Telemarketing must be the world's most depressing job.
Discussion
Well, I guess we've all had them....
Cold canvass calls over the telephone, trying to sell you anything from changing your gas supplier to car insurance.
Yesterday, at my business I had another couple....business rate reduction "help" and changing over my telephone supplier....despite being signed up to the TPS scheme....
I suppose when they start the job, they are "trained" to counter all objections with a counter objection, but I never let them get halfway through the first sentence.....All calls are met with a polite but firm "No thank you, I am not interested, please don't call again"....
What a soul destroying job.............
Cold canvass calls over the telephone, trying to sell you anything from changing your gas supplier to car insurance.
Yesterday, at my business I had another couple....business rate reduction "help" and changing over my telephone supplier....despite being signed up to the TPS scheme....
I suppose when they start the job, they are "trained" to counter all objections with a counter objection, but I never let them get halfway through the first sentence.....All calls are met with a polite but firm "No thank you, I am not interested, please don't call again"....
What a soul destroying job.............
There are days when it is soul destroying, no doubt about it. But that's why one of the stengths of a salesman has to be resilience. Don't let the people who aren't interested in giving you 2 minutes of their time bother you, move on to the next one, who might. When they do, and you make a sale, you make some commission, your client saves some money and is happy - it is worth it.
Maybe if you weren't so rude to them as to cut them off mid-sentence, you might come across one that can genuinely help?
Maybe if you weren't so rude to them as to cut them off mid-sentence, you might come across one that can genuinely help?
I used to work in telesales as a stopgap job.
People tell you to f
k off and allsorts but you would be suprised at the amount of people who don't.
I used to sell disney books for god sake and each 4 hour shift I could get rid of about 30 after making 150 calls or so.
Your right about it being a st job though I hated it.
People tell you to f
k off and allsorts but you would be suprised at the amount of people who don't.I used to sell disney books for god sake and each 4 hour shift I could get rid of about 30 after making 150 calls or so.
Your right about it being a s
t job though I hated it.Edited by Groober on Thursday 10th September 11:04
Conian said:
ive done teleSALES...... very different to telemarketting, ie cold calling.
telesales is ace, people phone you up and want to buy things
OK, then, apologies, I meant telemarketing.....cold calling....obviously if someone wants to actually BUY your product, that's a different kettle of fish.telesales is ace, people phone you up and want to buy things
I did some carefully targetted cold calling at my old job. We had worked out a loophole in the business rates legislation for certain properties which meant they would get a reduction going back to 1990 (in many cases).
It was soul destroying - I was treated as a time-waster by most, while the few companies which we managed to sign up were getting cheques back for £500k plus.
Very frustrating, knowing you could genuinely make someone real cash (we'd done the sum before calling), but being told 'not interested' at each step.
It was soul destroying - I was treated as a time-waster by most, while the few companies which we managed to sign up were getting cheques back for £500k plus.
Very frustrating, knowing you could genuinely make someone real cash (we'd done the sum before calling), but being told 'not interested' at each step.
I've done a fair bit of telesales one way or another, and wouldn't say it's the most depressing job of the relatively few that I've had.
Calling people at home is the most abuse I have had, and understandably. It's a pure numbers game and the way to avoid abuse and get sales is establish in the first 10 seconds if this person is worth talking to. Abuse is nearly always a result of not listening.
Calling businesses is fine. Most people are reasonably friendly, and if the product is even half way relevant to their business then a decent proportion will listen to what you have to say, or arrange a better time to talk.
I have found most people get annoyed when salesmen start telling them what they need, or ignore their first, reasonable objection.
Eg.
Customer "Look I'm really busy now and not thinking about changing my phone plan."
TS Monkey "Ok, it'll only take a minute mate, we could save you 500 quid a week. 'ow about that? Could take the misses aat every night. Laavly"
- fk off.
Compared to:
"Ok, when would be a better time to call you back?"
To which most people will respond in some sort of positive way, be it "just tell me a little bit more now," "an hours time" or "6 months time." You have a potential sale.
The point is that you listen and respond appropriately. Of course you'll still get some people who you either call at a bad time or who just don't like being sold to in that way, and respond negatively or abruptly.
It would be pretty hard to sell anything without a cold approach at some point, and as far as balancing effectiveness with none intrusiveness in a reasonably cost effective way, the telephone is easily the best method.
Anyway, no amount of telephone abuse can compare to this for a quite literally stty job
Calling people at home is the most abuse I have had, and understandably. It's a pure numbers game and the way to avoid abuse and get sales is establish in the first 10 seconds if this person is worth talking to. Abuse is nearly always a result of not listening.
Calling businesses is fine. Most people are reasonably friendly, and if the product is even half way relevant to their business then a decent proportion will listen to what you have to say, or arrange a better time to talk.
I have found most people get annoyed when salesmen start telling them what they need, or ignore their first, reasonable objection.
Eg.
Customer "Look I'm really busy now and not thinking about changing my phone plan."
TS Monkey "Ok, it'll only take a minute mate, we could save you 500 quid a week. 'ow about that? Could take the misses aat every night. Laavly"
- f
k off.Compared to:
"Ok, when would be a better time to call you back?"
To which most people will respond in some sort of positive way, be it "just tell me a little bit more now," "an hours time" or "6 months time." You have a potential sale.
The point is that you listen and respond appropriately. Of course you'll still get some people who you either call at a bad time or who just don't like being sold to in that way, and respond negatively or abruptly.
It would be pretty hard to sell anything without a cold approach at some point, and as far as balancing effectiveness with none intrusiveness in a reasonably cost effective way, the telephone is easily the best method.
Anyway, no amount of telephone abuse can compare to this for a quite literally s
tty jobAnother point is... if a firm is calling literally thousands of prospective customers a day, and perhaps receiving a 5% convert rate, surely it must cost them a fortune in telephone charges, unless they are on a special negotiated rate.
From the few replies so far, it seems the people who actually DO the job, don't say it's too bad....providing you have a broad back and can stand a certain amount of verbal abuse.
From the few replies so far, it seems the people who actually DO the job, don't say it's too bad....providing you have a broad back and can stand a certain amount of verbal abuse.
I know its not quite the same, but in terms of my business with leaflet dropping - we get some customers telling us they never order from a leaflet that has come through the door, yet our hit rate is actually very high for the cost per leaflet.
Targetted leaflet dropping helps, but like the telesales it is surprising how many people are in the right frame of mind, when that particular leaflet comes through the door and we get a job from it.
Same as if you pick a person, who is in the right frame of mind who wants a particular product.
Of course there are some people who say they will not be marketed to, and they go looking for a product. So we use paper ads and google for those
Its tricky for a business to market to as wider audience as possible without inevitably annoying somebody. I don't mind telesales calls as long as they are polite, and accept it when I say "No thankyou, I am not interested in your product". Same as if someone has a sign on their door saying "No leaflets" - I will not drop a leaflet through their door.
Targetted leaflet dropping helps, but like the telesales it is surprising how many people are in the right frame of mind, when that particular leaflet comes through the door and we get a job from it.
Same as if you pick a person, who is in the right frame of mind who wants a particular product.
Of course there are some people who say they will not be marketed to, and they go looking for a product. So we use paper ads and google for those
Its tricky for a business to market to as wider audience as possible without inevitably annoying somebody. I don't mind telesales calls as long as they are polite, and accept it when I say "No thankyou, I am not interested in your product". Same as if someone has a sign on their door saying "No leaflets" - I will not drop a leaflet through their door.
Wacky Racer said:
Another point is... if a firm is calling literally thousands of prospective customers a day, and perhaps receiving a 5% convert rate, surely it must cost them a fortune in telephone charges, unless they are on a special negotiated rate.
From the few replies so far, it seems the people who actually DO the job, don't say it's too bad....providing you have a broad back and can stand a certain amount of verbal abuse.
Outbound call rates if you're making any significant amount are probably around 1p per minute.From the few replies so far, it seems the people who actually DO the job, don't say it's too bad....providing you have a broad back and can stand a certain amount of verbal abuse.
Outbound work is something that suits some people, but not many.
AJS- said:
TS Monkey "Ok, it'll only take a minute mate, we could save you 500 quid a week. 'ow about that? Could take the misses aat every night. Laavly"
- fk off.
The one that drive me spare, and abso-bloody-positve-lutely ensures they will never get my business, is when the twart says something like "If I gave you my product for free, would you take it? Of course you would, so now we know you want it, we just need to negotiate the price."- f
k off.No, now I find out where you live, track you down and beat you to death with an anthrax infected lead lined lifesize replica of Bagpuss.
Justayellowbadge said:
AJS- said:
TS Monkey "Ok, it'll only take a minute mate, we could save you 500 quid a week. 'ow about that? Could take the misses aat every night. Laavly"
- fk off.
The one that drive me spare, and abso-bloody-positve-lutely ensures they will never get my business, is when the twart says something like "If I gave you my product for free, would you take it? Of course you would, so now we know you want it, we just need to negotiate the price."- f
k off.No, now I find out where you live, track you down and beat you to death with an anthrax infected lead lined lifesize replica of Bagpuss.
i always ask to be removed from their list of numbers. i don't have a landline so its usually mobile phone companies.
my dad likes getting cold calls. he makes out that whatever they're selling, he's already got a better one. after a few 'yes i see.........but mine's better' they get bored.
my dad likes getting cold calls. he makes out that whatever they're selling, he's already got a better one. after a few 'yes i see.........but mine's better' they get bored.
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