11 ms·

"I believe that, done right, telemarketing is an effective, appreciated way to get people services they want, deliver important political messages, and raise mo

"I believe that, done right, telemarketing is an effective, appreciated way to get people services they want, deliver important political messages, and raise money for non-profits" This make anyone else cringe?

leephillips 14y ago
Absolutely. There is no "right" way to perpetrate telemarketing. The only difference between this creep and the slime that he sued was that this guy is careful to adhere to the technical minutiae of laws that seem to have been partly written by the telemarketing industry themselves. This was just a sordid story of one antisocial jerk using the courts to extract money from a less savvy antisocial jerk. I especially like his use of "appreciated". I'm sure I appreciate getting a recorded call telling me whom I should vote for.
- corin_ 14y ago
  I disagree, it depends on the telemarketing, though I do agree that the vast majority is terrible, and that anything using an automated dialer is terrible. Colleagues of mine in sales sometimes telemarket - in that they will cold call potential customers, but only people they have researched and genuinely think might want to advertise with us, and the track record of a.) people called who end up spending money with us and b.) of those people, the ones who are happy and become repeat customers, does show that in this situation telesales works great for both us and them. On the other side of good telemarketing, I'm in a position to get plenty of cold calls / cold emails myself, business related, and it's not rare for me to get one that genuinely interests me, and sometimes leads to me spending money with them and getting good results from it. So I don't mind getting those calls/emails. Outside of business I find them horrific, I've never had a good cold-call to my home landline or my mobile, presumably because for non-business sales it isn't worth doing any research into who I am and whether I'm a valid target. (But yes, I agree with your judgement in this particular instance.)
michaelrkn 14y ago
Here's an example of what I think is telemarketing done right. We have a client that's a roofing company. They scout areas that have seen a lot of damage from storms, note the houses with roofing damage, and look up their phone numbers. They call the residents, explain how their home insurance companies usually cover most of the cost of the roof repair, and offer to schedule a time to take a closer look at the roof and give an estimate. I think it's mostly about targeting - don't just call tons of people with no reason, but focus on particular people who have a high likelihood of becoming a customer. Then call them with salespeople who know the industry, be helpful and courteous, and take people off your list who don't want to be called. And, of course, follow the law. Unfortunately, there's so much bad telemarketing that the good stuff has gotten drowned out, so it's easy to see it all as bad.
- leephillips 14y ago
  Unfortunately, we live in a world where so many people can't tell the difference between right and wrong that I get annoying calls from roofing companies. Here's a clue for you: just because something might not be against the law and might be profitable doesn't mean that it is civil behavior. People like you create the annoyances are the bad side of all our modern, convenient technology. You know very well that those people already know their roofs are damaged and know how to use a telephone to call the roofer that they want to call when it is convenient for them to do so. But you are willing to harass 20 people who don't want to hear from you so that you can hit that one old lady who will swallow your pitch and hire you (or your "client") rather than comparison shop and research reputations. There is no "good" telemarketing that gets "drowned out." What you are doing is wrong.

leephillips 14y ago

Absolutely. There is no "right" way to perpetrate telemarketing. The only difference between this creep and the slime that he sued was that this guy is careful to adhere to the technical minutiae of laws that seem to have been partly written by the telemarketing industry themselves. This was just a sordid story of one antisocial jerk using the courts to extract money from a less savvy antisocial jerk. I especially like his use of "appreciated". I'm sure I appreciate getting a recorded call telling me whom I should vote for.

corin_ 14y ago
I disagree, it depends on the telemarketing, though I do agree that the vast majority is terrible, and that anything using an automated dialer is terrible. Colleagues of mine in sales sometimes telemarket - in that they will cold call potential customers, but only people they have researched and genuinely think might want to advertise with us, and the track record of a.) people called who end up spending money with us and b.) of those people, the ones who are happy and become repeat customers, does show that in this situation telesales works great for both us and them. On the other side of good telemarketing, I'm in a position to get plenty of cold calls / cold emails myself, business related, and it's not rare for me to get one that genuinely interests me, and sometimes leads to me spending money with them and getting good results from it. So I don't mind getting those calls/emails. Outside of business I find them horrific, I've never had a good cold-call to my home landline or my mobile, presumably because for non-business sales it isn't worth doing any research into who I am and whether I'm a valid target. (But yes, I agree with your judgement in this particular instance.)

michaelrkn 14y ago

Here's an example of what I think is telemarketing done right. We have a client that's a roofing company. They scout areas that have seen a lot of damage from storms, note the houses with roofing damage, and look up their phone numbers. They call the residents, explain how their home insurance companies usually cover most of the cost of the roof repair, and offer to schedule a time to take a closer look at the roof and give an estimate. I think it's mostly about targeting - don't just call tons of people with no reason, but focus on particular people who have a high likelihood of becoming a customer. Then call them with salespeople who know the industry, be helpful and courteous, and take people off your list who don't want to be called. And, of course, follow the law. Unfortunately, there's so much bad telemarketing that the good stuff has gotten drowned out, so it's easy to see it all as bad.

leephillips 14y ago
Unfortunately, we live in a world where so many people can't tell the difference between right and wrong that I get annoying calls from roofing companies. Here's a clue for you: just because something might not be against the law and might be profitable doesn't mean that it is civil behavior. People like you create the annoyances are the bad side of all our modern, convenient technology. You know very well that those people already know their roofs are damaged and know how to use a telephone to call the roofer that they want to call when it is convenient for them to do so. But you are willing to harass 20 people who don't want to hear from you so that you can hit that one old lady who will swallow your pitch and hire you (or your "client") rather than comparison shop and research reputations. There is no "good" telemarketing that gets "drowned out." What you are doing is wrong.