Cold Calls, Cold Calls, and Me on the Receiving End

Got 2 robo-calls today, from 2 different people, My local Google consultant both of them.

Hung up as soon as I heard, Your Local Google... couldn't help hearing consultant.

Got a call from a guy selling websites. I liked this call. He said he was calling to find out if we were in need or wanted a website.

Told him, No.

He said, Thanks, and hung up.

I liked it because it was short and to the point. He sounded professional.
I assume he was looking for the 1 or 2 in 100 that need and want a website now. If that's what he was doing, by now he's found them, I'm sure.

Not the way I like to do things... To easy to say, No.

Next.

I got a call from a woman marketer.

Very good, except at the end. And in the middle.

She called asking to talk to the person in charge of how we look on the internet and compliance.

For a mortgage business, compliance is serious business.

So, I was interested but didn't tell her who is in charge of our web presence... Though it's me. I just didn't feel like it.

I asked her why she's calling.

She said, To tell you you're not in compliance and how. A free tip.

I asked her, what was she trying to sell us.

She said, Nothing. She's just trying to establish if we're a match. And went into how we might not be, making it sound, seamlessly, like she might be too good for us and we'd be lucky if she deigned work with us... In a polite, kind, respectful way.

But she had to speak to the person in charge of our compliance issues and internet.

I said,, Let me ask you...

And she got angry. She said, I called to give you a useful tip. If you're not interested, I'll go and report you to the... and she told me the right US Government agency that deals with mortgage lenders and false advertising, among other things.

What I liked:
She positioned herself better than other cold callers...
She had a darn useful tip (She was right. We did have something on our loan officer's facebook page that was not in compliance... It was minor but, still, it's best to remove. So I removed, and thanked her in my head.)

What I didn't like:
She threatened.
She assumed I was only a gatekeeper and was not friendly.

My point:
1. be friendly, you never know who's answering the phone: I know of a receptionist who's duty is to select marketing channels and business owners who answer the phone as if they were the receptionist;
2. have a darn useful tip... or something akin to it. Even after the threat, when I saw she was right, my first thought was to call her back... Then the rational side of me said, You don't want to work with that kind people, Mister.

And that part of me is right.

3. Be quick to say what you want... If it must be the business owner, have something to the point for the gatekeeper that would make the gatekeeper's job easier... Gatekeeper's job is to transfer you to the business owner.... Really. Gatekeepers keep away time wasters only.