“Is this a sales call?” is the first question I ask when I pick up the phone. You know what they say about ducks: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Even if you tell me your call isn’t a sales call.
Many of you engage telemarketing lead generation services. The caller starts talking at the individual answering the phone, spewing forth the information in their call script. Not stopping to take a breath.
I interrupt these callers – when I choose to answer the phone in the first place. Because that’s the kind of business I am in. Because this is the type of blog that chronicals and analyzes these types of practices.
About 10 seconds into the “informational” spiel, I ask the caller whether the nature of their call, ultimately, is a sales call. Whether they want me to become interested in whatever it is that they are prattling on about. Whether the goal is to get me to agree to a follow-up call with a sales person.
They pause. Dead air. Then they respond “No, this isn’t a sales call” 100% of the time!
The telemarketer promptly dives right back into where they left off in their call script. That’s when I hang up. That’s when you lose your opportunity.
You see, your telemarketer lied to me. They misrepresented the true nature of their call. In doing so, they misrepresented your company – whose name I never will know because I hung up on your lead gen telemarketing service call.
Your “not-a-sales-call” looks like a sales call, walks like a sales call and quacks like a sales call. Who is kidding whom?
You are so worried that people will hang up on your telemarketer if they answer truthfully that the nature of their sales call is, indeed, a sales call. What lead gen effectiveness metrics are you measuring anyway?
You will tell me that it is a numbers game. You really do get people to listen to the entire spiel, even though the caller never introduced herself to me or identified the name of the company she represented. You tell me you really do sell stuff this way.
I will tell you that I won’t do business with any company that thinks they can begin their business relationship with me by not being truthful. From the first telephone call. Even if that telephone call has been outsourced.
Seriously, folks. Your quacking duck is outmoded. The premise for your sales call is delusional. Your customers deserve better than that.
If the call I elect to receive is a sales call, tell it how it is. Don’t try to fool me into believing what your sales call isn’t.
We’ve all heard ad nauseum about how smart and skeptical today’s buyers are. It’s more than that.
Today’s buyers are just plain tired of yesterday’s shallow tactics to hook them into listening to your sales spiel.
If this is a sales call, tell it the way it is. Deal with the consequences of your old school churn-and-burn telemarketing campaign strategy.
My advice: cease and desist with all the quacking. ’nuff said.
Babette N. Ten Haken is a management strategist and team-building leadership coach. She helps teams, startups and businesses who wrestle with unpredictable revenue streams. Her Workshops and Playbooks create more productive and profitable teams in healthier organizations. Her Playbook on leadership and business strategies, including tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
Photo by bluelight via 123rf.com.
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