Friday, November 09, 2007

Tele-bully

Last night I got a call from folks trying to sell me a trial subscription of the local paper - The Calgary Herald. The girl on the line was a fast talker. It was hard to get a word in edgewise and even though cutting this conversation short was as easy as hanging up, I wanted to see where this would go. I explained that I don't read the newspaper anymore. That's a pretty definitive argument against wanting a subscription. Nope - she kept reading from the script, explaining what great features were in the paper these days. I replied that I was not interested and was hanging up now, but my curiosity got the best of me and I stayed on the line to see what she would say next. Now she's saying she's going to send out the paper and am I still living on such and such Avenue... yadda yadda. That's when I hung up.

Message to phone sales people: This kind of tactic is what motivates me to NEVER buy your product. So in essence, you haven't gained a sale, you've gained a crusader against your product. Is that good business?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My husband loves to have fun with the tele-bullies! The Herald is one of his favourite. When they ask him if his address is such and such, he turns the conversation around and says "Didn't you forget to ask me something?" That usually throws them. After a moment of silence they'll say, "What did I forget?". Then he says, "You forgot to ask me if I'm interested in your offer. Don't you think it's rude to just assume that I'm interested?"

The herald also sends out the cutest little kids door-to-door with the same aggressive sales pitch. They know that it's hard to say "No" to a kid who's trying to raise money so he can play hockey etc.

Nancy