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Calls from sales people

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Rick_G

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Has anybody else been getting a huge increase in calls lately from people wanting to sell you merchant services, search engine optimization, web hosting, any number of can’t miss marketing schemes, etc etc.
In the last week I have been getting at least 3 or 4 calls a day, usually during lunch or dinner rush. They only want a minute of my time…

Did I make somebody’s list of hot prospects, or is everybody seeing extra attention?

Rick
 
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I have had maybe 100 of those calls in 2012. My pat answer is “I only deal with people face to face when it comes to business, Feel free to make an appointment to come see me.” then I hang up.
 
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I have been getting a ton of calls. I have taken to asking them " have you eaten my food? No? Well then, come on in, buy a pie, and then we can chat."
 
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I am usually patient with the telemarketers…But lately Federated Payments has been driving me nuts…I have asked to be removed but apparently they know that the law does not apply to business numbers so they keep calling…
 
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They are easy to see in caller ID. When I see search engine anything, WCA before or after anthing, or merchant anything, I answer the phone “Hello” then tell them this is a residence. I am hoping that will work better because businesses not protected on “do not call” lists.
 
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I like to tell them “Wow, that sounds really great … can you please hold for just a minute?” Then I set the phone down, go back to whatever it is I was doing, and let them sit on hold until they finally decide to hang up (we’ve got 3 lines, so having one tied up doesn’t often cost me). hen they inevitably call back to say they somehow got cut off, I say “Oh, sorry, I decided I wasn’t interested after all” & hang up. It’s an easy way of wasting 10 minutes or so of their time without wasting more than a minute or so of my own.
 
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When I’m real bored and playful…I’ll turn the tables around and sell them/take an order for a pizza…confuses the heck out of most of 'em…lol…
 
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having been a phone worker in the past, I won’t go to the point of taking up 10 minutes of their time just to be obnoxious. For the most part, those folks are minimum-wage workers (or just barely more) who may or may not make commissions, but they’re just doing a job. If it’s an appropriate time of day, I give them half a minute to state their case, then say “not interested, thanks.” If they keep talking, I’ll say “Put me on your no call list”…If that fails, I ask for a supervisor and warn them. I do keep a list of the companies who have called me, at least the products they represent. I haven’t ever made any money from a no-call list, but it just may happen.
 
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This is why I love having a primary phone number that goes into Google Voice and then hits my VOIP numbers. Most of these calls come in before we open, so I just log in and block them so they get a “disconnected number” recording next time. We were at a point where we were getting 10-15 of these calls or dead calls a day, now we get a couple a week.

If you’re really feeling frisky, I always liked saying (over and over again) “What would you like to order? You know you called a restaurant, so I assume you would like to order something? I can’t buy from you if you don’t buy from me, what would you like to order?”
 
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In the UK you have the Corporate Telephone Preference Service, register your number and “in theory” you should not get any sales calls.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/ctps/what/

I understand that a sales call can be seen as wasting your time, but they are just doing their job. A polite no thanks, and hang up will usually do. if you are registered on the CTPS, thats a £5k fine for repeat offenders.

Mark
 
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48.png
grassospizza1993:
I tell them my advertizing budget is closed.
Click to expand...
Yep.
 
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In a similar thread on a completely different forum on the subject…

The person answered the phone and let the salesperson go through their speech. Once they finished, they said “that sounds great, how soon can you get me signed up and billed?” They then went on to say that they wanted signed up and billed as soon as possible because they had a bankruptcy hearing that next week and they wanted to get this in on the proceedings as well… The caller usually hangs up at that point… :lol:
 
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We get numerous calls a day from India (they call during the day when we are closed). Sometimes they call when we are expecting calls from vendors for orders. Just recently we have had the Indian cricket team playing here against Australia and we have whipped them badly in every game. It is killing them as India is a mad cricket country where it is like a relgion and players treated like demi-gods
Now when they call we just ask them “how’s the cricket going?” Never had them hang up so quickly before. :mrgreen:
 
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