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Worst... Cold Call... EVER...

by Scott Lambency
12 replies
"What Never... EVER To Do In Telemarketing..."

I recently got off the phone with a telemarketer who was trying to sell me a backlinking service package...

She was employed by a large corporation, and although the website had many tabs offering a variety of services, she proceeded to insist that there was only one type of package available.

Now, I'm sure most of us here can see the value of a backlinking/ SEO service... However, this particular sales associate did everything but win my confidence in the company she was representing.

Within the first minute of answering my phone, she proceeded to tell me that she had about 20 different browsers open and she was trying to find the tab with my information...

When she finally did find my info, she mispronounced my URL several times before I finally corrected her. And then she asked if my page was one of those company issued clone sites.

I informed her that it's a lead capture page I created and wrote the copy for.

"Oh that's even better!" she went on, "We've got a great service for you... 150 backlinks a month for $79.99. That's A LOT of backlinks, it's a great deal!"

So naturally, being the savvy business owner that I am, I inquired as to the quality of backlinks... Where are these backlinks coming from? .EDU sites? PR? What do ya got?

She was LOST.

The only thing she could tell me was the monthly price of the package.

Long story short.. I ended up politely reminding her that since she has chosen a job in sales, that it would be beneficial to all parties involved if she knew a little more about the product she was selling than the price.

The sad thing about this story is that I checked out the company website and actually wanted to buy one of the products offered... but couldn't bring myself to do it because she was unable to give me the information required to make an informed decision.

Not only that, but the impression she gave of the 'people behind the website' was one of disorganization and incompetitence. Not the professional, business minded marketing team I'd want to trust with my money and online presence.

I feel like I could've received a lot of value today had I spoken with someone who was handling business in a professional manner.

Anyone ever get a call like this? What are your thoughts?
#call #cold #telemarketing #worst
  • Profile picture of the author Mwind076
    That's why you don't hire mega call centers to sell your products. Big companies also employ untrained "callers" to just dial and try to sell. They are banking on the fact that the person they are calling doesn't know the product either. You were the rare bird that knew what she was talking about.

    To business owners: Do your research and hire someone you can talk to individually and teach them what your product is and let them sell it. OR hire an appointment setter to get you on the phone to sell your product with someone that is interested.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    My clients get calls like that ALL the time!.....this is why, if you're sharp and prepared, the national 'big name' competition is not hard to beat at all.

    These giants make a lot of calls, for sure, but almost never present well. They do, unfortunately muddy the waters for experienced local providers, but its still contest we can win.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Lambency
      Originally Posted by brucerby View Post

      My clients get calls like that ALL the time!.....this is why, if you're sharp and prepared, the national 'big name' competition is not hard to beat at all.
      What really baffled me was the mannerism of this particular individual...

      "Hello?"

      "Hold on, I've got over 20 browsers open and a lot of papers all over my desk... Now I can take your credit card over the phone.. I just gotta find... the right... tab."

      Yeah... I can see how a little preperation can blow these guys out of the water :p
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Hi Scott,

    Personally never had a call like that, but a customer of mine called me this week to tell me the folks from yellissshhh pages called him offering a web presence.

    He told them he owns his site and it's highly ranked, thank god. The answer from the other side was (and I quote what he told me):

    "We have arrangements with Google, Yahoo, MSN, Sapo and Clix (ie. two portuguese search engines) so we can rank above any company website. Better take this deal with us, your site can't rank as our pages."

    ??? Anyways, he declined and called me just to have a good laugh. Guess big companies are losing it. Real time.

    Bruce,

    Agree 100%. But one day will come when they'll know better then now...
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    The core "KEY" of being a champ telemarketer is knowing that you are going to run into people like the op who are more savvy and critical... and NOT CARING, and moving on saying "you arent my market".

    "You arent my market, you obviously know more than me...I have sales to make...Bye".

    She should have handed this one to a manager, but generally speaking... there are gonna be people who know you are green and give you a hard time for it. Let em go.

    She was selling a package and focused on telling you why it was valuable, whatever you said she went back to her "package". If she were my employee I'd say "Let him go, but you are doing great".

    Thats what top salespeople do. She isnt a rocket scientist, shes a telemarketer who knows a basic pitch.

    Further more... If she were a "pro telemarketer"...She wouldnt care that you didnt want what she was offering...her pitch is about her offer and her job is to talk about THAT.

    Personally I would have said "Okay, you must already be taken care of ...Bye...", then I might have whispered something else under my breath and moved on.

    She was nervous, and you bulleyed her for it. That simple.

    You say you liked her product..Right?

    you were just being a jerk. Sorry. Thats my opinion. Funny thing is...She probably is gonna make more sales this week to offline clients than "YOU" are with her approach.

    Thats a fact, She will call 200 people and close a few for every 5 clients you "THINK" about meeting with this week.

    On being Qualified.

    You dont have to be a rocket scientist to make sales out your behind...you just have to be willing to do what failures cringe at... You can argue with me... but I probably make more money than 70% of the people who would argue... ON MY OWN!

    If more offliners would focus on their package like that they would get more sales. Sure you wont be the solution for everyone... but focus on your pitch and your package.

    The best telemarketers run into this 10 times per hour and its just part of the success equation.

    Getting hung up will slow you down..focus on a package and sell that... It wont be a perfect fit for everyone, but dont try to be all things to all people.

    She probably works for a call center...and is just reading a pitch, and many are critical of that... but not many are offliners with thousands of clients like those mega rooms... So you are a BROKE purist.

    The telemarketers job description is to say their pitch and make the quota... if they do, then their boss is making more sales than most of the people online giving crummy advice that would make zig ziglar cringe.

    Fact is I will make 100k this year ALONE in online sales, and Im an OFFLINER... most people think Im not internet savvy who dont even make 20k online... Go figure?

    Because they are too good to learn "sales" which work the same on and offline.

    Ps. She was a newby sales person, and probably nervous, if it was me and you say you would have bought her product otherwise and you just didnt buy because she was nervous?

    I would have bought one just to seed into her career and help her get some confidence personally... But not everyone sees things that way. Some are looking for excuses to be critical instead of successful.
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    • Profile picture of the author Johnny Optimo
      Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

      The core "KEY" of being a champ telemarketer is knowing that you are going to run into people like the op who are more savvy and critical... and NOT CARING, and moving on saying "you arent my market".

      "You arent my market, you obviously know more than me...I have sales to make...Bye".

      She was selling a package and focused on telling you why it was valuable, whatever you said she went back to her "package". If she were my employee I'd say "Let him go, but you are doing great".

      Thats what top salespeople do. She doesnt care that you didnt want what she was offering...her pitch is about her offer and her job is to talk about THAT.

      You dont have to be a rocket scientist to make sales out your behind...you just have to be willing to do what failures cringe at... You can argue with me... but I probably make more money than 70% of the people who would argue... ON MY OWN!

      If more offliners would focus on their package like that they would get more sales. Sure you wont be the solution for everyone... but focus on your pitch and your package.

      The best telemarketers run into this 10 times per hour and its just part of the success equation.

      Getting hung up will slow you down..focus on a package and sell that... It wont be a perfect fit for everyone, but dont try to be all things to all people.

      She probably works for a call center...and is just reading a pitch, and many are critical of that... but not many are offliners with thousands of clients like those mega rooms... So you are a BROKE purist.

      The telemarketers job description is to say their pitch and make the quota... if they do, then their boss is making more sales than most of the people online giving crummy advice that would make zig ziglar cringe.

      Fact is I will make 100k this year ALONE in online sales, and Im an OFFLINER... most people think Im not internet savvy who dont even make 20k online... Go figure?

      Because they are too good to learn "sales" which work the same on and offline.
      Very interesting perspective, although I think they should try to have at least one very experienced person on hand at any time though to sell the more knowledgeable customers - already have the leads on the phone might as well do everything to convert
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      • Profile picture of the author John Durham
        Originally Posted by Johnny Optimo View Post

        Very interesting perspective, although I think they should try to have at least one very experienced person on hand at any time though to sell the more knowledgeable customers - already have the leads on the phone might as well do everything to convert
        Generally there is a manager around to help telemarketers with questions they dont understand how to answer in most call centers...

        She was nervous,and got flustered... and he went for the kill instead of giving her a sale to increase her confidence and make her want to learn more about her career... He probably discouraged her from learning more than anything else.

        People dont care how much you know until they know how much you care...

        Saying "Im gonna give you a sale because I like your product even though you dont understand it... But let me give you some advice..."

        Thats alot better seed than "I love your product but Im not giving you a sale because you messed up on your pitch and you are a newby".

        What kind of attitude is that?

        Thats just being not nice on purpose and acting out with resentment probably because of some unfulfilled childhood need.

        No wonder the universe doesnt give prosperity back to some of these people.

        Ps. Johnny I was editing the post above and adding when you quoted. sorry.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Lambency
      Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

      The core "KEY" of being a champ telemarketer is knowing that you are going to run into people like the op who are more savvy and critical... and NOT CARING, and moving on saying "you arent my market".

      "You arent my market, you obviously know more than me...I have sales to make...Bye".

      She was selling a package and focused on telling you why it was valuable, whatever you said she went back to her "package". If she were my employee I'd say "Let him go, but you are doing great".

      Thats what top salespeople do. She isnt a rocket scientist, shes a telemarketer who knows a basic pitch.

      Further more... If she were a "pro telemarketer"...She wouldnt care that you didnt want what she was offering...her pitch is about her offer and her job is to talk about THAT.

      Personally I would have said "Okay, you must already be taken care of ...Bye...", then I might have whisopered something else under my breath and moved on.

      She was nervous, and you bulleyed her for it. That simple.

      You say you liked her product..Right?

      you were just being a jerk. Sorry. Thats my opinion. Funny thing is...She probably is gonna make more sales this week to offline clients than "YOU" are with her approach.

      Thats a fact, She will call 200 people and close a few for every 5 clients you "THINK" about meeting with this week.

      On being Qualified.

      You dont have to be a rocket scientist to make sales out your behind...you just have to be willing to do what failures cringe at... You can argue with me... but I probably make more money than 70% of the people who would argue... ON MY OWN!

      If more offliners would focus on their package like that they would get more sales. Sure you wont be the solution for everyone... but focus on your pitch and your package.

      The best telemarketers run into this 10 times per hour and its just part of the success equation.

      Getting hung up will slow you down..focus on a package and sell that... It wont be a perfect fit for everyone, but dont try to be all things to all people.

      She probably works for a call center...and is just reading a pitch, and many are critical of that... but not many are offliners with thousands of clients like those mega rooms... So you are a BROKE purist.

      The telemarketers job description is to say their pitch and make the quota... if they do, then their boss is making more sales than most of the people online giving crummy advice that would make zig ziglar cringe.

      Fact is I will make 100k this year ALONE in online sales, and Im an OFFLINER... most people think Im not internet savvy who dont even make 20k online... Go figure?

      Because they are too good to learn "sales" which work the same on and offline.

      Ps. She was a newby sales person, and probably nervous, if it was me and you say you would have bought her product otherwise and you just didnt buy because she was nervous?

      I would have bought one just to seed into her career and help her get some confidence personally... But not everyone sees things that way. Some are looking for excuses to be critical instead of successful.
      John, where's this hostility coming from?

      Thank you for your reply, but I think you either missed what I was saying or I didn't explain properly...

      I'm an internet marketer. EXACTLY her target market.

      This wasn't a flustered newbie trying to make a sale, and me being a bully "going in for a kill"...

      This was an employee who had been telemarketing for a while, but just didn't care for her particular line of work. It was Friday, and her mind obviously wasn't on the job at hand.

      Believe it or not, some people don't care for their jobs and it shows.

      I've done telemarketing for years, I know what it's like calling people up and reading scripts. I'm not cold and heartless towards telemarketers. This call was between two adults discussing a possible business transaction.

      What I had mentioned in my original post is that I did want backlinks for my site, of course... But I wanted to know what kind of backlinks I would be receiving before investing in a monthly package. That's why I asked where these backlinks were coming from... This could have been an overpriced service intended for amateur business owners who don't know the value of backlinks.

      Would you buy a product if the sales person told you nothing about it but the price?

      How would I know if the deal she was offering me would have been as good of deal as I could have got in the WSO section of this forum from a fellow warrior?

      I was polite, professional, and asked her to call or email next week when she had information on what type of backlinks were being offered since her supervisor wasn't near by at the time, so that I could make an INFORMED purchase decision.

      This call was about business. Not about me spending $79 per month on a questionable backlinking service to "boost someone's self confidence". The purpose of purchasing backlinks is to "boost my website in the search engines". :p
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that you had already been to the site and wanted to purchase, and would have purchased on the site, but didnt because because she wasnt able to be professional on the phone.

    I still disagree that she isnt a new, and you could have asked to talk to a supervisor. I am defensive when I see flustered newby telemarketers being so heavily criticized, I believe everyone has to start somewhere.

    And if you already know the product is good and are considering it, then give a person a break "giving" is increasing your business...seeding into others with less experience...

    Perhaps Im idealistic, but I dont think Im mistaken that you said you could see the value of her product, and that you could have bought it from her website, or asked for a supervisor knowing that she was having trouble.

    To say "Never do this". Thats impossible because Yes, sometimes you are going to have 20 windows open and lose a customers information...

    She was, and I say this from experience, probably trying to find her rebuittal screens to help answers your questions and was frustrated...as I said...a newby.

    After having thousands of those situations come up I have experienced it from her end alot. She was no doubt a newby at least fairly... However I do believe I misread your point and my passion was unwarranted on some levels. My apologies for the rant.

    Originally Posted by Scott Lambency View Post

    "What Never... EVER To Do In Telemarketing..."

    I recently got off the phone with a telemarketer who was trying to sell me a backlinking service package...

    ...Now, I'm sure most of us here can see the value of a backlinking/ SEO service...

    ....So naturally, being the savvy business owner that I am, I inquired as to the quality of backlinks... Where are these backlinks coming from? .EDU sites? PR? What do ya got?

    She was LOST.

    The only thing she could tell me was the monthly price of the package.

    Long story short.. I ended up politely reminding her that since she has chosen a job in sales, that it would be beneficial to all parties involved if she knew a little more about the product she was selling than the price.

    The sad thing about this story is that I checked out the company website and actually wanted to buy one of the products offered... but couldn't bring myself to do it because she was unable to give me the information required to make an informed decision.

    ?
    If you could already understand that the product had value from seeing the website, and could have purchased there...then why would she need to tell you anything other than the price?

    If you didnt understand what you were buying I understand, however if you DID understand the value as suggested here, you were just turned off by her sales pitch and offended by her confusion...Then you are a "type"... That I teach people just to let go of... Again perhaps I misunderstand the excerpts from your post above.

    I any event... I misunderstood to some degree.

    Certainly telemarketers need training, but if I already know I want to buy something, I just give the newbies a break.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Lambency
      Originally Posted by John Durham View Post

      I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that you had already been to the site and wanted to purchase, and would have purchased on the site, but didnt because because she wasnt able to be professional on the phone.

      I still disagree that she isnt a new, and you could have asked to talk to a supervisor. I am defensive when I see flustered newby telemarketers being so heavily criticized, I believe everyone has to start somewhere.

      And if you already know the product is good and are considering it, then give a person a break "giving" is increasing your business...seeding into others with less experience...

      Perhaps Im idealistic, but I dont think Im mistaken that you said you could see the value of her product, and that you could have bought it from her website, or asked for a supervisor knowing that she was having trouble.

      To say "Never do this". Thats impossible because Yes, sometimes you are going to have 20 windows open and lose a customers information...

      She was, and I say this from experience, probably trying to find her rebuittal screens to help answers your questions and was frustrated...as I said...a newby.

      After having thousands of those situations come up I have experienced it from her end alot. She was no doubt a newby at least fairly... However I do believe I misread your point and my passion was unwarranted on some levels. My apologies for the rant.



      If you could already understand that the product had value from seeing the website, and could have purchased there...then why would she need to tell you anything other than the price?

      If you didnt understand what you were buying I understand, however if you DID understand the value as suggested here, you were just turned off by her sales pitch and offended by her confusion...Then you are a "type"... That I teach people just to let go of... Again perhaps I misunderstand the excerpts from your post above.

      I any event... I misunderstood to some degree.

      Certainly telemarketers need training, but if I already know I want to buy something, I just give the newbies a break.
      No problem on the rant, John.. It's what makes these forums a fun place to hang out...

      She did give me the website on the call and I was being guided through the site while talking with her... so I did see the site for the first time during that call.

      Maybe she was newbie? It's possible. I don't know how long she had worked for the company she was employeed with, so I cannot say one way or another. She did have a basic enough understanding of what she was doing though, so she wasn't giving the vibrations of a flustered newbie...

      When I asked what kind of backlinks, she did put me on hold to look for a manager... but as I said, it was the end of the week and there wasn't a manager around so we rescheduled to continue this call next week.

      When it comes to telemarketing, I've had some calls go horribly bad. I started out timid and inexperienced. I've been yelled at, cussed at, had the phone slammed down on my ear, even threatened to be reported to the FTC... It's no wonder so many people take a negative view of telemarketing, and many who do it end up hating and/or leaving their jobs very quickly. So I know what it's like to be on that side of the phone and definitely don't condone that sort of behavior.

      I only started doing exceptionally well in telemarketing after I not only gained an in depth knowledge of what I was selling, and the many ways the product could benefit an individual based on their career/ personal life... but after I tapped into a creative and emotional element that took all the "buying" pressure off the customer and replaced it with a desire to "reserve their personalized copy" of what I was selling...

      This was hard work on my part. Nobody was buying anything from me to increase my confidence. They were only eager to pull out their credit cards after I showed them a huge PERSONALIZED benefit that outweighed the cost of the package I was selling.

      If I were to buy from someone to increase their confidence, I would be buying everything from every single person who called me. Not only that, it would be counter-productive to that individual's personal growth and self development. I get what you're saying about seeding confidence... But the confidence to be gained in this game is to come from real results. Otherwise it could be short lived, or easily shattered.

      I'm not saying don't have 20 different tabs open... I'm saying don't tell your customer that you're not organized. C'monn.. have a little bit of a poker face...

      She could have said, "Let me access your information... this will take a moment."

      The words you use make a huge difference.

      And I'm still interested in that product... I usually ask questions so I know what I'm purchasing. After I get more information on this service, I may purchase this. There's no scarcity in SEO services... I can wait a few days to get more information before investing in a monthly backlink package.

      Of course I recognized that the product had value; it was just that some backlinks are more powerful than others and I wanted to make sure I would be getting quality backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jondabach
    What a nightmare call. I've worked with one of the biggest SEO companies on the net and their salesmen are fantastic but they're all very well trained on SEO. Although they don't know the quality of the links they do push things like "anchortext" and use some great online tools when selling that really lend them credibility - and their services are quite good.
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  • Profile picture of the author rsteadm2
    In a previous company, we had a lady that would call us continuously. She was a better telemarketer than the product she was selling.

    The product was a software product that was supposed to help us automate our lead generation through scraping customer accounts inside a huge internal database. The software looked like a 1980's floppy disk program.... It was horrible but, it didn't allow the data to be shared among other computers in the company of which we had about 50, but this lady... she would call every 6 months, like clock work. We turned it in to a game about how we could avoid her but eventually she would get through.

    It was insane how persistent she was, this one went on for years.... Would love to hire her now...

    I know this isn't a "funny stories from the telemarketing world" thread but I just had to share.
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