In my never-ending quest for pathetic but true sales and marketing stories for all of you, I had the chance to field a cold call from a "technology" outfit who wanted me to do business with them.
Since setting up a separate website to handle inquiries for the video e-mail technology that I've started using to increase sales (yes, it works...and works well!) I've been targeted by some telemarketers who want to do everything from increase my traffic to re-design my website. I'm starting to feel like an injured skunk lying in the middle of 
a desolate highway with bunch of vultures circling overhead (or, in this case, on my telephone).
I'll spare the grizzly sales pitch, and skip straight to the lessons learned from enduring the 20 minute call (honestly, the things I do for you people!...)
- Insisted on taking me through a webinar, which actually raised more questions about the validity of their service than it answered. Lesson for you: Make any webinar or Powerpoint presentations short and simple. Your prospect has a short attention span.
- The telemarketer, as he lead me to observe something that supported the point he was trying to make, got a little too excited. "Exactly, Dan!! Isn't that INCREDIBLE???!!!! Can't you see how this would do amazing things for your website??!!!??? Lesson for you: Don't fake excitement. Your customers are pretty good at spotting "genuine", as well as "fake". Note: I remained unexcited, which I could tell frustrated Robert, the telemarketer.
- Before handing me over to his "manager" (i.e., "closer"), Robert assured me he was going to run back and "reserve" our domain name in their system so that we could take part in whatever it was he wanted us to take part in. I knew he was lying. He wasn't going to run anywhere. And, why would anyone at a technology company need to "run" anywhere in the building to reserve something??? Just click your mouse, for God's sake! Lesson for you: Don't lie to your prospects. Remember, we're good at spotting fakes and liars.
I didn't buy. But if I ever decide to start a telemarketing company, I'm learning a lot of great things not to do.
» How Do These Salespeople Live With Themselves? from LandingTheDeal
I must have a target on my back. What a week with telemarketers! This call was pretty short, due in large part to the unbelievably audacious approach that the rep took with me when I answered the phone. In short,... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 18, 2006 11:38 PM | Permalink to Trackback