALLY helps if they have happy thoughts about your company. I don’t really have anything to say at all, but I really, really want to do this one day. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/22 "2015-04-13T23:37:13Z")
Are you not joking and live in Chicagoland? Because we have an open house Wednesday. The night jobs are to consumers, but days are business-to-business. It’s a different client, but it’s highly reputable and the product sounds like something lots of small businesses could benefit from. Anybody interested can PM me for details. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/23 "2015-04-13T23:39:48Z")
Oh, we have offices elsewhere, too. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/24 "2015-04-13T23:55:16Z")
Amway? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/25 "2015-04-14T01:43:00Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Are you not joking and live in Chicagoland? Because we have an open house Wednesday. The night jobs are to consumers, but days are business-to-business. It’s a different client, but it’s highly reputable and the product sounds like something lots of small businesses could benefit from. > > Anybody interested can PM me for details. I appreciate it, but I’m nowhere near Chicago, and I think I wasn’t clear. I want to call up corporate CEOs and rich people (and submarines too?) just for fun, not to sell any sort of product. Its a puerile sort of humor, you see. ETA: I’ve worked at a call center before, so I have some idea what its like. But I’ve never called particularly important people before. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/26 "2015-04-14T02:02:59Z")
As a former receptionist…my spiel was often something like this: "I’m sorry, Mr. Chase [the CEO] is not available right now…No, unfortunately he’s in meetings for the rest of today. Well, he’s traveling beginning tomorrow and won’t return until next week…Do you have some information you’d like to send for him to review? If you send that on, I will make sure that Mr. Chase receives it. " If the receptionist/secretary tells you this, it actually means, “Mr. Chase has told me that he doesn’t want to talk to you, _ **ever** _, but I’m not allowed to actually tell you this just in case we need your company at some point.” Mr. Chase hired me in part because I can get rid of people in a charming way while smiling and sounding sympathetic. He also found it highly amusing when he’d be standing in the office, and I’d close my eyes and tell a caller, “I don’t see him right now, he may have stepped out\*. Can I take a message?” Hey, I don’t want to outright _lie_. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/27 "2015-04-14T12:15:43Z")
I call you and your cousins several time a day. “I’d be happy to do that. What is your email?” It even counts as a sale! I don’t get any money for it, but my owners now know the lead is current and, if I’ve done my job, your boss is the person who handles these things. Remember that, for me, I’m not the salesperson. What I sell is brochures and sometimes follow-up phone calls. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/28 "2015-04-14T14:10:25Z")
I can’t imagine why a company would say anything to a salesman except “No, thanks”. If whatever you are selling is any good, it should be easy enough to find you when we are in the market. I have filled in for the administrative assistant at times, and no caller ever got thru to anyone until they answered the Magic Questions; [ul][li]“Who may I say is calling?”, and[/li][li]“What is this in reference to?”[/ul]“I need to speak to him” is not an answer.[/li] Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/29 "2015-04-14T15:38:25Z")
Sounds a lot like phishing, to me. Call it whatever you want, of course. Don’t really care 'cause I don’t have to deal with you. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/30 "2015-04-14T23:01:36Z")
It’s “fishing,” with an F. There is nothing underhanded in what I do. Now, let’s imagine **Shodan** has brought a new brand of corn flakes to the market. How well would you think it would sell if nobody knew about it, or knew to ask if he has a new product? Most people would say, “Not at all,” if they thought about it. That scenario today would leave us with Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Post Toasties, and some generic house brands. 110 years ago would have left us with only oatmeal, because Kellogg and Post marketed the shit out of their products. Like it or not, but marketing is an engine of economic growth, and I’m not excessively ashamed to be part of it. And six people this week liked the sound of my product well enough to schedule a follow-up call. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/31 "2015-04-15T00:22:25Z")
How many calls did you make, to get those six takers? I’m curious? (It’s duct cleaning, isn’t it?) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275/32 "2015-04-15T02:40:12Z")
Vinyl siding. 😉 A shitload. The past week the leads have been great, so those six _only_ took about 280 calls. :rolleyes: To put it in perspective, I’ve had entire months where I didn’t sell like that, but only a handful (five?) of our leads last year paid off with purchases. Fortunately, the stuff ain’t cheap and our program paid for itself. The lion’s share are usually just emailed info or, especially, sanitized leads, where we determine the right person to call. We call them a couple more times to try to get through, then the lead becomes the salesperson’s problem. A while back a salesoid griped, saying the three of us were “too aggressive.” She didn’t provide examples, and none of us is the slightest bit aggressive–we wouldn’t be successful selling credit cards and credit card salesmen fail miserably on this program. We concluded she’s just a deadass who didn’t like all work we were throwing her way, being in sales and all. I’m more “aggressive” because I’m ADHD and can’t stand doing crosswords or talking sports while at work, but my aggression is in the form of more calls, not higher pressure. And most of the calls are to voicemails. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-my-customers-who-seem-unclear-on-how-to-treat-telemarketers/717275.md?page=1)