The Biggest Secrets of Telemarketing Revealed - More About Contacts

[penpusher]

Though I did go into some detail about what "Contacts" are as far as telemarketing companies are concerned, I think it's an important enough topic to go a bit more in depth about, and that it actually deserves its own entry in our listing of all things related to the subject.

As I stated, a "Contact" is:

1. The person listed as the patron (the person the telemarketer has been tasked to call).
2. The patron who listens to the pitch.
3. The patron who either says yes, and agrees to do a donation/purchase, or says no, and concludes the call.

It's important that the contact meets these requirements in order for the telemarketing company to claim it when they ask for the client to pay.



And that's also why telemarketing companies continually call people back over a period of days and weeks when other people answer or when the patron simply hangs up. If they don't have enough contacts to cover their expenses and costs, they will call people over and over, trying to get them to say yes or no so they can count that patron as a contact and move on to someone else.

It isn't that a company calling you is trying to harass you in any way, but they are looking to get either a yes or a no from the person listed. But that's not how it appears to the patron being called!

Most people believe that hanging up on a telemarketer is tantamount to a "no." It really isn't. A hang up may have been accidental (true story - in the very first sale I ever made as a telefundraiser, the patron was on the phone, holding his toddler daughter, about to give me his credit card information, and she pressed the receiver to end the call!) or could have been a tech issue (a patron on a cell phone walking into a dead zone), or some other unintentional reason. So hang ups are NEVER "Nos."

And depending on how many contacts were received (how many thousands of "legitimate Yes or Nos") we may have to go back and get more. That's what this is really all about. The telemarketing company has to get paid for what it does, and this is how it happens.

Now, it's entirely possible that we might have gotten enough yes or no responses from patrons that we won't have to call you back if you just hung up or said "Not right now" to a caller. In that case, you're off the hook. But in cases where there hasn't been proper yes or no responses, we have to go back and call everyone again. And that's why this is an issue.

And the problem within that is when you do hang up and you don't get a callback, you think you have sent a message, and that hanging up will work, every time. But as you can see, that isn't what happens from the calling end.

So, if you are a patron, you can help the process along. And if the telemarketer is good, this really shouldn't take more than two or three minutes, tops.

1. Even if you know you aren't interested, at least let the telemarketer do the opening pitch. If you don't get through that, it might be considered by the company managers that you didn't hear what was being offered, which would mean a possible callback, later.

2. Clearly state that you aren't interested in the offer. Do NOT use any qualifying phrases like "right now," or "at the moment," because that means you may be interested in a week or a month, and you will get another call.

3. If you don't want to hear from this organization again, state that you want to be placed on the "Do Not Call" list.

As it is, you should not hear from the group again for at least three months, or possibly as long as a year, depending on what they do (for example, ABT sells tickets for their spring season in January and February and don't call again for the bulk of the year, while the Democratic National Committee has multiple campaigns per year, calling months at a time). So you don't HAVE to say "Do Not Call" to the caller once the no has been stated. You won't be called again for a minimum of 13 weeks, and likely longer.

Contacts are crucial to the telemarketer, and there is no substitute for a Yes or a No.

Comments

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

thanks for this. Useful to know, actually.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading and I'm glad you found it worthwhile!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I did not know that, so yes, it's useful (even though I am not absolutely sure it works this way here). But I have to say the whole system sucks. Both for the callers, because of the hang-ups and rude patrons (how do you stand such a job?) and for the patrons (our family only lets the callers speak in 1 case out of 10, and give the caller a chance in 1 case out of 10 of the ones we listen to, something like that), so it's annoying.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

The thing about the system is that the more you try to avoid speaking to the person calling, the more calls you get! So you can hang up, you can let the phone ring, you can put someone else on, and all that means is another call. All the while everyone is getting annoyed, when all of this could have been avoided with just a 2 minute call, a "no" (we presume since there's no interest) and done!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I think for my parents and I the problem is exacerbated by the fact that there were almost no ads, and so no phone callers, period, in the USSR, and it still feels like an invasion of privacy (because they are learning the proper way to do it as they go), something that sprung up, something that was not and is not needed, "crawl back in the hole in the ground where you come from" (not offense meant to you or anyone who work in that sphere). Not a very productive attitude :-)

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

I think you are raising some very interesting points that I will address in next week's entry! Thanks for these!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

I will also check whether what you say about their modus operandi is true here, and ask the next caller about "no" and if they have a "don't call again" list.