A telemarketer is usually a person (though sometimes an automated voice called a robocaller), who calls your home or place of business in order to accomplish one or more of the following tasks:
1. Gather information for survey purposes
2. Sell you a product or service
3. Have you make an appointment with a salesperson, in person, on the telephone, or sometimes through Internet conferencing.
4. Get you to donate to a charity
5. Get you to vote a specific way, or in a specific election
6. Get you as a preexisting customer to purchase new products or services.
Telemarketers may also take calls that are generated via advertising or promotions and then attempts any of the above. The telemarketer may work at a call center, an office, or from home, and some are particularly relentless in calling during family time or the dinner hour, or calling much later in the evening than you would wish. You certainly do not have to wait to listen to the whole pitch of telemarketers, and with caller id, you also have the choice of not answering phone calls from unknown sources. Alternately, you can let your voicemail pick up calls from telemarketers, so you can avoid calls you simply don’t want to answer.
It’s important to understand the function of the telemarketer, and also a little bit about their jobs, so you can meet these people with polite refusal when you are not interested in their services. First, telemarketers in the main tend to be working on either a commission basis, or at minimum wage. Some people really enjoy the work, while others do it because they have to. Most are employing the practice of cold calling, which means they are going to get a rude response from many. There is no need to be rude with these folks; just be direct.
Well, i do understand that they are calling people, selling this & that as a part of their job in earning salary end of the month. I also do understand that its part to meet their monthly target to meet their performance standard. However, lately i have been receiving lotsssss of calls from some unknown telemarketing companies. I did wonder/ponder to myself how the hell they got my details & so on. At one time, i got so fed up with one repeated incoming call from some unknown insurance company. So, that night i kept thinking on ways to avoid such calls (please take note they can be soo irritating at one stage trying to persuade you with the products/services offered by them)...And i came up with a list of funniest ways to stop these "calls"!!!
Nithz funniest ways to stop telemarketers/junk calls :
- After the telemarketer finishes speaking, ask him/her to marry you.
- Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.
- Tell them it is dinner time, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.
- Tell them that all business goes through your agent, and hand the phone to your five year old niece/child.
- Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up...louder...louder...louder!
- Tell them to speak very slowly because you want to write every word down.
- If they start out with, "How are you today?",say "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems............"
- Cry out in surprise, "Shree, is that you? I've been hoping you'd call! How is the family?" When they insist they are not Helen, tell them to stop joking. This works especially well if the telemarketer is really MALE.
- Tell the HSBC telemarketer guy to call on your office number - and give him the Allianz Insurance call center number.
- Tell the telemarketer that you’ll be with them in a second; you have a call on the other line. Then pretend to transfer, but don’t. Pretend to speak to another person and tell them you have some dumb telemarketer on the line. The telemarketer of course hears everything.
A funny conversation that i wish i can say (fyi, i never fooled/try to make fun of telemarketers till now. Please note the word 'i wish')..
Telemarketer: “How are you today?”
Me : “Well, that’s so nice of you to ask. As a matter of fact, I’m a bit upset because my cat got the runs. And you know, just last night, I felt this twinge in my back as I was bending over to take care of a hangnail on my big toe. Have you ever had one of those? I hope not, because it’s as bad as an itchy scalp, and I’ve got that all the time. You just don’t know the pain I’m in..bla bla..
I am extremely sorry if i am trying to make a fun of you (if there's any telemarketers reading this post), but i do wish that there a better ways to reach your potential customers rather than calling all your customers number that you have in your database. Plan how you will respond to the objections you experience most frequently and be experimental with trying out different responses. Your attitude and emotional state is a vital part of telephone effectiveness. Clear your desk of everything except your prospect records and diary. If your immediate environment is uncluttered it helps free your mind so that you can focus on each call’s objectives. Visualise your prospect smiling warmly when they receive your call. This will help you access a positive state-of-mind. Your unconscious mind can’t tell the difference between a real and imagined event. This mentally rehearses you in feeling good about picking up the phone.
All that i can say is, if a telemarketer does manage to get you on the phone, never forget that you have the freedom to choose whether or not you participate in the call. Many people have a hard time saying no to someone, and these are the same people who consistently fall prey to telemarketing calls and tactics.
Cheers!!~
